2024 Open Arms Challenge

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  • 1.  Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 20 days ago

    Today's email from MF says to post our wins/losses to the discussion group today.  

    I can honestly say that we are exhausted.  There are two of us running the organization with a handful of volunteers.   And we (the two co-founders) hold full time jobs.  This challenge has been WONDERFUL for us and has opened us SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES that I can't say enough about it.  Honestly - I want to cry as I'm writing this it's so fantastic.  :-)

    Note 1:  We started the organization January 5, 2024.  Only 4 months ago!

    Note 2:  We live in a small rural community -- county population of 27,000 with 5 cities in the county.  The largest city has population a little over 7K.  The smaller cities have populations between 500 - 800 people.  Many people are farmers and live out in the country (not within city limits).   Medium household income is $53,133 with almost 17% of our county living below the poverty level.    (We have 3 "human" food pantries in town - that will help you visualize the need.)  Demographics - 92% white, 6% black, 2% mixed.  3% of our county is Latino.   This made the diversity piece very difficult -- but we did a TOP NOTCH JOB in my opinion.

    WINS

    • To be chosen to participate in this challenge.  We didn't really think we would.
    • Developed our first website.
    • Developed our first informational video.  Take a look: https://youtu.be/aGtzQViLi0o?si=zFjSmwVl3KWDFbHe
    • Set up our first You Tube account.
    • Set up our first QR code.
    • Our first Facebook Live.
    • Conducted our first community needs survey (almost 1% of the county responded)!
    • Created our first brochure.
    • Increased our followers on Facebook.  We are up to 610 (which is a lot for us).
    • Worked with the school system to have our brochure translated into Spanish!
    • We wrote introduction letters to all 123 churches in the county.  
    • We developed t-shirts (3) for a fundraiser.
    • New contacts at: Each of the three human food pantries, the mental health/developmental disability social services agency, 2 veteran groups, the senior center, the school resource centers, two other non-profits, the animal shelter (under new management), 
    • New partnership with: United States Humane Society, Kentucky Chapter
    • New partnership with: Givin' Back non-profit
    • New partnership with: Kroger's Delight Dog Food - we will get quarterly donations of up to 100 packages per visit!
    • Media Coverage: Our local newspaper (publishes once a week), our local radio station (we were on the air), and the TV station in the next town over (we're too small for a TV station -- and they mentioned Maddie's Fund Open Arms Challenge!)  Spayed and Aid of Kentucky expands outreach in Logan County - WNKY News 40 Television
      WNKY News 40 Television remove preview
      Spayed and Aid of Kentucky expands outreach in Logan County - WNKY News 40 Television
      Russellville, KY.- In just four months, Spayed and Aid of Kentucky has already made a major impact on families and pets in Logan County, and now they are looking to expand that outreach. They are competing in the Maddie's Fund Open Arms Challenge, and are focusing on expanding their outreach throughout the community.
      View this on WNKY News 40 Television >
    • Trap-neuter-return program returns to Logan
      Franklin Favorite remove preview
      Trap-neuter-return program returns to Logan
      Amanda Castile and Karen Kirsch, co-founders of Spayed and Aid of Kentucky, recently announced the return of a program that will be available to Logan County residents once again. The
      View this on Franklin Favorite >
    • Candid Silver Transparency Rating
    • Started a T-N-R Program -- we had planned on starting in 2025 but were approached by a partner who runs it and we went live this month! 34 Feral Cats Sterilized from 2 Sites.
    • Semi Truck Donation -- We have been approved to receive a semi truck donation from Chewy!  We're working diligently to find a place to receive it.  And, frankly, all the people we met at the other organizations are a huge "win" because we can reach out to them for help with storage space and volunteers.  We would not have been driven to do that outreach without this competition.
    • Dog Food: Received 471 cases of cat food from a local business man (24 cans each) because his sister told him we spayed her cat.  He had local kids help load our trailer: 

      https://www.facebook.com/100000965700519/videos/978248113764018/

    • Spay/Neuter Program:  Sterilized 50 animals as of 4/30/24!  We only started this program at the end of February.  The program is free to those in financial need and is funded all through donations (we've had a ton of bake sales to raise this cash).
    • Distribution Day:  We had originally planned to hold 4 distribution days per year.  We held one in February and one in March -- and because of all these wonderful additional donations this month -- we are holding one in April -- today to be exact.  We served over 100 animals in February and over 200 animals in March.  What a wonderful way to end our challenge.  I'll report back on the number of animals fed later tonight. I think with all the publicity we got it's going to be our biggest one yet.  (We have a signup list of over 400 right now.)
    • Oh yeah - I also started the Racial Equity course.  I got about halfway through it.  I learned a lot.  Unfortunately, it was just too long and since I'm not in the animal field for a living I could not devote the amount of time required to complete the whole thing. Not enough hours in the day with a FT job and starting a charity. But - as I said - the first half of the course was very informative and did provide some things that we did incorporate.  (Suggestion to writers -- break this into smaller segments that can be completed in shorter periods of time. I think most of us can find 30 minutes throughout the day.)

    LOSSES

    I can honestly say that I don't see any losses.  I do see several challenges:

    1. We need money to pay for operations.  We need someone to help us, whether that's a volunteer or paid person willing to help us daily on a PT basis.  It's terribly difficult to run an organization in your spare time.  We did it but, as noted above, we are exhausted.  
    2. We need money to buy a shed or something to keep the pet food in.  Right now we are renting a storage unit.  Or, I should say we were renting one storage unit and then when we got the donation of the extra cat food and the donation from Kroger we had to rent a second storage unit on Saturday just to house the extra stuff.  It would be a much better idea to have our 20x30 building -- but there's an issue of finding land -- or being able to afford buying something that's already got land.
    3. Finding time to fundraise is a real challenge.  We've been holding small events like bake sales (mind you we did raise $700 on one so they do bring in money) and things like that takes time.  I've been filling out grant applications in the evenings too.  We are hopeful some money will come in soon.  :-)
    4. I read the ideas from others in the challenge every day and there's so much more I want to do.  Everyone is doing such great things.

    Whew .. well that's all I can think of.  I tried to make this as comprehensive as possible.  I feel like this has been a very worthwhile experience and has "grown" our organization by leaps and bounds.  Thank you everyone!!!!!



    ------------------------------
    Karen Kirsch
    Founder
    Spayed and Aid
    KY
    ------------------------------



  • 2.  RE: Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 20 days ago

    The challenge has gone well for us. We are a brand new cat rescue/shelter/adoption organization that just started in January 2024. We have quickly grown and currently have 66 cats in our care, including 32 kittens. This challenge gave us the opportunity to grow in some areas that we likely wouldn't have and to learn things that we would have otherwise not learned.

    We were able to complete the following GOALS for this challenge:

    • We created the ability to instantly translate our website into 8 different languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. We also have our board members using the Duo app to learn several different languages to increase inclusivity by being able to communicate with people who do not have English as their native language.
    • We created a partnership with Petco and held our first adoption event on April 28th, 2024. We learned a lot during this event. Although we didn't adopt any of the 5 cats we brought to the event, we were able to meet people from the community, including an 2nd generation Asian-American family that immediately became a foster home and took on 3 kittens. We also examined what went well and what didn't so we can be prepared for our next adoption event on June 2nd.
    • We completed training on Maddie's University that helped us implement new practices: Keeping Tenants and Their Pets Together, Foster Caregiver Onboarding Collection and Community Partnerships.
    • The training helped us establish a Foster program and onboarded our first 3 foster homes. Our very first, who took 5 kittens with their mom cat from April 16th to end of the month, which allowed us to bring in an additional 5 sick kittens from Animal Services that were separated from their mother. A second foster home that took on 2 cats at 1-1/2 years old and the final foster home we met at Petco, who took on 3 kittens.
    • The training helped us create a Tenant's Rights section (https://kittyrescuecorp.org/tenants-rights/) on our website that details the rights of tenants in our area and to provide sample letters/documents to use. We are already currently working with someone who surrendered a cat to us due to a no-pet policy, to help them obtain an ESA and draft a reasonable accommodation request letter.
    • We created a committee to develop a plan for creating a local Pet Food Pantry to help keep people with their pets who are struggling to provide for them. We are working on contacting local food pantries and pet supply stores to establish a relationship and hopefully expand the food pantries to include pet food. This is something we decided to do because of seeing some of the other groups goals.

    Some of our WINS:

    • Through Maddie's Forum we learned about Goods360, which helped us get $400 worth of cat toys and supplies for only $40. We will be using these supplies to give to families who are adopting from us.
    • We also learned about Shelterluv, which will help us automate a lot of processes, eliminating a lot of the manual work and reduce paperwork. This will allow us to use that time to care for the animals and to grow our rescue. We have set up our account and have started the onboarding process. Adopt-A-Pet has also partnered with Shelterluv to provide the first year for free, which will definitely help our small rescue get on its feet.
    • Just connecting in general with other rescues and organizations that help animals. Being introduced to Maddie's Forum has definitely been a win for us. There are so many resources and good ideas out there and Maddie's Forum is helping provide a place for organizations all over the country to connect and share our wins/losses and great ideas.
    • We also learned about Cuddly which has helped us create some campaigns, including a campaign to build a new shelter to help provide more space so we can help more animals in need. So far we have not brought in much funding for this project but Cuddly did provide a wish list overhaul which provided us a lot of kitten formula which has helped us feed the many kittens in our care.

    Some of our CHALLENGES:

    • One of our biggest challenges is a lack of resources. This includes man-power and funding.
      • We are a very small rescue and we have slowly been growing, but we lack a lot of funding. Our goal is to have more funding coming from donations/grants and less funding from fees. So far this year, more than 70% of our income has come from fees such as surrender and adoption fees. We know that people surrendering their animals are already in a difficult situation and charging them fees can sometimes place a barrier that could ultimately place the animal on the streets. We try as hard as we can to work with people that can't afford the surrender fees but we have to be able to cover the expenses and provide for the cats in our care. We have been operating at a consistent loss so far this year (total of $2,261) which currently comes from the pockets of the board members. As we bring in more donations, we will be able to reduce or completely eliminate surrender fees for desperate families.
      • As the year has gone on, our lack of funding has forced us to cover less of the services for our adopting families. It is our desire to cover the surgeries, vaccines, testing and deworming when people adopt cats from us, but those services cost more than our adoption fee. We have had to reduce to only covering surgeries and then the families have to pay for the remaining services.
      • We also have struggled with man-power. It has been challenging caring for 66 cats. Before we started this challenge, our only volunteers were the board members and their family members. This challenge has helped us build a foster care program that is helping us distribute the work but we are still far from where we need to be to accomplish our ambitious goals.
    • Learning to say no has been difficult for us. We have big hearts and we want to help every animal that is in need, but we have to know our limitations. We have tried instead of just saying no, to direct those we can't help to other resources that could help.
    • The other challenge we have right now is finding a vet that will work with us and provide us discounts. Most of the vets in our area have been bought out by corporations who are no longer accepting rescue partnerships. This has forced us to use the low cost spay/neuter clinics (who are also non-profits) in our area. We feel this takes away from their ability to help community members as we are using up their resources. We really want to find a vet that can help us by providing low-cost services, which would free up the clinics resources to help the families who are in need.

    We want to thank Maddie's Fund for the opportunity to participate in this challenge. We really appreciate everything we've learned and all of the resources we have already gotten access to. We really are hoping that we do qualify and obtain a grant from this challenge, which would really help our organization accomplish its goals so we can help more animals and families in our community.



    ------------------------------
    Jeffrey Boegli
    Secretary/Treasurer
    Kitty Rescue Corp
    New Port Richey, FL
    https://kittyrescuecorp.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 19 days ago

    UPDATE -- We provided food to 316 animals at our Pet Food Pantry Distribution Day last night -- in one hour. We also had new volunteers come forward to help.  A wonderful way to end the challenge.  

    Here is a reel we made of the event:

    https://www.facebook.com/share/r/jLC994jpSsp5S6gx/?mibextid=WC7FNe



    ------------------------------
    Karen Kirsch
    Founder
    Spayed and Aid
    KY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 17 days ago

    Wow you had a busy and productive month! 

    I am so impressed by how much you were able to do in one month!

    As someone who also works full time and is one half of a two person led rescue, I am just in awe. Congratulations on everything you achieved!



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    Amanda Gray
    Grants and fundraising manager
    Operation Liberation
    FL
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 9 days ago

    The Winona Area Humane Society overall found a lot of success with our first Open Arms Challenge this year. 

    Some goals we were able to meet:

    • Established a partnership with our local radio station and dog boarding facility: once a week the radio host creates a video at our shelter focusing on a different animal or topic to increase marketing. This will go through 2024.
    • Established two partnered events: one with our Parks and Rec department to have an informational session with the public in June, and one with a local artist to offer animal-related art events and raise money. The first art events were hosted in April, and these were a hit and raised $1k.
    • We will be signing an Affiliation Agreement with our public University next month to offer students opportunities with events and fundraising for school credit starting in Fall 2024. 
    • Connected with a organization to soon partner with, The Little Kitty Rescue, who wants to work with our shelter and Animal Control to TNR feral cats. The founder was hired as a dog care assistant in April and will eventually collaborate with me on events.
    • Connected with other potential partners like our local brewery for hosting events, and a local band to play at a benefit concert for free. 
    • Our Canine and Cat Directors reorganized their volunteer programs based on info from Maddie's Fund to include two new opportunities (cleaning and event support, not just walking and socializing) and three levels of volunteers: everyone starts at Level 1, and as they continue, they level up and gain more access to animals with more needs/limitations and require less supervision from office staff. This has created more comfort for both volunteers and paid staff.
    • Started developing a sponsorship program to be implemented this coming summer. 

    Some of our challenges:

    • Our shelter has been low staffed, so not as much was accomplished as we had imagined, but we are still happy with the changes and progress made during this time.
    • Time was not found to expand with paper flyer marketing around our community hubs, however, we made a plan and gathered items needed in order to implement this in the following months. 
    • Our adoption rate was very low for April for a variety of reasons out of our staff's control, but it is expected to level out again.

    Overall this was a great opportunity to recognize gaps in our operations and prioritize what needs to change/improve. 



    ------------------------------
    Tara Stenson
    Facility Director
    Winona Area Humane Society
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Challenge Wins/Losses

    Posted 8 days ago

    Overall our biggest challenge was the one stop navigation center in our community was delayed in its opening. This center serves our low income and unhoused and will allow clients living in the dorms to keep their pets with them in shelter. We still completed all of the things we hoped to accomplish, it was just a little later than we planned. 

    We were able to get one of the dogs spayed ahead of the center opening on May 1! Several of the others that are living on site had previously been spayed by us as well.

    Our most exciting project was building a play yard at the Navigation Center where dogs have a place to run off leash, as they are required to be crated/leashed at all times in the facility. 

    In preparation for the Navigation center opening, we donated a fully stocked pet pantry, complete with enrichment items, brand new beds for crates we had donated, food, treats, muzzles, etc. We also created handouts for staff and clients about crate training and dog safety tips for kids. The flyers are posted in the shelter as well as printed off for those who need them. 



    ------------------------------
    Nichole Bethurem
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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