GivePulse Blog

From Fostering to Adoption: Volunteer Management for Animal Shelters

Written by GivePulse Team | May 9, 2024 9:06:40 PM

From the very beginning, GivePulse has been proud to work with animal centers and pet organizations to help organize, communicate, and schedule volunteers. Today, GivePulse is used by some of the largest shelters and animal centers as the platform of choice for scheduling volunteers, digitizing applications, and tracking the life-saving impact of volunteers and fosters. 

 

In humane societies and animal shelters across the country, volunteers are an integral part of the organizational function and are needed every day of the year for jobs ranging from veterinary care to animal enrichment, from matching pets to foster parents and forever homes to working in outreach and creative capacities. This wide variety of volunteer opportunities means that organizations require a flexible, easy-to-use volunteer engagement platform. Subgroups within GivePulse can focus recruitment for particular types of positions in the shelter and allow for communication directly with that group of volunteers performing a given job (like dog walkers and cat cuddlers!). Ensuring that messages go out to the right people at the right time is critical in such a vibrant and multifaceted setting — messages need to be sent regularly to ensure that volunteers are kept informed about program and shelter changes, adoption promotions, and more.

 

Platforms like GivePulse not only allow volunteers to set their own schedules in available timeslots but also record their own hours, complete an online application, fill out surveys, and free up time to focus on ensuring that shelters of all sizes can keep functioning in a way that is best for the pets, volunteers, and staff. This level of trust and empowerment is what makes our volunteers feel valued and part of the team.

 

Volunteering with animals is a deeply rewarding activity, one that not only strengthens ties to the community you live in but also leaves a lasting impact on you. The thousands of positive reflections recorded on GivePulse show that volunteers keep coming back, indicating the personal growth and fulfillment experienced.

 

For Volunteer Managers at various animal centers like Pima Animal Care Center (PACC), GivePulse enabled them to better track volunteer hours, sign-ups, foster programs, and more while allowing volunteers to create their own schedules. After switching from a volunteer management system that didn't quite meet their needs, they found GivePulse to be extremely helpful in improving their operations. Ryan, Volunteer Manager at PACC, says, GivePulse is an extremely helpful tool to track volunteer hours and has many useful features for your programs. The GivePulse Support team is always very helpful and responsive. For volunteers, the platform makes it easy to log hours with GivePulse and even leave a reflection of their time volunteering with our team!"

 

Animal centers across the country have found a way to save time and streamline processes with GivePulse from Austin Animal Center, Pima Animal Care Center, Idaho Humane Society, Gulf Coast Humane Society, Town Cats of Morgan Hill, Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter, Southern Pines Animal Shelter, and more! We can see some of the key ways that pet organizations and animal centers are using GivePulse: organizing and scheduling volunteers for a variety of tasks, tracking hours through impact records, and learning and storytelling through testimonials. GivePulse is also used for assessment through surveys, application digitization through group membership options, and volunteer recruitment through event listing options. 

 

These are just a few examples of how the hundreds of pet organizations we partner with leverage the platform for greater impact! The most important work for these organizations is to make sure that homeless or hurting animals are cared for and kept safe. 

 

Ready to learn more? Schedule some time to connect with us to determine what pawsibilities exist for you and your pets.