Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi everyone,

I'm a student researcher at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, working on a project to design a free, Google Sheets-based dashboard and KPI reporting toolkit for small animal rescue organizations.

The goal is simple: a no-cost, easy-to-use reporting tool that helps rescues track the metrics that actually matter to them - without needing a tech background or an expensive software subscription.

Before I build anything, I want to make sure I'm solving real problems. This community knows better than anyone what the day-to-day data and reporting challenges look like on the ground, and I'd genuinely value your perspective.

I put together a short needs assessment survey (5–7 minutes) covering:

• What tools are you currently using to track animals, volunteers, and finances

• Where reporting gets difficult or time-consuming

• What you'd most want to see on a dashboard

👉https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefD4RJRCDM2UyPo2isqza1_vTJIcPuD1uj5UyiklynQXygfA/viewform 

If you're also open to a brief follow-up conversation, there's an option to indicate that at the end. I'd especially love to hear from smaller or volunteer-run organizations - your experience tends to get overlooked in tools that are built for larger shelters.

Thank you for any time you're able to give. Happy to answer any questions here too.

- Jason Bruder, McDaniel College

#DataandTechnology

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Jason Bruder
Student
McDaniel College
MD
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Jason, doing a needs assessment before you build already puts you ahead of most people who make tools for this sector. Filling out your survey now.

A few things from the ground that might save you time.

Small orgs don't struggle to track data. They struggle to keep tracking it once the person who set up the sheet gets busy or burns out. Any tool that needs weekly hand-entry dies by month three. Build for the org that has ten minutes, not the org that has a data person.

The metrics that matter to a small rescue are often not the ones that matter to funders, and both are real. Intake, length of stay, live release, cost per animal. But also the stuff funders never ask for, like how many families they talked out of surrendering before an animal ever came in. If your dashboard can capture prevention and diversion, not just what happened after intake, you'll be building something most of the big software still ignores.

The hardest part is not the dashboard. It's getting clean input without turning a volunteer into a data clerk.

I've spent the last year building shared reporting infrastructure for rescues and shelters, so I've hit most of the walls you're about to hit. Happy to talk if it's useful. No pitch. I just don't want you paying the expensive way for what I already learned.

BJ Adkins
Animal-Angels Foundation

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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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