Animal Welfare Professionals

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody

Hi Jody,

We often ask this question as well, have put some pieces in place, and are working on a policy to help create clarity.

Currently, we only attend events if we can attribute a specific goal --recruitment of volunteers and foster families, outreach to a target audience, or a specific monetary amount. If we can not directly tie the event to one of these areas, we are not attending. It can be so taxing to be at general events and be treated like a petting zoo but these bumpers have made it easier to say no and decide if or when animals will join us. Hope that helps a bit! 

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody

Hi Jody, 

It can definitely be a challenge trying to strategize which events will give you the biggest return on your investment! This HASS resource, Strategic Offsite Adoption Events Using Heat Maps can help guide where/how you make decisions about off-site adoption events. You can also use a similar approach to give you a roadmap for other goals you may have (volunteer/foster recruitment, etc.).

Here's a quick overview of what this resource details:

"Develop a strategy to guide your organization's offsite community adoption events by analyzing
heat map data to help you engage with people in specific geographic areas, understand adoption
trends, and increase adoptions in specific areas. Developing heat maps that use existing data about
pet ownership, census data, access to services, and community needs can support the organization
by seeing a holistic view of who, what, when, and where organizational efforts should be focused.
Enhancing the strategy behind in-person adoption event planning allows the organization to
increase community engagement, especially in areas where engagement has been historically low,
and get the best value for your efforts."

Best of luck! 

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody

Hey Jody! 

 I'm the Volunteer & Events Coordinator for Grand Prairie Animal Services in GP, Texas. I've held this job for the last 10 years and thoroughly enjoy it. When I first started, the person before me was only going to the local Farmers Market every Saturday and/or Petsmart/Petco. I came in pretty much brand new to WORKING in an animal shelter (I've only volunteered in house for 10 years prior in various states), AND to planning events. It was a lot of trial and error. I'm at the point now, I only offsite events if I have a goal/purpose. My main goal - adoptions, getting our name out there, potential recruitment of volunteers/fosters and donations. With this goal in mind I seek out the local festivals within an hour of our location. The bigger the festival the more I want to go. You're getting the biggest bang for your buck in being able to reach potentially THOUSANDS of people in one day.  I also do not EVER pay to attend an event. IDC how bad I want to have our adoption trailer there. I will not take out of our pocket to go when we also add value by having adoptable animals at said event. The most I will do is pay a refundable deposit that we get back at the end of the event. Case in point, one of the first festivals I got us into was the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas. We go out there for 10+ hrs a day on Saturday and Sunday, and we adopt out 10-15 dogs over the weekend and we raise anywhere from 1500-3k$ in donations each year. We pay a $100 refundable deposit and get it back on Sunday when we're packing up. We've done this event for 9 years and to STILL have families come up to us from the first year to say OMGOSH we adopted so and so from you 9 years ago, this is them (points down at them), and they bring them every year because it's their adopt-aversary ... sorry I digress LOL

Another goal is exposure or building a connection with someone we want to work with in the future. So we do monthly events at a place called Chicken n Pickle. Now we are able to get free food for events in house at our shelter when needed, free use of the pickle ball courts 1-2x a year for team building and they are always donating back to us.

And lastly I was tired of saying YES to every event we were asked to go to because I felt like we HAD to. So many times we'd go to events and 5 people would come by. It was a waste unfortunately of gas, staff time and of the dogs being seen if they were at the shelter instead on our busiest days (the weekend).  To combat this, I requested a $50 donation had to be made for people requesting us to come to their events. I want to raise it to $100 this coming year. So if nothing else we get the donation for going whether it goes good or bad.

But yes it comes down to a lot of trial and error. 

One of our favorite events each year is the Pickle Parade in Mansfield. 2 years ago we brought a trailer of 19 dogs.... we left with 1 (who ended up becoming a severe behavior case so it made sense). We went again last year but we were rained out after only being set up for an hour.... but in that 1 hour? We adopted out 3 large dogs!!! This event is so crucial to our shelter, that I'll actually be on maternity leave when it happens in March, but I'm coming in JUST to do the event so we don't miss it (unfortunately no one else on our staff knows how to pull a trailer so it's me or no one).

Sorry for all the rambling, I just get excited if/when I get a chance to share any knowledge that I actually feel like I have hahahha. 

Feel free to ask any other questions if this made any come up! 

Thanks,

Good morning everyone,  Pets Lifeline is an animal shelter in Sonoma, California.  We are under new leadership this year and trying out attending new events in our area.  For instance, we had an information table and a few dogs (two puppies and their mama) at a Blessing of the Animals event yesterday.  If was well attended but I was left wondering what, if anything, it meant us to be there besides community engagement. As we are working through our year, we're trying to find a way to decide which events we will repeat next year.  I'm wondering if anyone has a sort of barometer for this.  Like most everyone else, we have a small staff and dedicated volunteer pool but events often stretch our resources quite thin.  Thanks for any help. - Jody