Animal shelters embrace creative fundraising, flexible operations during pandemic

For the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, animal
adoptions are made on a first-come, first-serve basis.
COURTESY PHOTO

By Elizabeth Richards

Nearly two years of COVID-19 precautions and considerations have changed the way animal shelters in the area operate, but the pandemic didn’t distract them from the goal of finding good homes for animals in need.

“As we exit the second year of the pandemic, we have remained flexible to changes and updates to our programs and operations,” said Jeana Roth, Director of Community Engagement for the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland (ARLGP) in Westbrook.

One of the most significant changes, she said, was pausing in-person fundraising events. Before the pandemic, they held 100 fundraising events a year ranging from kitten yoga classes to their largest fundraiser, a beer festival with attendance of 1,200 people.

“The loss of revenue from the cancellation of these events was significant. So, we started thinking creatively about how to engage with our community in new ways,” Roth said. “We started doing online fundraisers through social media, teamed up with local businesses to hold online donation drives and more.”

Joan McBurnie, Executive Director of Harvest Hills Animal Shelter in Bridgton, said fundraising shifted for them as well.

The Nine Lives Thrift Store has long been a year-round fundraiser for the shelter. When it had to shut down due to the pandemic, it was an eye opener, McBurnie said.

“What that showed me is that I can’t rely on the thrift. We have to balance it more,” she said.

It emphasized the importance of events, awareness of their mission, and other fundraising methods such as pursuing grants, she said.

Fundraising results have been hard to predict, McBurnie said. Last spring, she anticipated their rabies clinic to be the biggest one ever, but they did the fewest amount of rabies vaccines they’ve done in 30 years.

That made her worry, she said, about the fall golf and tennis tournament, which turned out to be the best one yet. Snowstorms had made pre-registration for Freezin’ for a Reason, held last weekend, slow but they ended up raising over $18,000 at the event.

The pandemic also brought about operational changes. Both shelters were closed to in-person adoptions at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We were utilizing zoom and doing over-the-phone and virtual adoption counseling to talk to community members about different pets to try to find a match for them. Then, we would schedule a one-on-one adoption meeting with them and the animal to see if it was a good match. This process was incredibly time consuming but allowed us a way to continue to find pets loving homes,” Roth said.  

They are now open for in-person, walk-in adoptions with COVID-19 safety measures in place, she said.

Harvest Hills is still operating by appointment only and McBurnie said she was skeptical when they changed how they operated.

“I just didn’t see how that was ever going to work. I was the worst naysayer, but that’s what we had to do to get animals adopted,” she said. Now, she said “I’m the first to say we can never go back to being open to the public. It’s gone so well.”

The new way of operating has streamlined the process and resulted in more adoptions, she said. The open-door policy led to many people coming in to see the animals with no intent of adopting. That made it hard sometimes to give people who did come in looking to adopt the attention they deserved, McBurnie said.

Preapproved applications have also eliminated potential disappointment and time spent on applications that could not be approved, she said.

For the Animal Refuge League, Roth said, adoptions are in-person on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We encourage people to check our website [www.arlgp.org], and if they are interested in an animal that is available, to visit us in person to meet them and to speak with one of our adoption counselors,” she said.

People can browse the Harvest Hills website (https://harvesthills.org) and complete an application. Once approved, they’ll be called by a staff member to discuss what they are looking for, and they can make an appointment to go in, meet animals, and take them home that day, unless they are waiting for a health appointment.

Harvest Hills also began more fostering to adopt for those animals waiting to be spayed/neutered or have their dental appointment during the pandemic, which they will continue, McBurnie said.

“Why should they sit here for a month, waiting to get their teeth cleaned,” she said.

The ARLGP has resumed most of their pre-pandemic public programming like dog training and camps for kids, but with COVID-19 safety, Roth said.

“We have limited class participants, implement social distance, use PPE, etc. We also utilize Zoom and other technology when we are able,” she said. <