I have learned from the best and want to pass it on to help families, fosters, and fundraisers!
My name is Jennifer and I am a founding member of Dachshund Rescue South Florida and decade long veteran of the rescue biz and have been our fundraiser since 2009. I have had a front row seat to watch our team grow from 5 people in a living room to the largest dachshund rescue in the country. I have watched over 3,500 dogs get rescued and learned social media and fund-raised for us to cover over $3,500,000 of bills along the way. You can’t get out of an experience like that without learning a thing or two in the process.
So many have given us so much and now I want to pay it forward and share what I have learned to help others.
Families – do you have a sitch with your dog and don’t know which way to turn? Medical? Behavioral? Seniors? Hospice? Curious about complimentary or alternative therapies? Are you a nerd like me and like to read? I got a bookshelf full of books that have taught me some amazing things and I am happy to share my reading list. Are you looking to adopt need a guide? I can give you a list of do’s and don’ts to make you the darling of any application process (and keep you from being the person that makes us crazy rescue people pour another glass of wine when we see your application come in!)
Fosters – Do you want to Foster Fabulously? Nothing grinds my gears more than someone saying that “they wish they could foster”. What is holding you back? My day job is a Vice President of Commercial Real Estate, I work a full time gig, live by myself, and take care of 6 special needs dogs and do it in platform heels and keep clean floors. Wherever you are, you can change a life and share the story of rescue and help bring more people to your team to save more lives!
Fundraisers – There is no pressure like knowing that you are the one in charge of paying the bills and when those bills are $50,000+ per month, that pressure can drive a girl mad. How do you tell a dogs story to get people to donate? Facebook or Instagram? How do hashtags work? Why should I focus on my landing pages on my website and maybe not worry about social media for a while? How do we get away with charging an application fee just to apply to adopt one of our dogs? I have spent 10 years reading, watching videos, listening to pod-casts and beating my head against Mark Zuckerberg’s random changes to algorithms and have somehow managed to keep our head above the water.
We are all the same team, I want to share what I have learned so that your team can take more dogs AND provide better medical care. Rescue is hard enough without worrying about money. I am happy to share what I have learned and hopefully lessen that worry.