The NAPRP Blog

Nov 6

Written by: NAPRP Admin
11/6/2009 5:23 AM

This week we had a call with Leigh Siegfried about how you can run your rescue like a business. We talked about a number of simple things you can do to increase the professionalism of your organization and improve your reputation in the community, including:

• Treating prospective adopters well. Talk to them as people, rather than grilling them and making them feel like they are going to "flunk" a test.
• Temperament testing your animals to improve adoptions. Leigh passed along a great resource: check out this page for more information on evaluating dogs - http://www.deesdogs.com/shelter_evaluations.htm.
• Following up with adopters, instead of pulling a "disappearing act" after the animal leaves your care.
• Setting policies, such as criteria for adoptability. What is an adoptable animal and what isn't? How do your policies relate to legal liability? For example, some shelters and rescues don't accept or adopt wolf hybrids (or any dog where the relinquishing owner says it has "wolf" in it) because there is no USDA-approved rabies vaccine for hybrids. Rescues have been shut down because of bite lawsuits. Talk to other groups and get advice, so you are ready to handle complex situations before they occur.

One of the callers asked what to do if you already have a bad reputation. Because her rescue doesn't do home checks, she is being accused by other humane groups of not screening "carefully enough."

I suggested that rather than looking at this as a problem, look at it as an opportunity for big PR. Out there in the non-rescue world, people constantly complain about how difficult it is to adopt through pet rescues. News articles have quoted people saying that it's easier to adopt a baby than it is to adopt a dog through rescue. We may not like it, but that impression is out there.

So in this case, the caller has the opportunity to talk to the media about how you are the kinder, friendlier organization that makes it easy for people to adopt. The caller's group is already using the ASPCA Meet Your Match program, so she has an opening to play up how forward thinking her rescue is. Many rescues using MYM report increased adoptions and it's touted as a more modern approach to adoption than draconian, invasive screening methods. The caller can offer up adoption success stories to the media to show that even without off-putting screening mechanisms, they have successfully adopted animals who stay in their homes.

Think about the two big rental car companies. Hertz and Avis. Avis gained huge market share with the campaign "We try harder." You can take the same approach. Steal ideas like this one from big businesses wherever you can. Just because you're a non-profit doesn't mean you can't market effectively. In fact, the animals are depending on it.

As always thanks for all you do to help the animals!

~ Susan Daffron
    Founder & President, NAPRP

 

 

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