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Advice sought on rescuing a failing greyhound rescue organization
My wife and I would like to work on behalf of greyhounds. She joined
the local rescue group and found a recurring pattern of the most helpful workers being driven out by the "pack leader" who'd started the group. This seems to be all too common. If a group is formed to rescue dogs, one person dominates and protects his/her turf by discouraging the ideas and efforts of others. Since a group that intends to kennel dogs needs reliable help to provide care as well as folks to raise funds, publish newsletters, and to write thankyou notes to contributors, it seems that only two common paths open up. One is to hire a professional administrator and staff who can run facilities and fundraise effectively, which necessitates a substantial endowment and regular professional fundraising. And the other is to only foster dogs and not try to run a kennel in order to substantially reduce operating cost. We're hoping to find a third alternative under which board members would lend their reputations and administrative skills to co-ordinating activities while volunteers would carry on most of the activities including dog care, kennel maintenace, fundraising, community support and all the other jobs needed to make a sucessful overall effort on behalf of the dogs. Such an alternative would have to preclude strong arm politics by founders in order to keep everyone's eyes focused on the objectives and to prevent the best workers from becoming discouraged and leaving. Any input from sucessful groups on how to structure such an organization would be greatly appreciated. We're not in a position to jump in and clean up after the local group falls apart (likely in the next couple of months) unless we have enough moral support from other groups to allow us to believe that we can pull it off and tempt many of the former members of the local organization to come back on board. Not only are we faced with a total collapse of the local organization, but the lease on the existing kennel is soon to run out and renewal isn't possible, so we'd either have to resort to ONLY foster homes for the remaining dogs or conduct a crash fundraising effort to raise enough money to buy or lease a suitable space. Both I and my wife work more than full time and no one is beating down the doors with endowment offers. we're willing to bring out skills and drive to bear on re-consituting the organization but only if we feel we are likely to succeed. We're open to any and all suggestions on how to pull this off. Please pass this note around to anyone you think might have useful suggestions and experience to help us in our mission to save as many area dogs as possible. |
#2
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Advice sought on rescuing a failing greyhound rescue organization
On 15 Mar 2006 13:40:01 -0800, "Interface-Rick"
wrote: My wife and I would like to work on behalf of greyhounds. She joined the local rescue group and found a recurring pattern of the most helpful workers being driven out by the "pack leader" who'd started the group. This seems to be all too common. If a group is formed to rescue dogs, one person dominates and protects his/her turf by discouraging the ideas and efforts of others. Since a group that intends to kennel dogs needs reliable help to provide care as well as folks to raise funds, publish newsletters, and to write thankyou notes to contributors, it seems that only two common paths open up. One is to hire a professional administrator and staff who can run facilities and fundraise effectively, which necessitates a substantial endowment and regular professional fundraising. And the other is to only foster dogs and not try to run a kennel in order to substantially reduce operating cost. We're hoping to find a third alternative under which board members would lend their reputations and administrative skills to co-ordinating activities while volunteers would carry on most of the activities including dog care, kennel maintenace, fundraising, community support and all the other jobs needed to make a sucessful overall effort on behalf of the dogs. Such an alternative would have to preclude strong arm politics by founders in order to keep everyone's eyes focused on the objectives and to prevent the best workers from becoming discouraged and leaving. Any input from sucessful groups on how to structure such an organization would be greatly appreciated. We're not in a position to jump in and clean up after the local group falls apart (likely in the next couple of months) unless we have enough moral support from other groups to allow us to believe that we can pull it off and tempt many of the former members of the local organization to come back on board. Not only are we faced with a total collapse of the local organization, but the lease on the existing kennel is soon to run out and renewal isn't possible, so we'd either have to resort to ONLY foster homes for the remaining dogs or conduct a crash fundraising effort to raise enough money to buy or lease a suitable space. Both I and my wife work more than full time and no one is beating down the doors with endowment offers. we're willing to bring out skills and drive to bear on re-consituting the organization but only if we feel we are likely to succeed. We're open to any and all suggestions on how to pull this off. Please pass this note around to anyone you think might have useful suggestions and experience to help us in our mission to save as many area dogs as possible. I run a greyhound rescue group myself, and would like to know where on earth a group gets enough money to rent a kennel and hire staff. Mustang Sally |
#3
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Advice sought on rescuing a failing greyhound rescue organization
A "Kennel" can be as simple as a garage full of cages and as such can
be rented for a few hundred dollars a month. While most staff are volunteers, it's unlikely that a Vet will volunteer so he/she must be paid for the time furnished though most of the other workers are volunteers. Someone must be on call 24/7 to cover in the event that a scheduled volunteer fails to show at the kennel or is precluded from doing so by events outside control. If there are enough volunteers and someone to co-ordinate, someone can be found when such events arise. Our problem is that not enough volunteers stay long term because they become discouraged by lack of praise and failure to implement their ideas. As for funds, there are many many ways to raise money. None are surefire and some don't raise a lot but if the organization fosters respect and sympathy for dogs in the community and fund raising events are well prepared and properly publicised raising money is possible. |
#4
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Advice sought on rescuing a failing greyhound rescue organization
On 16 Mar 2006 08:03:24 -0800, "Interface-Rick"
wrote: A "Kennel" can be as simple as a garage full of cages and as such can be rented for a few hundred dollars a month. While most staff are volunteers, it's unlikely that a Vet will volunteer so he/she must be paid for the time furnished though most of the other workers are volunteers. Someone must be on call 24/7 to cover in the event that a scheduled volunteer fails to show at the kennel or is precluded from doing so by events outside control. If there are enough volunteers and someone to co-ordinate, someone can be found when such events arise. Our problem is that not enough volunteers stay long term because they become discouraged by lack of praise and failure to implement their ideas. As for funds, there are many many ways to raise money. None are surefire and some don't raise a lot but if the organization fosters respect and sympathy for dogs in the community and fund raising events are well prepared and properly publicised raising money is possible. I wouldn't call a garage full of cages a kennel. Are you in a racing state? If not, use foster homes. Foster homes are the best way to get to know your dogs (which enables you to make better matches to adopters) and prepare them for life in a home. If you use foster homes, you don't have to worry about volunteers to turn out dogs and clean cages or renting kennel space. No, vets aren't going to volunteer their time and services, and they shouldn't be expected to. "Staff" to means paid employees, and you were talking about hiring an administrator, which is why I asked about paid staff. I'm well aware that there are many ways to raise money; I've been doing it for 10 years. However, it's the rescue group's responsibility to use donated funds wisely, and I'm not sure that renting kennel space or hiring an administrator qualifies for that. No group is going to be able to use every volunteer's ideas - - some just aren't good ideas - - and if volunteers are working to get praise, they're never going to be happy. Of course volunteers and their efforts need to be appreciated, but this is all about the dogs, right? Mustang Sally |
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