Animal Welfare Professionals

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Good morning, BJ. Once again, you are deeply thought-provoking! The person who returns all our calls and emails logs every call in a spreadsheet, what the issue was, and what recommendations (including suggestions for surrender prevention, where appropriate) she made if the cat isn't taken into OSC. Kelly has "worked the phones" as she calls it for probably 15 years with OSC and other organizations and we all feel lucky to have her.  She keeps up with resources, sister organizations, and surrender prevention knowledge.  We aren't 100% sure what we'll do with all that data at this time, but we keep it.  Sometimes, the not-ready-now folks call back when the timing is critical, and sometimes we will be able to intake at the time.  But turning that data into something reportable, we haven't made that leap yet.  I'd also love to hear, if I may piggyback on your post, BJ, what your organization is doing with the data you keep?

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

We track every single contact that comes in to our Owner Support Counselors through a form we ask them to fill out, and if it is an addressable issue we refer to the appropriate department or resource. We have a helpline where may of those folks get referred for things like vet assistance vouchers or info on our vaccine clinics. 

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Elsa, this is exactly the kind of work that post was about. The fact that you track every contact through a structured form and route to the right resource means families are getting help before they hit the surrender desk. That is prevention in action.

Most shelters do not have that workflow. The call comes in, someone answers it, maybe they help, maybe they transfer, and nobody writes down what happened or what the family actually needed. Your form changes that. When you capture the reason for the call, you are building data that tells you what your community needs before it becomes an intake.

We built something similar with our Pet Help Desk. Every call gets a structured intake record with the reason, the county, the urgency level, and what program it routes to. When we see the same need showing up repeatedly from the same ZIP code or the same type of crisis, that data drives where we put resources next.

The helpline model you are running, with vet vouchers and vaccine clinic referrals, is the piece most communities are missing entirely. Would love to hear more about how you structured your form and what patterns you are seeing in the data. That kind of information helps all of us build better systems.

We track every single contact that comes in to our Owner Support Counselors through a form we ask them to fill out, and if it is an addressable issue we refer to the appropriate department or resource. We have a helpline where may of those folks get referred for things like vet assistance vouchers or info on our vaccine clinics. 

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

I seems like more and more municipal shelter and shelters with county contracts are starting to put in at least the beginning of community programming. In this region specifically, I feel that Hurricane Helene and the prolonged recovery forced a lot of animal shelters/rescues to focus more on community support and less on intake. When this department started 11 years ago, before I was with the organization, it was only a few positions and we started out tabling and door knocking in key neighborhoods that appeared  have more issues with strays and surrender of pets. Our helpline number was given out to folks we talked to, as well as printed on the labels for our pet food we give out. If folks are in need of resources, they are asked to reach out to the helpline and they are either referred to the proper place from there, issued a voucher of some kind or they have an appointment set up to pick up needed supplies.  We log all calls into our system and then put in notes and outcomes as the cases progress. We also input amounts of food and can send medical vouchers directly through our system. Regarding concrete numbers, if you want to shoot me an email at eenstrom@ ashevillehumane.org feel free and I can talk to my boss and our Data person and get some numbers for you!

Elsa, this is exactly the kind of work that post was about. The fact that you track every contact through a structured form and route to the right resource means families are getting help before they hit the surrender desk. That is prevention in action.

Most shelters do not have that workflow. The call comes in, someone answers it, maybe they help, maybe they transfer, and nobody writes down what happened or what the family actually needed. Your form changes that. When you capture the reason for the call, you are building data that tells you what your community needs before it becomes an intake.

We built something similar with our Pet Help Desk. Every call gets a structured intake record with the reason, the county, the urgency level, and what program it routes to. When we see the same need showing up repeatedly from the same ZIP code or the same type of crisis, that data drives where we put resources next.

The helpline model you are running, with vet vouchers and vaccine clinic referrals, is the piece most communities are missing entirely. Would love to hear more about how you structured your form and what patterns you are seeing in the data. That kind of information helps all of us build better systems.

We track every single contact that comes in to our Owner Support Counselors through a form we ask them to fill out, and if it is an addressable issue we refer to the appropriate department or resource. We have a helpline where may of those folks get referred for things like vet assistance vouchers or info on our vaccine clinics. 

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Elsa, this is exactly the kind of work that post was about. The fact that you track every contact through a structured form and route to the right resource means families are getting help before they hit the surrender desk. That is prevention in action.

Most shelters do not have that workflow. The call comes in, someone answers it, maybe they help, maybe they transfer, and nobody writes down what happened or what the family actually needed. Your form changes that. When you capture the reason for the call, you are building data that tells you what your community needs before it becomes an intake.

We built something similar with our Pet Help Desk. Every call gets a structured intake record with the reason, the county, the urgency level, and what program it routes to. When we see the same need showing up repeatedly from the same ZIP code or the same type of crisis, that data drives where we put resources next.

The helpline model you are running, with vet vouchers and vaccine clinic referrals, is the piece most communities are missing entirely. Would love to hear more about how you structured your form and what patterns you are seeing in the data. That kind of information helps all of us build better systems.

We track every single contact that comes in to our Owner Support Counselors through a form we ask them to fill out, and if it is an addressable issue we refer to the appropriate department or resource. We have a helpline where may of those folks get referred for things like vet assistance vouchers or info on our vaccine clinics. 

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Hello, I love this! Do you have an example you could share to show how you keep your logs of all of your calls? 

Elsa, this is exactly the kind of work that post was about. The fact that you track every contact through a structured form and route to the right resource means families are getting help before they hit the surrender desk. That is prevention in action.

Most shelters do not have that workflow. The call comes in, someone answers it, maybe they help, maybe they transfer, and nobody writes down what happened or what the family actually needed. Your form changes that. When you capture the reason for the call, you are building data that tells you what your community needs before it becomes an intake.

We built something similar with our Pet Help Desk. Every call gets a structured intake record with the reason, the county, the urgency level, and what program it routes to. When we see the same need showing up repeatedly from the same ZIP code or the same type of crisis, that data drives where we put resources next.

The helpline model you are running, with vet vouchers and vaccine clinic referrals, is the piece most communities are missing entirely. Would love to hear more about how you structured your form and what patterns you are seeing in the data. That kind of information helps all of us build better systems.

We track every single contact that comes in to our Owner Support Counselors through a form we ask them to fill out, and if it is an addressable issue we refer to the appropriate department or resource. We have a helpline where may of those folks get referred for things like vet assistance vouchers or info on our vaccine clinics. 

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Sabrina, this is the call being tracked. You're describing what most cities don't have, a structured front door before the shelter door with real outcome data behind it. Reasons for surrender, no-response cases, retentions, rehoming, and completed surrenders in one monthly report is the kind of visibility that should be the floor for every municipal partnership in the country, and almost nowhere is.

Two cities with significant surrender decreases since 2020 and 2022 isn't an accident. That's what happens when somebody actually picks up the phone and treats the call as a fork in the road instead of a paperwork step.

Side note, I know Chris Roy. We had a long Zoom about Doobert and where the field is heading. I didn't realize SNN helped design the surrender prevention piece. That tracks with how solid it looks.

If you're ever open to a 30-minute call to compare notes, my Calendly is calendly.com/animal-angels. We're building something parallel in Alabama, network-side across multiple counties, and the data patterns you're seeing in Dallas and Fort Worth are exactly what we're trying to surface.

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.

Hi BJ,

Sabrina, this is the call being tracked. You're describing what most cities don't have, a structured front door before the shelter door with real outcome data behind it. Reasons for surrender, no-response cases, retentions, rehoming, and completed surrenders in one monthly report is the kind of visibility that should be the floor for every municipal partnership in the country, and almost nowhere is.

Two cities with significant surrender decreases since 2020 and 2022 isn't an accident. That's what happens when somebody actually picks up the phone and treats the call as a fork in the road instead of a paperwork step.

Side note, I know Chris Roy. We had a long Zoom about Doobert and where the field is heading. I didn't realize SNN helped design the surrender prevention piece. That tracks with how solid it looks.

If you're ever open to a 30-minute call to compare notes, my Calendly is calendly.com/animal-angels. We're building something parallel in Alabama, network-side across multiple counties, and the data patterns you're seeing in Dallas and Fort Worth are exactly what we're trying to surface.

Every shelter gets it. Someone calls, they're not ready to surrender yet, but they're close. Maybe it's a vet bill they can't cover, or a landlord giving them 30 days, or their kid's allergies are getting worse and the spouse is pushing.

You give them a number. Maybe a website. "Try calling [local org]." And then they hang up.

What happens after that call?

In most cases, nobody knows. There's no follow-up. No system tracking whether they connected with help. No flag that says "this family called three weeks ago and now they're at your front counter surrendering."

We started logging every single one of those calls. Not just the ones that turn into intakes. The ones where people are still holding on. And what we're finding is that most of them needed one thing. Not five resources. One specific thing, delivered fast.

What does your org do with the calls that aren't surrenders yet? Curious what people are tracking, if anything.