Question

Submitted by petrescuevillage on 11 January 2012 - 11:07pm

Hi all, I write to you from Galway, Ireland where i live with my partner and Pepper our Irish Setter. I write to you for your opinion / advice on my forthcoming project www.petrescuevillage.com

Let me tell you a little about where i am coming from:

This site will (i hope) eventually serve as a one stop database for all rescue / shelters in the UK and Ireland. I am disgusted with what is going on in this country - puppy farmers churning out litter after litter, while thousands of dogs are put to sleep every year. I decided i wanted to do something. Many sites exist
listing rescue dogs/cats for looking for homes, but 1. They are difficult to navigate 2. They are not updated daily 3. They are not 'fun' to use I give 3 examples of major websites in the U.S. that have taken on the idea extremely successfully by creating excellent websites - and i would like to use this kind of model.

petango.com
petfinder.com (who also have an iphone app)
adoptapet.com

Therefore the most important elements to this site will be the following -

1. Fun, easy to navigate, clear and thorough
2. An easy way for rescues in UK and Ireland to enter each new animal - using an online web form, so that each rescue has their own private secure log in and can input animals as they come in, without needing any help from me.

How can i fundraise if i am not a charity??? How will i raise the money to build this website?

Best wishes

Caroline Black

Back to Sector Connector

Comments

Hi Caroline,Thanks for

by paulmeade - 12 Jan 2012 - 6:29pm

Hi Caroline,

Thanks for letting us know about this most interesting and worthwhile project.

First of all, I would strongly recommend going down the route of trying to get some corporate / business backing for your project. Obviously the most suitable sorts of businesses to approach would be those that already work in animal/pet-related areas. Do some research on that front - but I'd suggest that you should focus on the ones that are the biggest pet food sellers in this country (as they would no doubt be eager to be seen to be involved in good causes, such as the one you are working on).

Once you have drawn up a good selection of potential corporate backers, you'll need to come up with a convincing and professional looking proposal that you can put to them. If you want to email me - paul@wheel.ie - I'd be happy to send you a couple of The Wheel's own documents which we have created for the purpose of approaching prospective corporate donors in this way.

In order to then identify these corporate contacts, I would recommend you go through the Corporate Social Responsibility Directory (link below) to pinpoint potential backers / sponsors for your project and then approach them with a well-rounded package. This will of course require a lot of work to complete, but could well produce some meaningful results in the end. View the CSR Directory here: http://www.wheel.ie/funding/fundraising-guide/csr-directory-2010

Also, you can find lots of helpful information on how to submit and approach corporate donors elsewhere on our website too (including how to solicit donations and how to write effective funding applications): http://www.wheel.ie/funding/fundraising-guidance/applying-to-grant-makers

There is no denying that there is a real lack of funding grants for animal-welfare related issues in Ireland. So the above approach perhaps is your best angle to advance with.

Another option however - one that I think could well be useful - is to recruit some like-minded animal-loving web savvy wizards (and a designer) to your cause and then work with them to build the website using open source technology (such as Drupal, upon which Wheel.ie is built, or Wordpress). You will of course need to coordinate that well and meet the right people - but it most certainly can be done. For one thing, a good website such as you propose would be a calling card for any web designer, and so would be doubly attractive a prospect for them.

You could post a notice for volunteers for your project here on our website:

http://www.wheel.ie/jobs

Also, see the following websites for posting similar notices:

http://www.activelink.ie/

and

http://www.volunteer.ie/

In addition to this, you could connect with people by creating a Facebook page for the project and spreading the word through social media.

Finally, The Wheel runs a funding grant database called Fundingpoint. I would be happy to give you a free 90 minute or so trial on there so you could do some searches for the (admittedly limited) amount of animal-related grants that are available in Ireland. Again, please email me for more info: paul@wheel.ie

p.s. If you would like more information on how to set up a charity, you can find it here: http://www.wheel.ie/you-and-your-organisation/forming-your-charity

Best of luck!

Paul Meade

Information Officer, The Wheel