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Your values are expressed through the choices you make. This is the tagline I chose for my website almost 20 years ago when I decided to shift the focus of my animal welfare advocacy from creating videos to help nonprofit groups to creating a platform to try to help other people like me - people who care about companion animals but may not be well versed in issues that affect them. That tagline guides my decisions to this day as I ask myself what I value. It is in the spirit of this self-reflection that I have chosen to leave Facebook despite the following I developed there over many years. Social media can be a great thing. Social media can be a terrible thing. I originally created a presence on Facebook as a way to reach a larger audience and lead people to my website. Some of my posts reached hundreds of thousands of people and I would like to believe I at least caused them to think and at best encouraged them to become advocates themselves related to what is happening regarding companion animals where the live, work and play. Facebook was It was a great tool for many years. Until it wasn't. With the passage of time and changes to algorithms and advertising by Meta, I no longer reached the same audience I once did. Like most people, my news feed was full of reels, ads and recommendations. I was tagged dozens of times a day about animals in need and was often called upon to defend my support of the No Kill movement which has changed our society to save the lives of millions of shelter animals each year, but which is painted in a negative light by those who have not taken the time to educate themselves about history. There were times I could reach people and help them learn something new. There were more times I could not. I ultimately was on the receiving end of profanity-filled rants, name calling and veiled threats. Which meant it was time to go. I have left Facebook completely. If you find yourself with mixed feelings about that platform, I encourage you to consider what value it brings to your life compared to how much it affects you negatively. If you find yourself checking Facebook not only daily but multiple times a day, the addictive nature of the platform is likely not good for your mental health and that can ultimately affect your physical health over time. When I made my decision, I was reminded of the iconic line spoken by Morgan Freeman in the movie The Shawshank Redemption: "it's time to get busy livin' or get busy dying." I choose to get busy livin'.  You are welcome to subscribe to my Paws4Change blog if you don't already. I blog not to make myself relevant, but when I feel I have something valuable to share. I do not use AI when I write like some do to create "clickbait" or create controversy. I make no money off of my advocacy and my focus is on awareness and education. If I learn something I think may be of value to others, or I feel the need to reinforce information I have shared before, I blog. I can also be found on Instagram as Paws4Change Official (since I hold a trademark on the name). I realize Instagram is also a Meta product. Most of my family is active there so it allows me to keep up with their lives and adventures. It also allows me to continue my Paws4Change outreach beyond my website but using a platform I find easier to control and navigate. If you have a topic about which you would like me to blog, reach out so we can chat. I am also open to creating short videos to promote organizations that function consistent with my values. That was how my advocacy began and I still have access to copyright cleared music that comes in handy. As we head into the holiday season, I wish all of you the best and thank you for your years of support. The hardest lesson we learn from losing those we love is that what we value most - or regret most - at the end of our lives is time. Time spent. Time not spent. Time wasted. I hope as you look to the new year you will focus on being more present in your life with your family, with your friends and with your animal companions as you focus on your choices reflecting your values. Let go of things that bring you down and get busy livin'.  "Surrender" courtesy of Fisher from their album "The Lovely Years"
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 It's that time of year again when most of us are looking ahead to holiday shopping and most nonprofits are seeking donations to help them continue to help people, causes and animals. If your physical mailbox and email box are anything like mine, they are full of catalogs from companies trying to sell you what they market as great gifts and full of solicitations for donations. I thought it might help some folks for me to share my thoughts about private donations to help animals for the benefit of the public and share information about grant funding to help animals for the benefit of animal-oriented nonprofit organizations. Public Donations to Help Animals When it comes to holiday shopping, I am a huge fan of making a donation to the non-profit organization of your choice in honor of your gift recipient. Most of us have enough "stuff" and while the phrase says, "it's the thought that counts," what you thought your loved one or friend might like may have nothing to do with what they want or need. Donations are easy. They are a one-size-fits all way of telling someone in your life you love them or care about them while helping a worthy organization and avoiding giving a gift that may never be worn or used. The question then becomes to which organization you should donate. An easy answer is to help an organization that means something to the person in whose honor you are donating. Maybe it relates to helping veterans or helping people who are unhoused or have food insecurities or maybe it has to do with research to end a disease. There is no shortage of very worthy organizations where your donation makes a difference. The landscape is more complex when it comes to donations to help animals. It is no secret that I'm not a huge fan of what I call the alphabet soup of animal welfare. The ASPCA. HW (Humane World, which used to be called the Humane Society of the United States). BFAS (the Best Friends Animal Society). I know and respect some people who work for these organizations but you won't see me giving them my money. Why? Because they have millions of dollars already. They all do some good in some ways, of course. Just not enough for me to encourage anyone to donate their hard earned money. It is not difficult to find information on the finances of these and similar organizations. This includes copies of their most recent 990 forms that list contributions, assets and compensation of key members, all of which will likely dissuade you from adding your money to the millions those organizations already have. I believe that if these organizations really wanted to change the culture in our society regarding animals, specifically companion animals, they should stop spending such a large percentage of donations on salaries, advertising and marketing and start spending it, well, to actually help animals. I am reminded of a blog Nathan Winograd wrote years back called What Happens to the Dream Merchants When the Dream Becomes a Reality? It was written 15 years ago but is still relevant for one reason: if large national animal welfare organizations wanted to put themselves out of business - at least when it comes to the issue of animals being killed in our nation's "shelters," they could. In my opinion.  When I donate to animal related non-profits either on my own or as a gift to someone, I make one of three choices.
As a note of caution, there are animal related organizations that claim to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit when they are not. I know of many rescuers who used a self-help legal platform to set up their organization which resulted in 1) using a name that is trademarked by the US Patent and Trademark Office which is asking to be sued; and 2) registering with the Secretary of State's office; 3) but stops short of them seeking legitimate non-profit status with the IRS. Any true nonprofit will appear in a nonprofit search using the IRS website and the organization will also be able to provide an EIN (Employer Identification Number). Grant Funding to Help Animals I have many contacts in the rescue world, most of whom lead organizations that are foster-based and forever struggling to get enough money to help more animals. None are compensated for their work, all have families and most have full-time jobs. How they find the time to help animals and keep some kind of life balance is a mystery to me and the sad truth is that many ultimately "flame out" and leave rescue work entirely because they lack life balance and the need is just so great. Finding fosters to house animals short-term is typically the biggest obstacle to the mission, but a close second is the issue of money to pay for food and veterinary care. Some of the rescuers I know do what I consider "hair on fire" rescue in which they take on way (way) more animals than they can possibly help with the resources they have and then beg for money they need immediately. Other organizations in my area do a great job of keeping the public engaged, asking for help when they need it (but not every day) and holding small fundraisers that range from yard sales to auctions to t-shirt sales. Even those groups can find themselves with huge vet bills and no immediate way to pay them. Which is why I want to talk about grants. Everyone is familiar with the subject of grants. There is grant funding available from numerous sources that are mostly subject-based (science, education, disease, veteran support, etc.) and mostly focused on businesses and people. Like the issue of donating to an animal nonprofit, the landscape is more complex when it comes to finding grants to help animals. An internet search for animal grants can produce some results, but trying to navigate through a tremendous amount of information is difficult for most in the rescue and animal welfare non-profit world if for no other reason than they simply lack the time. I asked a cat rescue contact of mine recently what she was doing to seek grant funding and her answer was pretty short. "Nothing. I don't have time to do my laundry and I can't remember the last time I took a vacation. Who has time?"  I think in order to help animals, nonprofit organizations have to make time not only to learn about the landscape of animal grants but how best to seek those grants . And luckily for us all, there is someone to help us named Stephanie Mathers. I first ran across Grants4Animals in my efforts to help a local rescue group for which I have done some small fundraisers. I know money is out there and I know it's a matter of knowing where to find it. The best way I can describe Stephanie's platform is that the grants are buried treasure and she provides the treasure map. You can visit her website yourself to learn more about the great work she is doing, but the two services I recommend most to my animal rescue and nonprofit contacts are the 1-hour consulting session and the Train Your Grant writer self-paced program. To be clear, neither of these services are free (although the monthly newsletter which highlights animal grants is available for the taking). In my opinion, the nominal amount of money spent for either service is well worth not only the cost - but the time - because of the potential that thousands of dollars in grant money can be obtained not just in the short-term but long-term as part of keeping the nonprofit organization afloat (ahoy matey...I could not resist the water reference). Stephanie shared this related to the cost, and I could not agree more: You cannot understate the 'value' of one good grant lead. Most grants in animal welfare start around $5,000 and range up to $50,000. So, there is real value in even one good grant lead. Potentially, learning how to find grant leads or paying for a consulting session that will generate many of them has a great return on investment, even if it's hard to pay upfront." If you lead or are associated with a nonprofit organization that helps animals, I hope you will sign up for Stephanie's newsletter and consider taking advantage of her services. Happy grant hunting! And tell Stephanie I sent you.  |
AuthorI am an animal welfare advocate. My goal is to help people understand some basic issues related to companion animals in America. Awareness leads to education leads to action leads to change. Categories
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image courtesy of Terrah Johnson
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