We’re excited to announce The Humane Society for Shelter Pets Assistance Grants Program. Along with educating the public about the importance of supporting local pet shelters, we also want to help make it easier for these groups to focus their attention on the important work of caring for homeless animals by reducing the headache and costs associated with the day-to-day functioning of a successful non-profit organization.
Through this program, non-profit organizations from all across the country will have an opportunity to apply for support in three separate categories: fundraising ads, credit card processing, and website design and hosting.
Applications to the Shelter Assistance Grants Program will be accepted on a rolling basis. More details of the program, project requirements and eligibility can be found below. Apply today!
Announcing the Humane Society for Shelter Pets Assistance Grants Program
The Humane Society for Shelter Pets, an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, is committed to ensuring that local animal shelters get the support they need. The economic crisis has hit local shelters hard. Charitable donations are falling, and a recent poll found that 75 percent of animal shelter professionals are concerned with the present state of their organization’s financial condition.
As a result, local animal shelters and rescues across the country are often forced to make a difficult choice: spend dwindling funds on hands-on animal care or on staff education and other organizational expenditures.
To help make that decision easier, The Humane Society for Shelter Pets is proud to announce the Shelter Assistance Grants Program, a program to help local pet shelters reduce overhead costs and concentrate their resources on the homeless pets that need them most. With shelters operating at capacity across the country, we feel it is important that shelter personnel spend their organizations’ limited time and money on providing the essential hands-on animal care services that are the backbone of their work — and not on infrastructure costs like credit card processing fees and web design services.
With our Shelter Assistance Grants Program, we are offering these and other services free of charge to qualifying shelters that apply for assistance. It is our hope that this will give shelter personnel the opportunity to refocus on doing the lifesaving work that makes them pillars of the community, instead of bogged down in the minutia of running a successful organization.
Current funding opportunities fall into three categories:
1. Free Fundraising Ads: The Humane Society for Shelter Pets will use its marketing expertise to place high-visibility online fundraising advertisements in local markets for qualifying shelters. Google AdWords ads appear just to the right of Google search results, and are a good way for shelters to target individuals in their area who are already searching for adoptable pets or volunteer opportunities. Shelters or rescues selected for the program will be able to choose from a variety of pre-designed ads. The Humane Society for Shelter Pets will develop, place, and pay for the ads.
2. Free credit card processing: The Humane Society for Shelter Pets will offer cost-free online credit card processing to selected shelters. This gives shelters the important advantage of offering their supporters a convenient way to donate, without the financial burden associated with setting up a merchant account and paying credit card processing fees.
3. Free website design and hosting: The Humane Society for Shelter Pets will offer selected shelters a professionally designed (or redesigned), user-friendly, and easy-to-update website that will help shelters build an online presence and ease the burden on staff and volunteers. Shelters will have the option of choosing from several clean, professional templates, which can be further customized to suit the organization’s needs and individual style. The website will automatically interface with PetFinder. Once up and running, these sites will require minimal attention from shelter staff, and can be easily updated with just a few clicks of the mouse. (We regret that at this time we cannot provide content management or technical support services beyond the original deployment of the site.)
Applications are considered throughout the year and may be submitted at any time.
In addition to these opportunities, we are also pleased to offer, free of charge, a series of educational seminar videos on animal shelter best practices to any sheltering organization. During these difficult economic times, when more dogs and cats are coming into shelters and fewer donor dollars are going into the bank, we think it is unconscionable to ask shelters to pay for these essential educational materials as some national organizations do.
With these grants and educational services, the Humane Society for Shelter Pets is beginning what we hope will become a long tradition of providing logistical support to local humane organizations. By taking away a few of the headaches inherent in running a functioning operation, the money shelters save and raise can now be put to its best use: helping homeless pets until they find “forever homes.”
Grant Criteria
Decisions will be based on the following requirements and questions:
Requirements:
- Must be a local humane society, animal shelter, animal rescue group, SPCA, or other organizations whose mission is to care and find homes for pets.
- A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization or a non-profit charity registered with a state.
- Accepts owner-surrendered animals.
- Does not received the majority of its funding from a government agency or entity.
- Must be in good standing with appropriate city, county, state, and federal agencies with applicable oversight.
To Apply
Please fill out the attached application. Send completed forms, along with any supporting documentation to: [email protected]
