Stayin' Alive Guide to Increasing Volunteerism
Angel is available for adoption at Long Beach Animal Care Services.
The purpose of this guide is to provide information about ways that LBACS can increase volunteerism in their animal shelter and thereby increase the number of animals adopted.
1. Place a volunteer application directly on the front page of your shelter's website so that it's easy for volunteers to find you.
2. Post frequently about your volunteer needs on sites like Craigslist and VolunteerMatch to advertise volunteer opportunities with your organization.
3. Publicize volunteer opportunities at pet stores, veterinarians' offices, coffee shops and animal-related businesses and events within your city using upbeat flyers.
4. Widen the scope and type of skills your organization seeks in volunteers by recruiting people who can help in marketing, such as photographers, graphic artists and writers; people who can help in organizing volunteers: people with management skills and community organizing experience; people who can offer expertise in setting up TNR, neo-natal feeding programs and pet helplines (i.e., rescue groups). All of these types of people exist in your city, and many of them are animal lovers who can help your shelter reduce the killing in its shelter by lending their professional expertise to the task.
5. Contact local universities and community colleges and ask for assistance in finding student service groups who might be interested in making your shelter the focus of their service efforts. We notice that Cal State University Long Beach has a site that is specifically set up to connect students to volunteer opportunities in fields involving animals and that other local animal organizations have reached out to students to help their groups. SALB has noticed that LBACS is unfortunately not yet listed on this site, yet we remain hopeful that Acting Manager Ted Stevens will have one of his staff contact Cal State Long Beach and get LBACS listed as a place where Cal State University Long Beach's students can volunteer their time to help save more animals from being killed at LBACS. Update - as of May 17, 2015, LBACS has listed on the Cal State Long Beach volunteer site. It has taken them nearly 3 years to do this.
People in your city love animals - tapping into their abilities and passion for ending the killing of sheltered animals is a powerful method for reducing the killing in your city's shelter. All of these things can be done by one volunteer in literally no more than a few hours, who can recruit more volunteers who can then implement the steps of the No-Kill Equation:
1. Place a volunteer application directly on the front page of your shelter's website so that it's easy for volunteers to find you.
2. Post frequently about your volunteer needs on sites like Craigslist and VolunteerMatch to advertise volunteer opportunities with your organization.
3. Publicize volunteer opportunities at pet stores, veterinarians' offices, coffee shops and animal-related businesses and events within your city using upbeat flyers.
4. Widen the scope and type of skills your organization seeks in volunteers by recruiting people who can help in marketing, such as photographers, graphic artists and writers; people who can help in organizing volunteers: people with management skills and community organizing experience; people who can offer expertise in setting up TNR, neo-natal feeding programs and pet helplines (i.e., rescue groups). All of these types of people exist in your city, and many of them are animal lovers who can help your shelter reduce the killing in its shelter by lending their professional expertise to the task.
5. Contact local universities and community colleges and ask for assistance in finding student service groups who might be interested in making your shelter the focus of their service efforts. We notice that Cal State University Long Beach has a site that is specifically set up to connect students to volunteer opportunities in fields involving animals and that other local animal organizations have reached out to students to help their groups. SALB has noticed that LBACS is unfortunately not yet listed on this site, yet we remain hopeful that Acting Manager Ted Stevens will have one of his staff contact Cal State Long Beach and get LBACS listed as a place where Cal State University Long Beach's students can volunteer their time to help save more animals from being killed at LBACS. Update - as of May 17, 2015, LBACS has listed on the Cal State Long Beach volunteer site. It has taken them nearly 3 years to do this.
People in your city love animals - tapping into their abilities and passion for ending the killing of sheltered animals is a powerful method for reducing the killing in your city's shelter. All of these things can be done by one volunteer in literally no more than a few hours, who can recruit more volunteers who can then implement the steps of the No-Kill Equation:
- TNR Program
- High-Volume, Low-Cost Spay/Neuter
- Rescue Groups
- Foster Care
- Comprehensive Adoption Programs
- Pet Retention Programs (e.g., animal behavior help lines, training programs, etc.)
- Medical and Behavior Prevention & Rehabilitation
- Public Relations/Community Involvement
- Volunteers
- Proactive Redemptions
- A Compassionate Director
