Who should get your pet lover’s dollars? A guide to donating to animal charities
By Christie Keith
October 6, 2009
Where is your money really going when you donate to animal charities? And where can your dollars do the most good?
Those are questions I had to consider when my mother passed away last month, and I had to choose an animal charity to receive donations in her memory.
I picked a small, local group with which I was familiar, but out of the process I got the idea for my column this week on SFGate.com:
Should you always direct your donations to small and local groups? Large national organizations tend to have high administrative costs and usually don’t do real hands-on animal care. However, they also have a lot more influence and power, and their infrastructure, while costly, can amplify the power of your donation, even if it’s a small one.
Smaller groups tend to get their hands dirty when it comes to saving animals from bad situations, and to really effect change that can be seen and measured on a local level. But those groups can have their own problems, such as a lack of effective outreach and management, or a failure to maximize their resources.
Large or small, local or national, the key is to dig into what groups are actually doing, and make sure you want to give them money. A couple of hours on Google can be very enlightening if you want to get an idea of what a charity really does with its revenues.
[....]
No matter the size or mission of the charity you’re evaluating, when you’re digging, dig deep. That’s because some animal lovers might be surprised to learn that a group that runs a campaign they want to support — ending inhumane agricultural practices or protecting wildlife, for instance — also funds others they oppose.
Fortunately, it’s often possible to support the part of a group’s work in which you do believe rather than those in which you don’t. Just be sure to earmark those donations for the program you want to see benefited, and not to the group’s general fund.
In fact, such targeted giving is often the most effective in making a difference in the lives of animals.
For example, both shelters and large national groups sometimes do special fundraisers for specific programs, like providing medical care to homeless pets or for one particular pet in need. It might not change the world or even the life of another pet in a similar situation, but it can save that one animal, and that can be one of the most rewarding kinds of donations to make.
Read the whole thing here, and enjoy the knots I tie myself into trying not to name any of the organizations in question — per SFGate.com’s writer’s guidelines.
Kitteh is Panda, owned and photographed by Bonnie Keller.
We proudly support the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. Their tireless work in Hurricane Katrina caught our attention. The pets that were saved, and their efforts to return the pets to their owners, as well as to re-home some were outstanding. They continue to provide help where it is needed.
And we enjoy their magazine as well.
http://www.bestfriends.org/aboutus/
I’m not putting down any local efforts, but just saying that this is a top notch organization.
Comment by Dennis — October 6, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Some national organizations do some hands-on care, and Best Friends is among those for whom that is most true. My mother donated to them after viewing the “Dogtown” episode on the Vick dogs.
Comment by Christie Keith — October 6, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
Great post! At Romeothecat.com we raise funds for smaller, local rescues that our readers support. It’s wonderful to be able to see your donations at work. That said, I believe Best Friends and other larger, more national organizations do amazing work too. Christie, your advice is very good: do the research so you know what you’re supporting. Thanks for posting this.
xo
Comment by Romeo the Cat — October 6, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
I donate to a region wide branch of my breed Rescue run by the National Breed Club, a state wide Greyhound Placement Service, and a local No Kill kitteh shelter. I specify what I want my donation to be used for and that way I know exactly where my money goes: close to home where it can do the most good.
Comment by Anne T — October 7, 2009 @ 5:30 am
I ALSO DONATE TO BEST FRIENDS. THEY DO SO MANY GREAT THINGS FOR ANIMALS LARGE OR SMALL.
Comment by PAM B. — October 7, 2009 @ 6:13 am
If I can put in a plug for international animal charities please also consider them. We operate under the most difficult conditions and almost always without enough funds. We would also appreciate anyone reading this signing our petition to the Prime Minister of Jamaica. The link is:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com.....se-Jamaica
Thank you:)
Comment by Maureen Sheridan — October 7, 2009 @ 11:19 am
Don’t forget the small, underfunded breed rescues.
These can be spread out over a region or the whole country, and are focused on one breed or type of animal. (It’s mostly a dog phenomenon, but I think there are some for breeds of cats and horses as well.) Some of the busiest of them serve breeds that are most likely to end up in inappropriate homes due to media overexposure of breeds with not-for-everyone temperaments. Russell Rescue is excellent around here — other challenging breeds are Dalmatians, border collies, Australian shepherds. But just about every breed of dog has one or a hundred rescue organizations devoted to it.
Breed rescue workers know the temperaments and health issues of their favorite breed, and become good judges of the kinds of owners that will do well with them. They typically use networks of foster volunteers who are best able to rehab and evaluate the dogs that they love best.
Breed rescues, since they are rarely local except for the most numerous breeds, often operate with little acknowledgment from the wide communities they serve. Most get by on a shoestring and are extremely cost-efficient. They are often composed at least partly of ethical breeders who always take back their own pups, and then spend their time and money cleaning up after others who won’t.
If you have a favorite breed, a donation to the appropriate breed rescue organization is a fine way to help.
Of course, caveat donor still applies — get to know the rescue group’s policies and practices and check their track record. A few are insufferably snobby (“We only take ‘typey’ dogs who came from show breeders.”) Others are irresponsible in their placements — and I have the scars to show what the result is when a dog that should have never been adopted out is foisted on some unsuspecting owner by a rescue that sees only sunshine and fairy farts where others got to see black eyes and white teeth. And there are plenty out there whose priorities I disagree with, but you may not.
Full disclosure — I am the behavior coordinator for a small national rare-breed rescue group that totally ROCKS.
Comment by H. Houlahan — October 7, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
Ms. Houlahan, I have absolutely NO IDEA why our spam filter likes to hug your every post. ‘Tis a mystery.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — October 7, 2009 @ 2:08 pm