Animal Welfare Professionals

Looking to see how everyone reaches their current foster group.  We use Facebook groups but not everyone is on FB and people don't always see the posts when we are in need of a foster home.  I could do emails but I feel like most people will ignore emails.  I have been looking into a texting program but I am not very tech savvy.   Software we use is Google Docs, Jotform, and Petstablished.  Any ideas are appreciated!

#FosterPrograms

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Michelle Beston
Director
Ho-Bo Care Boxer Rescue
CO
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We've had good luck using Trello to update fosters about available animals, resources, manuals and updates.  

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Amy Burnup
Assistant Administrator of Animal Services and Protection
Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter
Newport News VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-19-2026 08:37 PM
From: Brittany Vanderstine (She/Her)
Subject: How to reach current approved fosters

Hi there! 

We utilize Facebook messenger for our fosters. We send in an animal and their info, and people can say yes or no to their availability to foster. This chat also serves as a resource for everyone. All fosters reach into the chat when they have questions, when they need extra supplies from another local foster, etc. 

We do occasionally run into the same problem of not all fosters having FB / FB Messenger. That is thankfully far and few in between. For those fosters, we just text them individually, as needed. 

- Brittany V, Wild Exotics Director

Wild Exotics Animal Refuge A NJ Non-Profit

wearsaves.org

EIN: 99-197-6023

We use Google Voice! It's a free calling and texting app that's linked to a Gmail account but gives you a separate phone number. We have it set up on all of our computers, and a few staff members also have the app on their phones so they can use the same shelter number to call or text fosters.

We've had a lot of luck with it, especially for on-call hours on nights and weekends. It lets multiple people access the same number without anyone having to give out their personal phone number, which has been really helpful for us.

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Rebecca sheffield
Office Manager
People for Pets MVHS inc.
ID
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Hi Michelle, 

It's not super recent, but in 2022 we did a nationwide foster plea survey to see what everyone is using for this on a large scale- here's a link to the report, where you can see what's being used on a large scale. The survey report concluded that high-volume foster programs are sending more pleas to their foster caregivers, using multiple methods, with more frequency. 

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Kelly Duer
Senior Shelter Solutions Specialist
Maddie's Fund
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Hi Michelle,

The pattern in this thread is the one I kept running into too. The tools are general purpose, so whether a foster sees a plea depends on whether they happen to open the app that day, or check email before end of day, which does not work for bottle babies.

I built Pawsitive Foster for exactly this. Each foster chooses how they want to be reached: push notification, SMS, or email. You send the ask once and it goes out the way each person already prefers. They answer yes or no on the specific animal, so responses land in one place instead of a comment thread or email chain you have to reconcile against a spreadsheet. It works on the web and as a native app, for coordinators and fosters both.

It is free for small rescues: unlimited fosters, unlimited animals, one staff account. Start here: https://www.pawsitivefoster.com/demo

Lissette
Founder, Pawsitive Foster
pawsitivefoster.com

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Lissette Arias
Founder & Foster
Pawsitive Foster
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Hey Michelle! Kyle from PawPlacer here. This is actually one of the exact problems we built PawPlacer to help solve.

PawPlacer gives rescues and shelters a centralized way to manage and communicate with their foster community instead of having to rely on Facebook groups, email chains, spreadsheets, or hoping the right person happens to see a post.

Your current and potential fosters can join your organization's foster network on PawPlacer and create a profile with information about what types of animals they're able to foster, their availability, preferences, experience, household, and other relevant details. Then, when you have an animal that needs placement, you can use PawPlacer to help identify fosters who may actually be a good fit rather than sending the same general message to everyone.

The goal is to make the whole process easier on both sides. Your team has a better picture of who is in your foster network and who may be available, while fosters have one place where they can see opportunities and stay connected with your organization. It can be especially helpful for those urgent situations where you need to find a foster quickly and a Facebook post can easily get buried or missed.

We're also building PawPlacer specifically around the way rescues already operate, so the idea isn't to make you completely change your workflow or become super tech savvy just to use it. If you're currently piecing things together with Google Docs, Jotform, Petstablished, Facebook, etc., that's exactly the kind of fragmented process we're trying to simplify.

Would be happy to chat and show you PawPlacer if you're interested! I'd also genuinely love to hear more about how you currently manage your foster list and what you wish was easier, since we're building this specifically for rescues dealing with these challenges every day.

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Kyle Leighton
Founder
PawPlacer
NY
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Four years ago we migrated from social media groups to Google Workspace (free for nonprofits.) We have chat spaces for every aspect of our rescue, including one we call The United CCI Team - this encompasses everything that has nothing to do with the specifics of the groups. With three adoption locations, volunteers don't care what's happening in your neck of the woods (you ran out of paper towels? Not my problem) and we created two specific chats strictly for the fosters. One is the Foster Parent and one is for Foster Parent Pictures, where our foster parents share videos and any and all pictures of their little charges. The Foster Parent space is where we announce things, and where they can post if they have a medical concern. We're blessed that after 21 years, we now have a dedicated Medical Coordinator who monitors the page and provides guidance for medical care.  So far this has worked out great for our rescue, but we're also exploring other options. We don't want to get too out there with a bunch of different apps for people to have to put on their smartphones. 

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Candy Sullivan
Founder/Executive Director
Candy's Cats, Inc.
Orange County, Florida
www.candyscats.org
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Hi Candy,

I am a Volunteer and Board Member of an all volunteer dog rescue in Williston Florida (between Ocala and Gainesville). We have a facility and We are currently using a facebook page for volunteer communication. We would love to get away from facebook for this kind of administration. Is there any possibility I could all you when you have some time to chat (if that even exists)...I'd just like to ask a few quick questions about what what you're doing with google workspace

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Cheri Jenkins
Vice President
Williston Animal Group
Williston FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-22-2026 04:01 AM
From: Candy Sullivan
Subject: How to reach current approved fosters

Four years ago we migrated from social media groups to Google Workspace (free for nonprofits.) We have chat spaces for every aspect of our rescue, including one we call The United CCI Team - this encompasses everything that has nothing to do with the specifics of the groups. With three adoption locations, volunteers don't care what's happening in your neck of the woods (you ran out of paper towels? Not my problem) and we created two specific chats strictly for the fosters. One is the Foster Parent and one is for Foster Parent Pictures, where our foster parents share videos and any and all pictures of their little charges. The Foster Parent space is where we announce things, and where they can post if they have a medical concern. We're blessed that after 21 years, we now have a dedicated Medical Coordinator who monitors the page and provides guidance for medical care.  So far this has worked out great for our rescue, but we're also exploring other options. We don't want to get too out there with a bunch of different apps for people to have to put on their smartphones. 

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Candy Sullivan
Founder/Executive Director
Candy's Cats, Inc.
Orange County, Florida
www.candyscats.org
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We struggle with this, too - just the sheer amount of back-and-forth it requires of our staff (and the time that takes). We take in about 2,500 animals a year in a suburb of Cincinnati (limited-admission, but shelter-based). We send about 900 animals into foster (primarily kittens - our dog foster program is pretty weak, unfortunately).

We currently use:

• A Trello board, where we put up pictures and brief descriptions of why the animal needs a foster (including meds they're on), and when that foster period will end.
• Facebook, though basically we just point people to the Trello board (but remind them that it's there about twice a week)
• Emails. Because, in spite of the fact that the fosters asked for some version of the Trello board (where they could see exactly who was available, and what was being asked of them as fosters), they actually never spontaneously check the trello board without our staff reaching out and saying "URGENT! CRISIS! WE NEED FOSTERS!" So we send out an email blast to all the fosters usually every other week that has a sense of urgency. 

But we struggle with efficiency, and trying to minimize how much time our staff needs to communicate to get animals out, and really this is just to commiserate because we certainly haven't solved it! We tried using our volunteer management system (Better Impact) to get people to sign up when they were available to foster, but they really didn't like that they couldn't pick the animals they were fostering (so that was far more efficient for us, but didn't work for fosters). We also tried email blasts through Constant Contact every 2 weeks, but the formatting just added complexity to the situation. 

So when you solve it, let the League for Animal Welfare in Ohio know :) Good luck <3 

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Devon Smith
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