Yes, the time has come to draw up my will. I want to leave a substantial amount of money to an outfit or outfits that does good work in animal rescue, works against animal cruelty, etc.
Any thoughts on where I should be looking? Thanks in advance.
I would look close to home. Local animal shelters in most of the country are understaffed, underfunded, and in constant need of basic supplies. Personally I would consider donating to a local shelter with a provision that the money must be spent on veterinarian services for strays – say, paying a vet to spay/neuter and vaccinate cats caught in a “catch and release” program with some money perhaps earmarked for Havahart traps and similar supplies as needed to operate such a program.
I second this. And don’t keep your gift a secret - get in contact with the organization, and let them know. Charities LOVE to thank you when you’re still alive, rather than dead. Maybe you want to get involved, maybe you don’t - you can make your wishes clear, and a good organization will abide by them. A poorly run one won’t, and you’ll find out in time.
Thirded! Avoid the big ones with the hefty advertising budgets. All those $$$ spent on sad commercials are not helping any animals.
I personally donate to several local cat & dog rescues in my county. Most of my donation goes to a low-cost spay & neuter clinic.
In addition to previous suggestions:
You could also talk to local veterinarians about leaving them a fund to pay vet. bills for animals living with people who can’t afford their medical care, but who can otherwise provide loving care in a familiar home.
Are we just talking domestic animals here? Because maybe you could split off some of the donations to organizations that help wildlife.
Yeah, pretty much dogs and cats.
Thanks for the responses so far. I am going to ask my vet for suggestions too.
Another reason to donate to small, specific charities is the big ones may or may not be equally kind to all critters great and small. My wife and I have owned lizards and snakes over the years (currently have several snakes and cats) and she had previously donated to the Humane Society. But, they have a very checkered past with herp (snake/reptile) help.
So, if you want to help cats, help a cat specialist. Ditto for dogs, or what have you. Or wildlife help and preservation as @Little_Nemo mentions.
Not really applicable to an endowment or estate, but I also prefer to give goods than cash. Yes, a well run rescue by virtual of size of purchases can get more for less when it comes to consumables… but it’s that well-run that always gets worrisome.
So we’re more likely to go make a purchase of $20-40 worth of shelf-stable cat food at Costco and bring it by the cat rescue (as long as it’s permissible) than to bring cash/check donation.
But all that aside, I too endorse the support of small local animal-benefit societies and specialists. Even a large endowment is a drop in the bucket to a national entity, but it can make a huge difference between staying open and accepting new in-need critters vs closing down unexpectedly on the local level.
Yes, do local.
It’s important to note that the national Humane Society US has absolutely nothing to do with your local named “humane society”. ASPCA probably has little to do with your local SPCA. HSUS is basically PETA but more polite. In other countries, do research, but I think it will be similarly better to go local.
My partner works in the vet industry, and I second the suggestion of going local and finding some good local org you can leave in your trust. But vet them first (no pun intended), as in ask (or try to see) how they treat their animals, what their kill policy is, look up their reviews, etc. There are some really good orgs out there and some really shitty shelters and really sketchy vets, and it’s not always easy to tell at a glance which is which…
Her particular clinic has a Care Fund, for example, that gets used to help animals & owners in need (I’m not really sure the mechanisms by which that works… webpage isn’t super detailed). But it’s run as a separate nonprofit associated with the for-profit clinic, and they showcase some success stories every year of animals saved by the fund.
Separate from the fund, sometimes animals get abandoned because their owners can’t afford to treat them, so they surrender them to the clinic. Then an employee will step in to help pay for the treatment (at cost) and then adopt the animal afterward. That’s not part of the Care Fund per se, just an example of how some clinics try to work around owners not being able to afford care but not wanting to put them down either, etc.
So it’s up to you whether you want to support something at the front of the pipeline like that, or maybe more the “shelters of last resort” that take in (and eventually kill) the animals that nobody else can adopt out. There are of course plenty of animal rescues out there too, but I don’t know of any specifically for cats & dogs (since those usually go to shelters).
My Dogs will accept anything you wish to send.
Does this look like a good place to donate? They’re rated high
on Charitynavigator.org.
The best way to donate your money is to donate your time first. It’s extraordinarily hard for any non profit to hide inefficient use of their funds from low level workers. Volunteer until you find a cause where it’s clear that additional funds would go to a concrete use you feel good about.
Additionally, volunteers talk to each other so you can often find other causes you were previously unaware of that also could use your help.
Heck, just volunteering to walk some dogs is a huge help; frees up time for the staff to concentrate on more pressing matters, whatever that might be.
The internet being what it is, if you wanted to send money to a particular elephant that you’ve seen on YouTube (for example), I bet you’d have very little trouble finding said pachyderm and sending it a care package.
This!
There was just a scathing review of my local SPCA in the newspaper; basically, with the size of their endowment they should be spending more & doing more - more adoption ‘clinics’ / open the shelter days, etc. to get more animals into homes.