Animal Welfare Professionals

We are super excited to be kicking off our program for supporting a Community Cat Program alongside TNR and Barn cat but at the same time I think we all feel a little anxious. As the budget is always so squeaky tight we want to make sure that this is a program we can set up effectively and find every way to make it be self sustaining. Aside from the constant ask for donations and appealing to our cat supporters what are other ways that your organization has found to help support the costs of the program?

We are also doing a Cat promo shirt and a microchip clinic with all funds going to TNR. We've been discussing a sip and paint party too. Hoping to hear of a slew of other ideas from this wonderful community! 

Thanks in advance!!

Becky

#CommunityCatManagement

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Becky Costner
Executive Director
Let Love Live
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Hey Becky,

Congrats on starting a TNR program - that's amazing! I highly recommend seeking out grant opportunities for TNR. A lot of organizations support the spay/neuter of outdoor cats. I know of grants from Community Cats Podcast, Alley Cat Rescue, Best Friends, ASPCA, Neighborhood Cats.... I'm SURE there's more too! 

We do technically ask for a co-pay/donation from caretakers who want us to TNR the cats they feed - whether that's 50% or 5% of the bill. I can (and often do) waive this fee, but many people who can afford it will pay 100% of their bill and donate on top of that - which goes towards surgeries that other caretakers can't afford.

In addition, if you can work on building relations with the goal of partnering with a local vet for TNR, that can help with costs too. We have a partnership with a private vet clinic who charges us less than the low-cost clinic in town (who we were using before).  In this case, the low-cost clinic charges $40 per TNR cat while our partner vet charges us $25 for males and $35 for females.

We also do an outdoor cat shelter building event - the supplies are all donated and then we sell the shelters to cat caretakers for a small fee, which then goes into our budget!  This year's event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1985506421656441

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions! I have been working on my shelter's TNR program since day 1 and am happy to share anything I've learned!

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Erin Dams
Roanoke Valley SPCA
5403396550
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