Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hi Patti and all, We have done 2 very successful fundraisers the last 2 years, augmented by other smaller ones. The 2 large ones are what we call "ladies Nine and Wine". we do a nine hole unconventional golf tournament with games within the games. One of the course games is called, "find your furry friend". We hide stuffed animals in "plain sight" that have to be found and recorded as to where. We have a "sip stop " for wine tasting, grabbing a water or cold brew coffee. We have a "team putt" contest and a "guess your distance" contest. At the after party that we host at our community clubhouse (no cost) we have raffle prizes, bbq food and wine. We have been fortunate to have our wine supplier do an "in kind" donation to cover the cost. We also do a non traditional 50/50 drawing where ladies by tennis ball numbers. Each numbered ball is put into a kiddy pool with water and we have a dog who chooses the winning ball. We cleared $10K this year. You have to make sure that serious golfers understand thisi is a FUNdraiser and not to be taken too seriously. 

the other one we do is thru Gogophotocontest.com. We did a "pets of winding river, photo contest" for a calendar. the first year we cleared $10K but this year onl 1/2 that much so not doing it again this year. Working to come up with another idea.

We recently did a bowling event. Not a tournament, but just for fun. Bowling alley charged us $15/pp which gave 3 games a pizza for your foursome and a free non alcoholic drink. We did a 50/50 drawing there as well. For minimal effort we raised over $1500.00

Hope that helps

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

We raise about $250K annually and are rescuing around 500 cats/kittens per year.  We've been a 501c3 since 2003.  Our main source is Facebook postings and many small to medium donations.  We have been relatively successful in receiving grants from foundations coast to coast, including repeat grants.  We email regularly to a list of 7,500 known donors to animal welfare as a way to increase our donor base.  We have an account to accept gifts of appreciated securities.  We don't do special events because the ROI is often poor and we don't have the volunteer bandwith.  Our largest budgeted expense is veterinary care, followed by transportation costs (we transport 95% of our rescues out-of-state) and rent expense.  We have one PT contract employee.  Our strategic plan has us focused on building a signficant reserve fund that we currently do not have.  Hope this helps.  Email me privately if you want to talk.  I have 45 yrs experience in fund development, leading NPOs and budgeting. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Thank you for your honesty and sharing the strategies that have been most successful for your organization. We agree that the ROI for big events is tricky. Our organization is not as large as yours, so we fall in this midrange where events see manageable but bandwidth isn't enough. We are finding that our greatest area of need is urgent medical care also with animals coming in with more serious injuries and concerns than ever before. Small to midrange donations is the space we live in so I greatly appreciate the concept of emailing animal welfare donors as a way to build the donor base. 

We raise about $250K annually and are rescuing around 500 cats/kittens per year.  We've been a 501c3 since 2003.  Our main source is Facebook postings and many small to medium donations.  We have been relatively successful in receiving grants from foundations coast to coast, including repeat grants.  We email regularly to a list of 7,500 known donors to animal welfare as a way to increase our donor base.  We have an account to accept gifts of appreciated securities.  We don't do special events because the ROI is often poor and we don't have the volunteer bandwith.  Our largest budgeted expense is veterinary care, followed by transportation costs (we transport 95% of our rescues out-of-state) and rent expense.  We have one PT contract employee.  Our strategic plan has us focused on building a signficant reserve fund that we currently do not have.  Hope this helps.  Email me privately if you want to talk.  I have 45 yrs experience in fund development, leading NPOs and budgeting. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Thank you for your honesty and sharing the strategies that have been most successful for your organization. We agree that the ROI for big events is tricky. Our organization is not as large as yours, so we fall in this midrange where events see manageable but bandwidth isn't enough. We are finding that our greatest area of need is urgent medical care also with animals coming in with more serious injuries and concerns than ever before. Small to midrange donations is the space we live in so I greatly appreciate the concept of emailing animal welfare donors as a way to build the donor base. 

We raise about $250K annually and are rescuing around 500 cats/kittens per year.  We've been a 501c3 since 2003.  Our main source is Facebook postings and many small to medium donations.  We have been relatively successful in receiving grants from foundations coast to coast, including repeat grants.  We email regularly to a list of 7,500 known donors to animal welfare as a way to increase our donor base.  We have an account to accept gifts of appreciated securities.  We don't do special events because the ROI is often poor and we don't have the volunteer bandwith.  Our largest budgeted expense is veterinary care, followed by transportation costs (we transport 95% of our rescues out-of-state) and rent expense.  We have one PT contract employee.  Our strategic plan has us focused on building a signficant reserve fund that we currently do not have.  Hope this helps.  Email me privately if you want to talk.  I have 45 yrs experience in fund development, leading NPOs and budgeting. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Our most successful fundraising strategy seems to be sharing rescue stories on social media. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello Patti,

I've attached a a budget outline that we use. I suggest that you make a copy and fill in some numbers to see how it works. I hope this helps. 

Lori

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello Patti,

I've attached a a budget outline that we use. I suggest that you make a copy and fill in some numbers to see how it works. I hope this helps. 

Lori

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hi Patty,

I do not currently work at a shelter but have many years of experience in special events and fundraising. At the shelter I was at, we partnered with a local news station to take a pet in each week that was in need of major medical care. This helped to bring attention to the pets we were helping, get them adopted, and raise funds for medical fund. We did one large fundraiser, Mardi Growl, that continues to grow in popularity.  At our local Habitat for Humanity I started a sporting clay tournament that is now their biggest fundraiser. For each of these events, there was an income line in our budget but all expenses were expected to be paid through sponsorhsips for the events. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------

Hello Candace,

Thank you for sharing your insights on fundraising. The idea of partnering with a local news station is great. I'm going to bring that idea to our next meeting and see if we can come up with something similar. I also like the idea of creating one large fundraiser event - something the community can look forward to each year. 

Most of our fundraising is centered around outreach via email and social media sharing news and updates about our animal rescue efforts, updates, and advocacy. 

With appreciation,

Lori  

Hi Patty,

I do not currently work at a shelter but have many years of experience in special events and fundraising. At the shelter I was at, we partnered with a local news station to take a pet in each week that was in need of major medical care. This helped to bring attention to the pets we were helping, get them adopted, and raise funds for medical fund. We did one large fundraiser, Mardi Growl, that continues to grow in popularity.  At our local Habitat for Humanity I started a sporting clay tournament that is now their biggest fundraiser. For each of these events, there was an income line in our budget but all expenses were expected to be paid through sponsorhsips for the events. 

Hello! Big Canoe Animal Rescue is the in the process of reviewing its annual budget and refining some of the line items as we continue to fundraise and work our way through the latest in economic challenges out there. 

My questions for the good of the group: 

On average, how much to you bring in through fundraising in a year? 

What has been your most successful strategy? 

Do you keep a certain amount of "seed" money on your budget line to use when organizing a fundraising event? 

Do you have a budget line item specific to urgent medical care? How much do you allocate for this in a year? 

Does anyone have a sample nonprofit-rescue budget outline that they would be willing to share with us? 

Thank you everyone for your contributions and ideas related to these questions! 

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
------------------------------