Ways your Corporate Group can help Sydney Dogs and Cats Home
Here are some ideas as to how you can be involved with and support the Home:
- Co-ordinate your Corporate Volunteer Day to occur at the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home. Your employees will be given an orientation, and be involved in the different aspects of the day to day running of the shelter. This will involve direct contact with our animals if your employees so wish.
- Sponsor a kennel or the outside cattery. The Kennel / Cattery Sponsorship program supports the care of each dog who stays in that kennel during the year or the cat/s in that cattery during the year. A sign will be displayed on the kennel or outside cattery stating: “A group of generous representatives of ……………………… (Corporate name) consisting of (each member’s name) visited the Home on date ……… and have donated $….. to sponsor the dog/cats in this enclosure for a year.” You will receive email updates on the animals being sponsored throughout the year so you can put a face and name to the shelter residents you’re helping us care for.
- Speak to your employer’s Charitable Foundation or Charitable Fund about including the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home in their list of approved charities. Many employer foundations provide “donation matching” facilities so that monthly donations made to tax-deductible charities like the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home are matched $ for $ by the foundation.
- The Home itself is quite an old facility and there are many sections of the Home which require refurbishment. Any employer or group willing to sponsor the refurbishment or construction of new amenities (such as the construction of a simple inexpensive roof over our laundry-drying outdoor area, or the purchase of a new portable cat kennel to replace our aging kennels) would have permanent sponsorship signage acknowledging the generous support of that donor.
- If you have particular skills that could be utilised in a volunteer capacity from your workplace or from your home in your spare time we would love to hear from you. We are always looking for people with IT skills (to assist with our Facebook page, Twitter feed or website), marketing or PR expertise (to help raise awareness of the work the Home is undertaking and the wonderful pets we have available for adoption), fundraising (to assist us in paying for the care of our animals) or if you just have a general interest in companion animal welfare and are interested in helping us find new ways for us to provide good adoptive permanent homes for our rescue pets.
- Foster a dog or cat for us. Many of the cats and dogs who arrive at the Home find it a stressful experience. Foster care is a great way to reduce the stress experienced by a dog or cat while they are awaiting their forever home. It’s also an opportunity for us to find out more about a pet’s personality (which is easier to do in a home environment than at the shelter) which in turn increases their adoptability as we’re better able to match that pet with the right forever home. Pets who will particularly benefit from foster care include dogs and cats who are stressed by the shelter environment, older dogs and cats, litters of unweaned kittens, mother cats with young kittens and animals recovering from surgery.
- We are always looking for people to help us with our cat residents at the shelter. If you love cats and would be happy to help our staff care for and socialise our resident cats and kittens we would love to hear from you.
- Place our posters of dogs and cats needing homes on your intranet site or in your meal room and email to friends. The Home’s website will soon have functionality to print your own posters of our adoptable dogs and cats, but in the meantime we can email posters of our adoptable dogs and cats to you.
- Donate toys for the dogs and cats to use in our Environmental Enrichment Program. You can purchase these directly from the Home or via the Polite Paws online store at www.politepaws.com.au/store/
- Donate food and treats throughout the year for the animals.
- Let the rest of your company know about your day at the Home with a story and pictures.
- Give permission to be placed on our database so you receive our newsletter and information about fundraisers and special events.
- Help with fundraising e.g. chocolate drive – help sell chocolates at work and/or to friends in June/July, attend our Waggy Tails Fundraising dinner in October and organize a table, support our Waggy Tails Fete in July, help sell raffle tickets etc.
- Put SDCH on the list of organizations your Company can visit for their Corporate Volunteer Day.
- Sponsor our volunteers and supply them with t-shirts with the Home’s logo, name and volunteer written on them and the corporate group’s name and logo as sponsor.
