Rebecca, this is right in our lane. We run pop-up spay/neuter and wellness clinics as one of our core programs, and honestly it is mostly logistics and relationships, not magic. A few things that made ours work.
Recruit the vets by making it turnkey for them. Surgeons donate their time far more readily when all they have to do is operate. You handle intake, the recovery area, records, supplies, cleanup, and the schedule. Give them a clean space, good lighting, a tech or two, and a set number of surgeries booked in real appointment blocks, not walk-ins. Pre-register every animal so the day runs on a schedule instead of a crowd.
For location, look at churches, community centers, fairground buildings, or a vacant clinic space with power, water, and parking. Some groups run entirely off a mobile surgical unit and just need a lot to park it in. Since you are cat-focused, plan your trap, hold, and recover flow and a quiet recovery space, because feral recovery is a different animal from owned pets.
On funding, you already found the Georgia Department of Agriculture money, which is the right instinct. Stack it with PetSmart Charities, local foundations, and a per-surgery sponsor ask from area businesses. Track your cost per surgery from the very first event, because it makes every grant after that easier to win.
Here is the part I can actually hand you. We built a free platform for exactly this kind of coordination, the Animal Welfare Resource Network (AWRN). Inside it is an Event Coordinator where you build an event once, save it as a template, and clone it for every clinic after that, with the budget, the supplies checklist, the volunteer roles, and the task timeline all tracked in one place. I built our spay/neuter and pop-up clinic events in it, and I am glad to share the pop-up clinic template and our planning checklist so you are not starting from a blank page.
It is genuinely free for shelters and rescues. You can see the network at animal-angelsfoundation.org, or grab a few minutes with me at calendly.com/animal-angels and I will walk you through the clinic template. Either way, happy to answer questions. Cat-focused prevention is exactly what the network is built to support.
https://animal-angelsfoundation.org/downloads/AAF_Popup_Clinic_Planning_Checklist_V1.pdf
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Join The Shift To Prevention.
BJ Adkins
Founder/Director
Animal-Angels Foundation
Pinson, AL
calendy.com/animal-angels
bjadkins@animal-angels.org
animal-angelsfoundation.org
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