Humane Society Ideas
 

Has anyone ever done any community service work for a Humane Society? It's my organizations philanthropy and I'm tryign to come up with unique creative ways to help them out. We've tried volunteering at the shelter, didn't really work out to well. I don't really want to do just another donation drive or dog wash or raffle or anythign like that. I'm thinking of putting together a Pet Parade to be held on my campus in the Spring, but I need smaller ideas for us to do during the Fall. Any suggestions would be wonderful!!

Here is a facebook event that an org did for the Humaine society. Part of it was to help get the pets adopted out to good homes.

A group near us has a Puppypalooza carnival. Everybody brings their dogs for music games and frisbee tosses? There are door prizes, music, T-shirts, and some K9 demonstrations. Ticket sale profits all go to the local humane society.

Most animal shelters are in DIRE need of old blankets or towels. Have a donation drive for these things. It may sound boring, but philanthropy is not about what you want to do, it's about what the charity needs the most.

The animal shelter where we got our dog is having a "Spay-ghetti and No Balls" Dinner! :p

http://www.bwar.org/events

In Alabama, one city has "Dog Daze" where people can bring their dogs either all dressed up or dressed down. There are crafts for sale and food vendors. Another idea would be to raise awareness about certain breeds that have a bad rap, like pit bulls. They are really great dogs and are so willing to please their owners, so it's the bad owners that are giving them such a bad name :(. You could team up with a low-cost spay/neuter program in your area to make people in the community aware that the service exists and even get in touch with a local rescue/adoption group and have an adoption/donation event. I LOVE the humane society where I adopted my then 9 month old shar pei mix, Allie and they do such great things. https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...90653187_n.jpg

She really is a beautiful dog!

I work with a rescue group, and we have two very successful (and fun!) fundraisers each year. The first is our "Waddle" (it's a basset hound rescue group.) It's a day of games and fun for people to bring their dogs to. It's mostly bassets that show up, but if you were to do something similar you would open it up to all breeds. We raise about 20k after expenses, and we have it in a big open field. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. This year I got to work the adoption tent, and wow, that was great. We had 19 adoptions! We require home visits, so only pre-approved homes got to adopt. That was amazing for us. So some sort of adoption festival would be my first suggestion. I would add this-- to have a really good event, you need to have VENDORS. Your humane society could probably provide a list of vendors they've worked with at other events. We've had everything from coffee vendors to other rescue groups there to sell stuff and make a more vibrant event.

The second event we have is a silent auction/live auction/Ball. We raise a lot of money-- and again it's a really fun event. For us it's a very dressed up affair, and is usually about $70 per plate for people to come. Then we've gathered donations from all over! Again-- it's a lot of work, but gets great results.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

My kids' 4H group just did a combined event with the Humane Society. The Humane Society set up animals for adoption at our local Tractor Supply Store, and our 4H-ers did a bake sale with people goodies and homemade doggie treats. It was a great success, and we adopted a bunny!

Around here the outdoor pools close after Labor Day. Some communities have a dog swim day at the pool the week or so after the pool closes to raise money for a shelter or a dog park. Tickets are usually $5 or $10 for one human and one dog.