Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi Everyone! 

We are going to begin utilizing Trello to advertise to our foster volunteers the animals in need of foster care. We are planning to have the link accessible on multiple platforms so our volunteers can take a look whenever they like, but we also wanted to send regular email reminders out to them to check the list and foster. We previously would send out emails with the animals listed, so I want to make sure we are continuing to reach out regularly and remind our volunteers that there are animals in need of foster homes! 

Does anyone happen to do something similar and have a template that we could use to get us started? 

Thank you so much!
#FosterPrograms

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Taylor Prostor
Hawaiian Humane Society
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Hello!

With our trello board, when I send email reminders about the board I usually include at least one animal in the actual email that needs foster, and then add in at the end: "To see more of our current foster opportunities, please check our trello board here: include link." This will usually work and get more than one into foster!

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Shelby Bundy
Foster Coordinator
Longmont Humane Society
Longmont CO
3037721232x234
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I believe Austin Animal Care and/or Austin Pets Alive! used Trello to communicate their foster pet needs. I'm not sure if they still do or not though. They would likely be a great resource.

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Emily Holmes, CAWA
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe
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Hello! We are considering starting a Trello Board for our foster program as well. Any advise on how to get started? Did you find that your fosters had a hard or easy time learning to use it? Who is responsible for updating the board?

We primarily use email pleas, which we still plan on doing. Our thought process right now is to start the Trello Page, and each time we send a plea just include the link that way if fosters aren't available for the dog we are sending the plea for, they can check the board for a dog that will be a better fit. 

Any advice is appreciated! :)

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August Hutchins
Foster Coordinator
Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center
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Some advice to get started: look at other orgs boards to help get yours started! When I first started ours, the biggest headache was just getting everything set up and in place, but once that was done- it was easypeasy! The majority of our foster parents didn't have much of an issue with switching to the trello board, there were a few older foster parents who weren't thrilled with the change, but are happy with the advancements in our program. I am the sole foster person on staff, so it's all my responsibility, but the volunteer I have that helps on my days off is also able to access the board and add new cards or move things. Take a look at our for inspiration: https://trello.com/b/DVmMjRDI

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Shelby Bundy
Foster Program Supervisor
Longmont Humane Society
Longmont, Co
303-772-1232 x234
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-25-2023 11:38 AM
From: August Hutchins
Subject: Trello Help!

Hello! We are considering starting a Trello Board for our foster program as well. Any advise on how to get started? Did you find that your fosters had a hard or easy time learning to use it? Who is responsible for updating the board?

We primarily use email pleas, which we still plan on doing. Our thought process right now is to start the Trello Page, and each time we send a plea just include the link that way if fosters aren't available for the dog we are sending the plea for, they can check the board for a dog that will be a better fit. 

Any advice is appreciated! :)

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August Hutchins
Foster Coordinator
Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center
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Here are a few resources you might want to check out:

How PHS's foster program uses Trello (18 min. video)
How AHS's foster program uses ClickUp (similar to Trello, 22 min. video)

PRAS Trello

OTAT Trello

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Kelly Duer
Senior Community Solutions Initiative Specialist
Maddie's Fund
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I agree looking at other Trello boards and nabbing their ideas is a great place to start. You can even copy their 'cards' to one of your boards to use as a template.
I just started using my board a few weeks ago and so far the response has been great! It's hard to keep up with it but I'm hoping to recruit a volunteer to help me with it. So far ours is pretty simple but I love how other shelters also use theirs as a resource page and have more 'how to's'. 

One thing I will warn you against (because I did it and it was a headache lol) is don't try and use a tinyurl link for it. Unless you just copy and paste the actual Trello url it will make people sign up to Trello to view the board and I had a lot of people message me that they couldn't sign in or didn't want to. Very annoying!

Here's the link to ours: MHS Dog Foster Board | Trello

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Lora Luton
Dog Foster Coordinator
Maui Humane Society
HI
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