Animal Welfare Professionals

We are in rural Alabama. Any rescues who have ever worked with southern shelters or rescues know the battle we are drowning in. 
We do fairly well with adoptions, but we lack businesses and places to have "events". I'm hoping some of you lovely people who are more creative than I could throw some help out with ideas for adoption promotions and events? Please

Thanks in advance
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms

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Dana Black
Founder/director
West Alabama Rescue
Eldridge AL
http://www.westalabamarescue.org
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You don't have a Tractor Supply near you? Thought they were everywhere. Lawn & garden places? Dairy Queen? any restaurants? Feed stores? Antique mall? Brewery? Practically any business works for dogs to be outside, but you need to advertise well. Yard signs, social media - including various local groups.

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Sharyn Berg
Animal Allies Florida
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If you know anyone who is a realtor, we've played around with the idea of doing a pop up adoption location in a downtown area.  There are always closed businesses or for sale buildings or storefronts that have open space.  As long as you promise to keep everything clean it can be a win-win to get people into their unit and for you to have a hopefully free, open space to setup for a day or a week.

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Jeff Okazaki
Humane Society of Jefferson County
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We had luck having events at our local car dealerships, pet stores, and restaurants with outdoor seating areas. Also, finding an event with an already built in audience, like a soccer game, farmers market, etc., and tagging on to that makes for a great turnout.

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Emily Phillips
Marketing & Development Coordinator
La Plata County Humane Society
Durango CO
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Jody CaseKennedy
Retired/Board Secretary- Co-Treasurer
Humane Society Port Jervis/Deerpark
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Hi Dana,

We're in rural Virginia and I bet we share some of the same challenges.

We're seeing big increases in the number of cats and kittens brought to us (also in our adoptions, thank goodness) so we're also putting on our thinking caps for new ideas.

We have some space right outside the shelter (it's rural, after all:) and might start up a family night with simple games (corn hole, sack races) once a month during the summer.  We can give out educational info, let small groups tour the shelter, and maybe some other local businesses will want to put out their info too.

If you have a community library, perhaps they would let you use space?

Debra Moore
Volunteer/Board Member
RappCats
Flint Hill, VA
http://www.rappcats.org



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Debra Moore
Board Member
RappCats
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Hi Dana,  we have tried a few different events for community involvement ("friend-raisers")  as well as fundraisers. If you are lacking in actual places to hold events, I would maybe focus on your online efforts.  Here are some other ideas we have tried. 1) Connect with a PetSmart, they are always very supportive. 2) If your community does a farmers market, or a "City" days, or other gathering where there are booths, sign up for a booth and have a table with info and a couple of crates of pups. 3) Partner with coffee shops, restaurants (1X month?) for Yappy Hours or Pints for Pups, etc. to collect donations and get your name out. 4) Connect with local Subaru dealership (very dog friendly. 5) Online efforts for farther reaching fundraising: We have used www.givinggrid.com a couple of times, its a little more interactive for givers which makes it more fun (they can add pics of their own pets),  6) Direct mail for fundraising, at least do an end of year mailing. 7) Involve local schools and have a "Read to the Animals" Saturday, this will spread your name and help with $ donations and in-kind donations. 8) Hold adoption Saturdays at local businesses (hardware stores, coffee shops, resale shops, etc. Whatever you do, be consistent and do it on a regular schedule. The more people see you, your reputation builds, your following builds, as will your donations. Hope this helps! Good luck!

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Jennifer Geiger
VP Board of Directors
www,wmranch.org
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Things we are doing in rural GA:

• Tractor supply
• Petco
• Petsmart
• Brewerys
• Public Parks (dog days)
• Car shows 
• Bike shows 
• Festivals (Fall, Spring) 

Looking through Facebook events and messaging people hosting those events to see if we can jump in.  Also talk to your Vet and see if theres a day that you guys can come out to their space and do an event. Food donations or adoption events. 


Savannah Greene 
MACS Friends Animal Rescue Inc.
Barrow County GA

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Savannah Greene
CFO
MACS Friends Animal Rescue Inc
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Stores are wonderful for adoption events, but if you do not have anything like that an event at a park would be fun! Every town will have some small business vendors needing a place to set up and sell product. Charge them a "fee" if your parks and rec department charges you a fee for park usage. Some fun names include Puppy Palooza (does not have to be just puppies but for sure mainly dogs) Kitten Kaboodle (obviously same as puppy palooza). If you started this and got larger hopefully larger businesses would like to sponsor as well! If you are just looking to raise more money; I would definitely make sure you are posting a lot. We just got a lot of donations because we helped a momma dog, and four puppies get out of Alabama and onto transport! I find posting good stuff is more beneficial than always straight up asking for money all the time!!

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Rachel Aune
Board Member
Friends of Mobile animal shelter
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Any annual festivals, they usually don't charge for non-profits to get a table/area.  If they do not allow live animals, bring binders with pics, posters, videos, and laptops to do adoptions remotely. Car dealerships, feed stores, vets, pet stores or try any business that has an area that you could use.

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Frances Alford
Director
Big Bend TNR Cat Rescue
Tallahassee FL
8507569776
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