Small animal rescues need funds, there’s no two ways about it. You need to keep your animals cared for and fed, plus there are medical bills and medical supplies to think of too. Whilst you may rely on sponsorship and donations already, you’ll need to think of additional ways you can fundraise to reach new audiences and secure ongoing funds. Often, you’ll be competing against more well known or higher profile shelters that look after dogs and cats for example. It’s time to get creative!
Here, we’ll run through a few ideas to help get you started and highlight how easyfundraising can help boost your fundraising initiatives.
Fundraising Ideas for Small Animal Rescues
Let’s look at a few fundraising ideas to get you thinking.
Themed Fundraising Events
You can run themed fundraising events at your shelter to open up your doors and let people see the great work you do.
Many people will know what dog and cat shelters do, but they may not know about the importance of small animal shelters and the help that rabbits and rodents need. Now’s your chance to get people through the doors. And a great way to pique their interest of smaller animals is to theme your event around a particular animal. Can you do a themed bunny day at Easter? You can run Easter egg hunts and have the Easter bunny there for the children, but you can also hold workshops about rabbits and of course have plenty of the furry bunnies on hand to meet the kids.
Online Pet Photo Competitions
There’s nothing quite as cute as a small pet. But too often they get left behind in the online photo stakes by dogs and cats. Not now!
You can run a small pet photo competition to get people showing just how cute their small pets can be. First, you’ll need to decide on your theme to grab people’s interest. It could be the cutest small pet, small pets at Christmas or small pets at Halloween. Whatever theme you choose, it will help people get a little more creative.
You’ll need a mechanism for people to enter and a hashtag to promote it on social media. The easiest mechanism is to have entrants upload their photos on your website for a small donation. You’ll get access to all the photos so you can decide on the winner, and you’ll also get their email addresses to add to your mailing list. Ask them for permission for you to use the photo on social media, so you can use some of the best entries to generate more buzz on social. You can also use your social media channels to announce the winner.
Just remember, you’ll need a decent prize in place too. Whether a monetary prize or a small pet themed experience prize. Yes, people will want to show how cute their small pets are, but they’ll also expect a prize to win too.
Adoption Events
Adoption events are an ideal way to get people through your doors to learn about the fantastic work you do, and they will also help you re-home animals.
A successful adoption event hinges on getting people to your event in the first place – promotion online and offline is crucial for this – and how you communicate with them when they’re there. You’ll want the animals to take centre stage, but you also need to be clear about what a new and loving home can do for their lives.
Online Fundraising Strategies for Small Animal Rescues
The digital world offers plenty of opportunities to boost your fundraising online.
Crowdfunding and Online Donations
Crowdfunding and online donations are a great way to raise ongoing funds and to supplement your bigger fundraising drives.
Crowdfunding works by asking people to support your fundraising in exchange for something if you reach your total. You can set different levels of fundraising that unlock a sliding scale of prizes.
So, how do you get people engaged? You need to use storytelling to highlight the plight of the animals and the amazing work your shelter is doing. Showcase successes, but make it clear that the vital work continues. You can also use cute pictures of the animals in your crowdfunding campaign. It definitely won’t do any harm! Think carefully about the different levels of prizes you can offer too, whether merchandise or experience days.
With online donations, you’ll need to use your own website as a hub for your fundraising efforts. Again, think about the stories you’re telling and the reason behind your fundraising. Could it be help with energy bills during the cost-of-living crisis? Or to help with a sudden influx of a certain type of small animal. You will need to be as emotive as possible to capture people’s imagination, and you must promote it. Social media is key, as are press relations with local media. You may even consider reaching out to local celebrities you know have a love of animals.
Social Media Fundraising
Social media is the perfect way to promote your ongoing fundraising activities. You can shout about your events and use it to promote your crowdfunding campaign and photo competitions.
You’ll need to think tactically about the platforms you use. Instagram is ideal for photo-led content of all those cute animals. TikTok works for funny and informative videos of your animals, whilst LinkedIn is the ideal platform to prospect and engage with businesses and potential sponsors in the local community.
Building Community Support for Small Animal Rescues
Creating links with the local community should be a key part of your fundraising strategy.
Collaborations with Pet Shops and Vet Clinics
If you’re running events at your shelter, make sure you reach out to pet shops and vets in your area. Each can run a stall at your event and help raise awareness about your animals. If you foster a good relationship with these organisations, they can also help you with your fundraising efforts. They can have charity collection boxes for their customers to donate in and put up posters promoting your fundraising events. You can also rely on them to share your social media posts and promote your fundraising activities online. And you also have an opportunity to share resources to better look after the animals in your care.
Engaging with Schools and Youth Groups
Can you run events specifically for schools and youth groups in your area? You can help educate children about your animals and what they’ve been through. You may be able to secure adoptions (with the parent’s consent of course), and hopefully get some supporters for life.
Building support from schools and community groups means you can also participate in their fundraising events too. If the school is running a summer fair, can you have a stall there to talk to parents and children about your cause and potentially secure donations? The more relationships you can build in the local community, the more awareness you can create around your cause and your fundraising efforts.
Harnessing Creativity for Fundraising Success
Unfortunately, you can’t just rely on the fantastic work you do for your animals. To keep your shelter going and to give the animals the care and love they need, fundraising is essential. But you have plenty of creative ways to go about it, from running adoption events, engaging with the local community and holding online competitions. With the right strategy, you can boost your coffers and give the best possible care to your animals.
At easyfundraising, we give you a simple way for your supporters to donate money to you as they shop online. All you need to do is register your cause with us for free. Your supporters then just need to choose your cause when they shop online with any of the 7,500+ online retailers we partner with. When they do, the retailer will make a donation to you out of the money they spent. It’s a simple and hassle-free way to supplement your ongoing fundraising efforts. Discover more about easyfundraising and how it can boost your charitable donations.