Fundraising #2

[Guest guest]

Learn from your dog

 

Your dog can teach you everything you need to know about

running an animal shelter--or any pro-animal organization--in a

manner that attracts support.

Your dog understands how to greet every visitor as a valued

friend. No one makes more friends, faster, than any good dog--and

even the loneliest person can often make friends just by getting a

dog.

Dogs sell themselves to adopters, given half a chance. If

your organization runs a shelter and is not successfully adopting out

dogs, in a community where people often keep dogs, then you need to

pay more attention to how dogs themselves make people fall in love

with them, and give the dogs in your care more chance to do it.

Your dog knows how to give the impression at all times of

being reliable, trustworthy, comforting, and loyal.

The three most important aspects of selling anything, from

real estate to ideas, are image, utility, and price. Dogs are

born knowing how to sell themselves, using all three of these

concepts at once.

Image is what you project about yourself. There is a saying

in India that, " Whenever we are unhappy, God sends a dog. " Dogs

make most people feel better, most of the time. They play, they

wag their tails, they come up to be petted, and they will forgive

any offense from someone who usually treats them kindly.

Utility is whether or not something is useful. For just a

word of praise, your dog will do anything useful that he or she can

figure out how to do. The hardest part of dog training is just

getting the dog to understand what you want the dog to do. Once the

dog understands, the job will rarely be neglected or forgotten.

Price is the first thing people ask about in making any

decision to acquire something, and is the last thing they think

about. Dogs know that. They give you loving attention before making

any demands. They introduce themselves as your dog, so joyfully

that the price you pay for adopting and keeping them seems more like

fulfilling a familial obligation than like spending hard-earned

money. You adopt a dog because the dog has already become part of

your family, on sight and sniff.

Your dog understands follow-up service, too. Your dog

didn't just go home with you assuming that everything was going to be

perfect. Your dog, or any dog, knows that although most people are

decent and well-meaning, most are quite ignorant about dog needs and

behavior. Therefore your dog is a patient and forgiving teacher. A

dog never assumes that anyone is too stupid to learn.

You are probably here because of lessons your dog taught you.

You can help keep hundreds of dogs in homes just by helping dogs to

teach their people the things you have already learned. Every dog

you help to stay in a home is a dog who not only will not come to

your shelter, but also will repay your kindness by helping to sell

other people on the value of your work.

Your dog knows how to facilitate adoptions, raise funds,

convince you to change your lifestyle on animals' behalf, and win

community support--but that is far from being everything your dog can

teach you about nonprofit fundraising and shelter management.

For example, your dog knows how to handle paid staff and

volunteers. Your dog understands whom to admit to the pack, which

is essentially everyone willing and able to contribute to the

strength of the pack, and whom to drive off as a threat and a

troublemaker. Rarely will your dog misjudge people.

Every dog, at all times, knows his or her place

among the pack, and will play the appropriate role.

Every dog understands how to cooperate within a pack,

how to earn status, and how to inspire and motivate others.

Your dog also knows inventory management. There is not

another dog, cat, bowl of food, place to sleep, or anything else

that would interest a dog that your dog does not keep close track of.

Your dog realizes that this is indispensable knowledge.

You must be able to account for all of the animals and all of

the resources entrusted to you at all times, in order to earn and

maintain donor confidence, without which you cannot survive as a

nonprofit institution. Your dog does not know how to keep a

double-entry ledger or use a computer, but if your dog did, you

would never have to worry again about the accuracy of your

accounting. Neither would the dog-loving public ever doubt your

truthfulness.

You have to learn to keep written records of everything you

do precisely because your dog cannot do it for you, and cannot vouch

for what you do with money, property, or veterinary drugs. You

must learn to document your activities well enough to withstand any

amount of suspicious sniffing from people who do not understand the

motives of a person who loves animals.

Think of this as the fundamental law of shelter management:

I will translate into human terms what my dog would do. When in

doubt, I will consult my dog.

Animal shelters do for dogs, cats, and other animals what

dogs would do if dogs had opposable thumbs, and could write and use

tools.

I have a theory that humans operate animal shelters by way of

paying off a debt. Our ancestors could never have outlived

saber-toothed tigers and the Ice Ages if dogs had not protected them

and kept them warm. When humans learned to cultivate grain, and

cats were needed to help control the depredations of mice and rats,

dogs admitted cats to our family circle.

People who think dogs and cats are ancient enemies have not

watched how they work and play together. Dogs and cats of the same

household or extended " pack " will routinely nurse each other's

orphaned young, and cases of dogs risking and even losing their lives

to try to save cats from housefires are nearly as common as cases of

dogs exercising such courage on behalf of humans. Cats, in turn,

will hasten to comfort a frightened or despondent dog of the same

household.

Both cats and dogs together take care of us, and without

them, we could not have built civilization. Perhaps our

relationship with dogs and cats began because dogs understood that

they would need the help of a species with opposable thumbs and

technological capabilities, in order to realize their dream of

plenty of food and affection for every canine. Later, dogs included

cats in the deal because cats too were necessary.

Whatever happened, dogs taught us our principles of social

organization, which prevailed among canine species for millions of

years before humans existed. Dogs made an immense business

investment in humans, and can continue to be our helpers and

mentors, especially in what concerns them, if we only have the

wisdom to notice.

New Hampshire animal advocate Peter Marsh observed many years

ago that " People who rescue feral or abandoned or abused animals tend

to resemble the animals they help in the psychological sense. Just

as feral or abandoned animals or animals who have been abused tend to

be frightened and furtive, so we ourselves are often frightened and

furtive, and fear the public will think badly of us because we have

too many animals, or 'waste' our efforts on animals instead of

people, or must euthanize some animals. We don't invite people into

our shelters because we think they won't understand what they see.

" Therefore they don't understand why we can't give lifetime

care to every animal someone dumps on us, or why we are always

stressed out and blaming pet keepers for being irresponsible--and we

don't get the help we need to change things. I further submit, "

Marsh finished, " that it is time we opened the doors. "

The importance of attracting and welcoming visitors to your

shelter cannot be over-emphasized. People have to see your animals

in order to fall in love with them. People have to see your work in

order to appreciate it. People have to know who you are, where you

are, and how valuable your services are, before they can be

persuaded to give you volunteer time, food, building materials, or

money.

Attracting visitors is the surest way for any animal shelter

to raise more money. The more visitors a shelter has, the more

volunteers and donors it will attract. Even one-time visitors to

shelters and sanctuaries donate, on average, at many times the

level of non-visitors, and can be encouraged to donate more through

effective outreach, whether by mail or personal contact.

Successfully attracting visitors who become regular donors

begins with presentation. Every shelter should welcome visitors with

an attractive sign. This is your equivalent of your dog's wagging

tail. The sign should state the name of the organization, the hours

of operation, the mailing address, and a telephone number that will

be answered as close to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as you

can manage.

Be aware that people are most likely going to be looking for

a lost pet, or trying to adopt a pet, or seeking help for an animal

in distress whom they have found, when they are not at work. It is

more important to be accessible during the evenings and on weekends

than during morning business hours.

Likewise, people are most likely to call about a crisis

they are having with an animal during the evening or on a

weekend--and it is then, when the crisis is still going on, that

you have the best chance to intervene to keep a dog or cat in a home.

Shelter adoption-and-reclaim hours should include afternoons

and evenings, all seven days of the week if possible.

Visiting hours can be briefer, but are very important to

offer. Visiting hours are the times when people can come to get

acquainted just out of curiosity, not under some sort of stress or

duress. Visiting hours need to be publicized with the same vigor as

if you were promoting a sports event or a theatrical performance.

Your dogs and cats will provide the entertainment. Your job is to

invite the public to come and enjoy it --and you have to make sure

that the dogs and cats get the opportunity to make people feel so

good about coming that they want to come back.

Welcoming visitors, incidentally, is among the easiest

animal shelter jobs to delegate to volunteers--especially young

volunteers, such as high school students.

Greeters should be assigned to show a specific sequence of

facilities to visitors, ending at whatever attraction seems most

successful at inspiring donations, with a list of answers to

frequently asked questions. More complex questions can be referred

to senior staff--but most questions will be repetitively asked, and

will concern either features and policies of the facility, or the

life histories of resident animals.

The story of each animal should end with a succinct mention

of the cost of keeping each animal for a day, a week, or a month,

along with the cost of sterilization surgery, vaccinations, and any

other necessary treatment that the animal receives.

Each question is a chance to solicit funds, by explaining

how donations make doing whatever you are doing possible, and how

more support could enable you to do more things, in a better manner.

Any animal shelter without prominent canisters for collecting

donations needs to add some, so that visitors can discreetly give

whatever money they have in their pockets whenever they feel the

impulse.

You should also have literature for visitors explaining how

and where to send money, how to donate goods, what goods are

welcome, and how to leave a bequest to your organization.

Each pamphlet should include a pre-addressed donation

envelope, so that visitors can send you contributions later.

The more items people take to read later, distributed with a

self-addressed envelope (postage-paid, if possible), the more money

a shelter will receive. The envelopes make donating easy, and

ensure that all donations are sent to the right place.

Start saying " thank you " even before you get your first

donations from people--just as your dog would. Bounce up and down

and wag your tail when prospective donors even look at you. Thanking

donors increases response--including when prospective donors see

others being thanked. On your shelter grounds, an attractive sign or

plaque should acknowledge every donated item. Prominent thank-you

not only encourage donors to give again, but also inspire others to

contribute.

 

Success sells success

 

Success sells success. Any community big enough and rich

enough to have traffic congestion on market days is quite big enough

and rich enough to support basic humane services, including low-cost

vaccination, sterilization, animal rescue, and emergency

sheltering--andsheltering animals should only be an emergency

response. If you are doing an adequate job of preventing surplus dog

and cat births by means of sterilization, 95% of the animals in your

community will never enter your shelter, or any shelter, even

though they all benefit from the services and public education you

provide.

Unfortunately, many animal charity directors mentally equate

soliciting funds with street-begging by the severely disadvantaged

and destitute, not with obtaining voluntary support for essential

community services. Even the people who most devotedly help animals

in other ways are often unwilling to ask for money, because they do

not wish to be seen as beggars. Those who do ask tend to rely on

descriptions of misery--and then they find that more people turn away

in disgust and horror than actually contribute.

Take a lesson, again, from your dog. Your dog does not

feel unwanted and unworthy when your dog solicits a pat on the head,

a treat, a walk, or a meal. Rather, your dog knows you want to

help because your dog is a fine dog, a good and loving dog, and you

are a good and loving person. Your dog is confident that you think

well of him, or her, and wish to reward your dog for excellent

behavior.

Your dog gets what your dog wants and needs. Your shelter

dogs and cats could get what they want and need, if you were even

half as good at asking for it, beginning with having a positive

attitude: you will get the contributions you need because you are

worthy. You will prove that you are worthy by doing tricks, if

necessary; but you will never doubt that good deeds will be rewarded.

The very strength of your expectation will help to persuade

the prospective donor to live up to your hope.

Facilities are fundraisers

Bear in mind that when you invite people into your shelter,

or any municipal pound you may work with, you are inviting important

guests not only into your animals' temporary home, but also into

their own homes, in a sense, because they will form their

impressions of how animals should be kept and how animals will affect

their lives from what they see, smell, and hear.

If the shelter looks like a prison, stinks like a cesspool,

and sounds like hell in full cry, you will not succeed, because

people do not want to invite misery and chaos into their lives.

There is no animal shelter or pound which cannot afford to be

clean, neat, attractively lighted, odor-free, and quiet. The

only kind of poverty that causes a shelter to be bleak, stinking,

and intolerably noisy is poverty of the imagination.

Pay attention to what your animals seek out and ask for.

Cats need vertical space and a comfortable bed. Dogs crave company.

They want to be part of a pack, so it is quite all right--indeed

essential--to house small groups of compatible dogs together.

Any dog, moreover, will be psychologically and physically

healthier--and more easily adopted--if kept in almost any kind of

facility other than conventional cinder-block-and-chain-link runs

with tin roofs. A mad scientist vivisector, trying to find out how

fast he could drive dogs, cats, and people insane, would put them

all into a typical animal shelter, in which the cats cannot climb or

escape the sound of barking, the dogs can only run madly back and

forth and bark for exercise, the tin roof amplifies noise, and the

air circulation is inferior to the air exchange level achieved by any

functional flush toilet.

Animal shelters of conventional design unconsciously reflect

the medieval practice of keeping hunting packs in otherwise empty

stalls at the end of a horse stable. When humane societies began

sheltering dogs about 130 years ago, they blindly copied the

arrangements of hunting kennels, not pausing to consider that hunter

attitudes toward animals are fundamentally opposite to the humane

ideal.

Shelters of 21st century design no longer have barred cages

or narrow linear runs for dogs. Instead, each dog room is designed

to hold small compatible groups of dogs, and the dog rooms are

enclosed in storefront-grade shatterproof window glass.

Stale air is pumped out from floor fronts and fresh air is

blown in from outdoors at the top, to promptly remove odors, with

air exchange at a rate of not less than a complete change every half

hour.

Hong Kong SPCA shelter architect Jill Cheshire literally

discovered the advantages of using glass instead of chain link

fencing or bars by watching and listening to her dogs in various

different environments. " To lower the volume of noise inside a dog

shelter, " Cheshire says, " you have to realize that dogs see with

their noses. Bars or chain link allow them to be stimulated by

everything that goes on in your shelter. Because what stimulates

them most is the presence of other dogs, and there are always other

dogs in a shelter, they bark all the time. Then shelters often try

to deal with the noise by restricting what their dogs can see. They

end up putting their dogs inside boxes, with no visual stimulation

at all--so what do they have left to do? They bark some more.

" What we have learned to do instead, " says Cheshire, " is to

put the dogs inside glass, so that they can see everything but

cannot smell anything. This encourages them to spend a lot of their

time up looking around, using their other senses and being in front

of their enclosures where the visitors will see them and maybe adopt

them. If you look inside a glass-enclosed shelter, what you see are

lots of alert and attentive dogs, who are always watching everything

very carefully, but are rarely barking. "

As a last word about the importance of odor control, please

note that worldwide, more than 80% of animal protection donors and

animal shelter volunteers are female. Most are between the ages of

20 and 50. Women in that age range have up to seven times the

olfactory acuity of most men. If your facility stinks, you will be

repelling the very people who otherwise would be most likely to

support you.

 

Feral cats are not role models

 

Some cats are outstanding fundraisers. Those are the cats

who are as gregarious as dogs, who introduce themselves to every

visitor with head rubs and purr whenever touched.

Feral cats, on the other hand, are your worst possible role

models. A feral cat is a consummate survivor, whose hardihood,

resourcefulness, and evasive independence are all to be admired, but

the traits that enable some feral cats to thrive in even the harshest

and most hostile environments are the antithesis of successful

fundraising.

Feral cats know how to be invisible; a successful fundraiser

must be seen. Feral cats, if they do not get a handout, say " To

hell with you, " and hunt for themselves. Feral cats will glower

down from a rooftop and spit in your face, but never come to be

petted. Suspecting the worst of humans, often with good reason,

feral cats ensure that they only experience the worst from humans,

because they isolate themselves from every kind of help.

You may love and identify with feral cats, but if you truly

want to help them, your role model must be your dog, or the

exceptionally gregarious cat, who begs for food he does not eat and

then walks away.

Why does he do this? To let others eat, of course. His

role in the cat community is to be the fundraiser. He gets what all

the other cats need. Learn from that cat, or your dog, and you

cannot go wrong.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

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founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

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