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This post is meant to serve a double purpose.

On one side we would like to give everyone, our fans and our detractors, an overview of how Let’s Adopt! functions from a financial point of view. Read carefully, if you are one of our fans and supporters you are going to feel very proud because we’re going to give some details about the way Let’s Adopt! works that you may not know.

On the other hand we would like this post to be as helpful as possible for other animal organizations, or non-profits, animal oriented or not, that may benefit from the way we do things at Let’s Adopt Global. In a way, this post is a gift that will hopefully help them generate some new ideas.

Let’s Adopt! is a different kind of organization. One based on a set of principles that at times, seem to be forgotten by many of the other animal rescue groups. There are wonderful rescues out there, great organizations run by extraordinary people, but there is nothing out there quite like us.

From our inception we realized that if we were going to succeed and create something remarkable we would need to do things differently. Now, here are some of those differences:

1. We are a community. Let’s Adopt! was created with the intention of seeking the support of a broad community of people that we suspected were there but we didn’t personally know for sure.  Years of daily work have proven us right and the success of our group remains linked to the community spirit we always tried to foster.

2. How is money used. Contrary to the majority of international organizations we are not moved by financial concerns and the hoarding of funds has never been and never will be a priority. Whatever funds we receive are usually immediately spent on one or another of our five main expenses

– Medical bills

– Transport bills

– Boarding bills

– Foster support

– Material purchases

– Necessary operational expenses

That’s it… each and everyone of our expenses must fit in one of these categories. With the exception of Ivan Jimenez during his tenure, we are all volunteers working together to achieve a single purpose.  During Ivan’s time with Let’s Adopt he used to get a small salary that allowed him to spend all of his time rescuing, caring for, and transporting our rescues, but that’s it.

Save the lives of those that have no one else. That’s it. Our charter is really very simple.

Now, it doesn’t require a be a genius to see that as time grows our financial requirements have grown exponentially. How do we find the money necessary to cover all of this?

We use two ways:

Our Fundraising Pleas.

Funds collected through our Fundraisers are typically used not only to cover medical expenses but any expense related to that particular rescue as well as any of the other rescues of the group. So, when a certain fundraiser is very successful, like in the case of Tidus, anything over the final amount needed to pay for all expenses will be used to pay for the expenses of animals that, for a reason or another, are not preeminently featured on our page. Animals like Cuca pictured above. We have mentioned this many times before but what you see on the Facebook Wall of Let’s Adopt Global is nothing but a fraction of the rescues or actions we conduct. There are thousands of animals out there living happy lives, many happy families out there right now because of this.

Personal contributions from our friends.

Sometimes, our outcome exceeds our income and we go into the red. But we do that, knowing that we have the trust of close friends, ready to assist when a situation like this arises.

As much as 80% of those that contribute to our Fundraisers do so regularly, so in the end, everything is financed by an extremely committed small number of people and we tend to know each other quite well. No need to mention any names, they know who they are.

Trust

Trust built day after day, over a period of years, not through one off campaigns or events. This is why, unlike many organizations we are not that keen on seasonal fund raising, this is why we don’t have events, balls, gatherings… the whole organization is funded through the income stream trickling down on a daily basis by our friends and fans, they are the ones that make everything happen.

Donors

We connect with our donors in a meaningful way. We don’t have an automated system thanking people automatically. Our communications are open and sincere, our rescues and the continuation of their stories are visible on our social media sites, and our donors know, at any time, that the animal the contributed to is in the best possible hands.

No adoption fee

When we started re-homing everyone around us was applying an adoption fee. Whilst we understood why they did that, we realized that asking for a fee turned adoption into a transaction, and we wanted to develop with our adoptive families a relationship based on trust and friendship. We wanted them to remember that that dog or cat in their home was saved by us, and that they didn’t bought it or paid anything for it. It was ENTRUSTED by us to them and they wouldn’t even have to pay for any transport bills…

That helped us create a very strong relationship with our adoptive families.

6. We don’t take decisions based on financial issues.
Today someone asked me to send them an estimate sign by our vet about the projected expenses of Tidus. It was the first time anyone asked me such question. I couldn’t but smile.. why? Because I have no idea. I’ve never asked an estimate to anyone. We only work with vets that we know and trust, I don’t need to ask estimates because of the decision of saving an animal or not, for us, has nothing to do with money. We believed saving Tidus would end up costing us over 30.000 USD, which would have tuned him into the most expensive dog in the world.. but hey… it was all worth it, specially for him, because his life is the only life he had, and for him, that was priceless… Sadly, we lost him. But we lost fighting with him. So that’s our approach to estimates.

7. How does Let’s Adopt Global take decisions?

Let’s adopt is a community.  At its core are some of the most dedicated volunteers we’ve ever known.  All major decisions are done with the group.  We don’t always agree, but in the end we manage to move forward.   Our decisions are always based on what is best for the animal.  We apply the same care principles as anyone would apply to their own human child.  Do you euthanize a child because they have crushed their leg?  No.  You would get the best medical care that you could find and hold your child’s hand through every procedure until they were walking again, or until they could continue their life as full as possible.  If they needed anything after that to help them through life, you would give them that, as well.  That’s what we do, but for our animals.

8. And finally.. is it true that “Viktor’s” cat, Monkey, was caught smuggling a large amount of catnip?

Yes.. that’s unfortunately true 🙂… they caught him red handed. He’s unrepentant and he wants to do it again..

Now that this is clear, allow me to ask you for a favor.: Here is our Simba Fund Donation Button… we’ve undertaken some of the most expensive rescues, but most inspiring in recent years, and so far the response has been absolutely amazing, I will leave it here in case you feel like contributing to the rescue of the many animals we have under our care right now, and those to come…