Animal Shelter Tips Offers Ideas for Animal Shelters and Rescue Groups to Help Homeless Pets

Santa Fe, N.M. (PRWEB) October 2, 2008 -- Millions of healthy, adoptable, but homeless pets are euthanized each year in the United States. The foreclosure crisis and the wave of natural disasters have added to this crisis.

Those dedicated to improving the plight of homeless and abused pets are often overworked with barely enough time to provide care. Brainstorming about fundraising, making their websites more effective, or finding grant opportunities become a low priority. However, these activities are needed to advance the mission of animal shelters and rescue groups. This new website, Animal Shelter Tips (http://www.animalsheltertips.com), is intended to provide a series of short and to the point ideas as well as links to other websites which animal shelter professionals and volunteers can quickly review and apply to their own efforts for homeless pets.

Anyone working or volunteering on behalf of homeless and abused pets can access the ideas in Animal Shelter Tips.

A sample of topics includes:

Ways to Involve Kids with Animal Shelters (http://www.animalsheltertips.com/kids.html) - Rather than guess what kids respond to, ask them. Copy the marketing approach of companies and use focus groups with kids as participants. Specific questions to ask kids' focus groups are listed. Establish a kids' "board of directors." Add kids' activities to your website.

Animal Shelter Fundraising Ideas (http://www.animalsheltertips.com/fundraising_events.html)- Sponsor classes or workshops at the shelter for a fee, kids' parties for the animals, seasonal events, finding fundraising ideas online, ways to market fundraising events.

Finding and Keeping Volunteers - How to partner with local colleges for digital photography volunteers, graphic arts help, and marketing ideas; specific wording to use on "help wanted" signs; suggestions for places to advertise for volunteers.

Find Grants for Animal Shelters (http://www.animalsheltertips.com/grants.html) - Links to nine different grant makers on the web plus suggestions for writing grant requests for animal shelters.

Build a More Effective Website - Use interactivity including contests and comment capability; make wish lists; offer items for sale; use videos and slideshows. How to set up web page titles to help a shelter or rescue group be found by community users or volunteers.

Find More Homes for Adoptable Pets - Ideas for partnering with local media, community events, and links to online resources and tips.

About Animal Shelter Tips

Website author Cathy Grace was inspired to launch Animal Shelter Tips by the homeless pets she's adopted. Her work background is in marketing and publishing, but her passion is her animals. She's welcomed into her home cats from the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society and no-kill shelter Operation Kindness in Carrollton, Texas, as well as a kitten appearing at her doorstep in Evergreen, Colorado.

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