Why Most Animal Shelters Struggle with Raising Money

“Folks aren’t going to pull out their checkbook until we can sit down and say we’re going to be digging a foundation in six weeks, six months. . . . They’re not going to give money to something that they don’t have any clue as to when we’re going to start.” - Montgomery County (VA) Administrator Craig Meadows

And the animal shelter architects team at Shelterplanners would like to add:

Your community is not going to rally around a cause if it’s not aware of the problem(s) at the local animal shelter.  Furthermore, it’s extremely difficult to operate a successful capital campaign if members of the community don’t have a CLEAR picture of the new animal shelter building plans and how much the new animal shelter will cost.

Approaching potential donors with a complete action plan, including building plans, a 3-D rendering of the proposed building (see above picture), and a complete breakdown of costs associated with building the animal shelter, is much more effective than asking, “Please contribute to the animal shelter because it’s in bad shape.”

In our experience, we found that we design and build animal shelters for communities that are united.  The community is the answer to solving the animal shelter problem.  A unified community can (gently) pressure local officials to find a solution to the poor shelter conditions.

It’s much easier to gain community support if you have a crystal clear action plan.  To quickly gain supporters for your cause: Give the community a picture of the proposed building, a cost projection for the new building, and support your plan with strong statistical data.