Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello All,

We are a small rescue organization and we have been trying to keep our use of paper down and have been using an online adoption application with a link that we send to potential adopters.  As of now we are using Aidaform.com.  But with the yearly cost of being able to have a signature on the form and such we are looking for a cheaper alternative.  What if any do you all use.  Any and all suggestions are welcome.  We really like being able to log in and print if needed, edit the application anytime we need to, having all our forms in one place, and having the ability to have the potential adopters signature.

#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#DataandTechnology
#OrganizationalManagement

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Trina Earl
Director
Doniphan County Pet Rescue
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Hi Trina, 

We don't adopt pets, but we do have fillable forms on our website that clients use to select their pet's vaccination and wellness services. Our forms also require a signature. We created these in Adobe. This is a solution you may want to look into. We also added a box that the user must click to accept the digital signature as a substitute for their penned signature. 

A Creative Cloud license for all Adobe applications is $20 a month via the nonprofit discount they provide. 

You could also look into Docusign. I know it's also a popular program for contracts. It's $300 per year, but they're currently offering a 20% discount. I'm not sure if they provide nonprofit discounts. 

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Tiffany Ditto
Director of Marketing and Communications
Texas Coalition for Animal Protection
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Hi, Trina.  We use Shelterluv and have been very happy with all the integrations they offer including digital applications and contracts that include the person's signature.

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Cindy Huth
Volunteer
Denison Animal Welfare Group (DAWG)
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Hi Trina! I've used JotForm for these types of forms before. They offer a 50% nonprofit discount, but depending on how many form submissions you get per month, it can get pricey depending on the tier. 

To add on to someone else's DocuSign suggestion, DocuSign is offered on TechSoup with some good discounts! You just need to register through TechSoup and request it. Make sure to read the fine print though because usually you pay a one-time admin fee and there might be an additional subscription fee on top of that.  https://www.techsoup.org/products/docusign-advanced-solutions-access-to-discounted-rates-g-52229-

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Caty Franco
Director of Marketing & Education
Only Sunshine Sanctuary
Sacramento CA
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Hi Trina. 
We use shelterluv and it's amazing. We do applications, adoptions, impounds, vet/tech exam, meds, and notes all on shelterluv. It's been a great change for our shelter. 

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Amelia Pham
Assistant Manager
WAGS PET ADOPTION
Westminster CA
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Hey Trina, 

I am on team Doobert and we currently use Jotform to create customized forms for rescue and shelter organizations. It can be anything from adoption applications to intake forms and many other great programs each org is offering to their community! What is even better is we can integrate it into your Doobert account to open new cases for you to view in the Companion Case Management module. From there you can do all sorts of things like set up automatic communications, save files and photos, create animal profiles, and download and print the PDF form.  I know you also mentioned that you'd like it to collect the signatures for you as well and we can do that too. They would go right into the case attached to the PDF form.  

Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions about how this works. I'm happy to help :) 

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Kimberly Ruiz
kimberly@doobert.com
Doobert.com
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our rescue uses Jotform also and it is very useful

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Sandy Cole
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-17-2023 07:54 PM
From: Kimberly Ruiz
Subject: Online Adoption Applications

Hey Trina, 

I am on team Doobert and we currently use Jotform to create customized forms for rescue and shelter organizations. It can be anything from adoption applications to intake forms and many other great programs each org is offering to their community! What is even better is we can integrate it into your Doobert account to open new cases for you to view in the Companion Case Management module. From there you can do all sorts of things like set up automatic communications, save files and photos, create animal profiles, and download and print the PDF form.  I know you also mentioned that you'd like it to collect the signatures for you as well and we can do that too. They would go right into the case attached to the PDF form.  

Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions about how this works. I'm happy to help :) 

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Kimberly Ruiz
kimberly@doobert.com
Doobert.com
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Rescue Groups was created for rescues like us. It is free to use and for $100 a year you can link a webpage to your own domain which can be purchased from go daddy. If you ever need help, they are there quickly. And for small dollars, will actually help you develop what you want. They set our initial application up for like $25. I learned from it and have made two more applications now, and about to make some more. Feel free to check out my beginners webpage. All that is holding me back now is time. It was a game changer. They even have a free trial for you. Before that we used a google drive app and it was a night mare once we took in several apps. Rescue Groups lets you also post your animals to like 70 sites to be seen. It really is a God send. Not sure if they keep up with referrals, but please if you try it, let them know we sung their praise.  Welcome

Kentucky Kitty Cats, Inc.		remove preview
Welcome Website for organization devoted to helping pets and owners. View this on Kentucky Kitty Cats, Inc. >

www.kykittycats.com

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Tammy Tichenor
Kentucky Kitty Cats, Inc.
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Hi Trina!  We have an online adoption application system, which is necessary since the shelter is in South Carolina, and our adopters are North.  The adoption application is an online form through Rescue Groups.  Once approved, the contract is done by email.  This system has been very successful and cost-effective for us.  I hope this is helpful!

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Laura Sherman
Multiple Hats Volunteer
Mary Ann Morris Animal Society (M.A.M.A.S.)
Bamberg SC
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A few thoughts to contribute:

1. Shelterluv - I've been on the receiving end of them and love their newsletters, it seems to really streamline things. Definitely too much software for us as a tiny rescue, but a great program!
2. Jotform - our transporters often use this and I really appreciate it. I'm not sure I want to pay the $20/month fee that is their minimum, for non-profits. We'd definitely go over the 100 submissions a month on their free plan.
3. Airtable - this is what we use and I love it, because I keep ALL of our information in it. We have a pretty informal "signature" where they type their name and initials and then send payment separately. But this works well for us because we ask them not to send payment until they have the dog in hand or on site - really trying to help "train" the community to avoid pet scams. Also we find pretty much everyone has a different payment method they prefer - some check, some cash, some Venmo or Paypal or CashApp, and there is much less friction when we take whatever they want to use!
4. Wufoo - for simple organizations they have a pretty great form with embedded payment, it looks a little old school but sometimes that is a good thing depending on your clients!
5. Square - has a super duper simple online signature + payment system. If you just use the same signature form each time and want payment and signing to happen at the same time, this is a great solution.

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Ky Xia
Rescue Operations
Tender Hearts of Texas
TX
http://tenderheartsoftexas.org
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I'll jump on the ShelterLuv bandwagon.  We are a small, all-volunteer rescue.  We spun off from a larger group that used Track-A-Beast to manage our animals, and our webpage had online applications, but we were paper-based for agreements, and nothing was integrated.  When we started, we were committed to going as paperless as possible.  ShelterLuv is a lot of program, but it does everything we need and so much faster/better than anything we could have dreamed of doing.  The company worked with us as a start-up, and we got a really good deal (no charges the first year!).  I will say there was/is a bit of a learning curve for our volunteers who are not computer savvy, but they are catching on.  The program is intuitive and easy to use for anyone who uses computers regularly.  The online agreements, with signature and payments, animal and medical tracking, and the canned external reports (Shelter Animals Count, Asilomar reports, etc.), are truly timesaving.  And our fosters love the transparency!   Don't be intimidated because the program looks big and slick.  It is really a nice interface.

Good luck,

Jamie 

#shelterluv

#DataandTechnology

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Jamie Gothro
Secretary, Medical Director
Today Tomorrow Forever Animal Rescue
Escondido CA
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we use shelterluv it is a full shelter management software it pretty much cost nothing you can even make money from it  

I hope this helps.

Larry

pawsecond chance rescue

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Larry Leitl
Manager
Pawsecond chance rescue
CO
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Our rescue is fairly small and we also use ShelterLuv. There are fees associated with it, but adopters are given the opportunity to cover the cost of the fees. It also presents an opportunity to donate. I won't say it's free to use, but it's pretty inexpensive and extremely powerful. It keeps track of all of our medical records and automatically emails them to adopters at the time of adoption. There's also a portal that adopters can use to access and track their pets medical records. 

The system uses stripe/stax to process payments and cards are encouraged.  I think the credit card fee is 3.4%, and they charge two dollars per adoption. Again, adopters are given the opportunity to cover these fees as part of the check out. I would say 95% of our adopters will pay them. It's a little less clear cut if they use an alternative method of payment like cash, check, or Venmo. ShelterLuv is not set up to handle Venmo or PayPal payments.   System send a link to the adopter to process the payment on their own device. Most people really like that.

good luck!

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Jamie Gothro
Secretary, Medical Director
Today Tomorrow Forever Animal Rescue
Escondido CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2024 11:16 PM
From: Larry Leitl
Subject: Online Adoption Applications

we use shelterluv it is a full shelter management software it pretty much cost nothing you can even make money from it  

I hope this helps.

Larry

pawsecond chance rescue

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Larry Leitl
Manager
Pawsecond chance rescue
CO
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Hi Trina. AnimalsFirst software also includes customizable, online application and e-signature as part of the mobile checkout workflow. Plus there are portals for fosters and adopters. The donation prompt can offset the cost. You can learn more and request a demo at AnimalsFirst.com

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Chris Fitzgerald
Chief Product Officer
AnimalsFirst
Rochester NY
cfitzgerald@animalsfirst.com
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We use jotform it is free and works great for our needs. The free plan doesn't store as much but it is great.

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Sandra Hill
Operation CatSnip of Kentucky, Inc
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