“I wish I could do what you do.”
With every rescue introduction, we are confettied with praise and well wishes. Every animal lover dreams of a world where animal shelters are empty and all the animals have a proper environment to live and thrive. With every ASPCA commercial comes the waves of “if only I could give up everything and truly help.”
Resilient Hearts started with that mantra. “Every animal deserves a forever family.” Every domestic animal that we can save, we want to save. We WILL save. We will be the final piece of a decades long mission by hundreds of groups around the world to FINALLY solve the never ending puzzle that is the homeless pet crisis. We will be the solution.
I wish I could tell you that starting an animal rescue was as simple as walking down the street and taking in a bunch of stray animals and easily uniting them with loving forever families. Honestly, if it was that simple, we probably wouldn’t have a rescue. I wish that was the case.
There are loads of ways to help existing animal rescues in your area. From volunteering and fostering to grant writing and graphic design work, there are literally hundreds of ways that everyone can help their local rescue. But I suspect you aren’t here to learn how to help an existing organization. I’m guessing you’re here to start your own rescue, and I’m here to give you a few things to think about before you start.
Why do you want to start a rescue?
What are your motives in starting a rescue? Think beyond the typical “because I want to save animals.” Simply wanting to save animals will not be enough to help you ride the late night vet visits or the failed adoptions. Your connection to rescue needs to run deeper than simply wanting to save animals.
Each member of the Resilient Hearts team is a rescue parent, and we have all been in the trenches seeing the horrors of shelter life and the toll it takes on animals. We have spoken to other welfare workers who have broken up hoarding situations and coached recent adopters through hard decisions on whether they should keep their new dog. We are here to educate and support the humans as much as the animals, and aim to do as much prevention as actual saving. Our mission runs deeper.
If you can’t find your “why”, then you won’t be able to last in the hard times. Trust me, I have spent too many hours and shed too many tears to let anyone get into this without true expectations.
What’s your structure?
Will you be foster based? Are you going to run a shelter and board animals awaiting adoption? Do you know the difference? How you structure your organization will go a long way to establishing how to fundraise, how to market, and house your animals. Imagine if you are taking in an emergency litter of kittens, where are you going to house them? Will you have a team of fosters waiting to care for them, or are you stuck caring for them in your bathroom?
What is your fundraiser stream?
I don’t imagine very many people reading this are eccentric millionaires looking to pour some good karma back into the universe (if you are, email us!), so a big question you need to ask is where is your money going to come from? Few of us are sitting on big piles of cash, but I feel safe assuming that more of us aren’t sitting on an endless contact list of people willing to dump streams of money (again, if you do, email us!). Where will the money come from?
Running a rescue involves spending time engaging and recruiting donors to fund medical emergencies, food costs, and administration across the board. Donors are clutch for any nonprofit that wants to survive. It is impossible to make it without fully engaged and satisfied donors.
How will you engage them? What events are you planning? How often will you post on social media? How will you manage your email list? And how will that time fit in with everything else that you have to manage?
Who are you saving?
What is your focus? Are you going to save feral cats from a local industrial area? Are you transporting dogs from overseas meatpacking farms? Are you rescuing retired race horses?
See how a choice here can greatly influence the direction of your rescue? Now imagine being someone who tries to take the whole lot of animals on at once. How would you make that work?
Knowing your focus will go light years in deciding when and how you will set up your rescue. Dogs and cats require a house and a family, while horses will require pasture and a stable. The need is much, much different.
What are your local laws?
Briefly put, local laws are really important when establishing any business, let alone one that involves keeping animals. In Seattle, the rules say you can’t have more than 4 dogs living in your residence. If we want to run a rescue and save a significant number of animals, we will need to either find a number of houses to help, or get a shelter permit to open a place to board your animals. Add in all the paperwork needed for establishing a proper business, including taxes, and you’ll have your hands full!
Find your why
You’ve sat down, written a business plan, figured out which animals you’re going to save, established your structure, and checked all the boxes with the paperwork. But have you found your “why”? When you have a house full of medical needs dogs wandering around in diapers that need medications at 3AM and your day job requires you to be in the office at 6, what is going to keep you breathing? What will give you the motivation to wake up each morning and say “today will be worth it”?
If you can explore your soul and find that answer, then maybe you can pull this off. Keep your mind and heart a priority, and dig deep to ensure that you are starting a rescue for the right reasons. Only then can you truly make a difference.
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