Interview! Rachael Max, Founder of Here Today, Adopted Tomorrow Sanctuary, Brimfield MA
July 16, 2016
Interview! Kit Jenkins, Former Grant and Adoptions Programs Manager for PetSmart Charities
July 19, 2016
This is the time of year when fee-waived adoption events are happening all of the time. Fee-Waived Adoptions Can Help Your Organization! Whether it be within specific organizations or in the community, as a whole, it has been seen to help reduce the overpopulation of cats and kittens in adoption centers. It appears that the larger organizations seem to have embraced this type of event with great excitement while some of the smaller organizations seem to be very hesitant to do this.
Should we all be doing fee-waived adoptions? I would say yes, but I will let you decide. Here are some of the pros and cons:
Pros
- It does relieve overpopulation in shelters in summer months. As hard as we try, the only way to keep disease down in our shelters is by keeping the numbers down. Unfortunately in the summer months, a shelter can see their intake numbers go up by 3 times! Cage space doesn’t change, so staff has to begin to get creative with space and foster care, along with adjusting to larger populations. The reality is that if we keep our census numbers level, we do better with stress and disease factors.
- It gets the community engaged! By offering a fee-waived adoption, many people in the community who love cats may be more willing to come to your adoption center to adopt. They want to come and help a cat in need when the help is really needed. The Community responds to your call-to-action! If a smaller organization were to have such an event, it would bring them a lot of visibility with the community and can result in further referrals for adoption.
- It is great for the staff to see so many cats and kittens going to homes! Hard choices have been made in the past, but now the choices are about adoption and not euthanasia. This really helps the staff and volunteers be able to know that they have just partnered with their community to help cats. They are making a difference!
Cons
- Do we trust these free-to-a-good-home shoppers? The reality is our adoption process isn’t changing. It is just eliminating the fee. The process is the same so all of the homes should be the same. Because there is so much excitement around this type of event many people might even claim a greater bond with the cat that they have chosen to adopt. We need to be vigilant on this!
- We actually need the adoption fees! Yes, this was what had me stuck for the longest time. Every penny that is brought in for your adoption program is critical. It is common to spend $450+ per cat before adopting him out for $75 or $100. We are constantly raising money to subsidize our adoption program, so how could I possibly give up that revenue? Ideally, it is best to seek out grant-funding for your first fee-waived event, or reach out to some of your best supporters and see if they will do a $100 grant-per-cat adoption as a way to pilot the program. This way you’ll see how it works for your group. This does involve some fundraising efforts, but if you start looking for funds in February, knowing that you will be overwhelmed in July, you will be seen as pro-active, which most foundations like. The Petco Foundation may be supportive of this kind of request, so give it a shot!
- We are a foster-based group so how could we do this? Foster-based adoption programs involve SO MUCH more effort in order to get their cats seen. Also, these groups tend to have cats that may not show well or like being moved around to an offsite adoption location. I still think it could be done. You might want to do a week-long campaign, focusing on virtually profiling your cats online. You might do a combo, where you take some cats to an offsite event. However, you’d also have a book of cats with profiles that you can direct people to foster homes to see. Maybe even do a “foster home” tour, like some organizations have “kitchen tours”. Brainstorming is necessary for foster homes to create an event that works for the organization/volunteers. as well as the cats. Wouldn’t it be great to adopt out 10 cats in a weekend from foster homes?
All in all, I am a big fan of trying something once and seeing how it goes. This summer, just give it a try and see if Fee-Waived Adoptions Can Help Your Organization! Help get the cats that are currently in your care into loving homes, as soon as possible.
Let me know what has and hasn’t worked for your groups. I’d love to hear your comments, tips and suggestions!
