Tech solutions and innovations for animal welfare groups - Ep 12
Guest: Stacy LeBaron is the host of a weekly podcast called the Community Cats Podcast, where she interviews nationally and internationally renowned experts about cats and cat welfare. She was president of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society in Massachusetts and is a member of the Shelter Medicine Committee at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, plus she is involved in a number of cat organizations.
Main question: What new technological solutions and innovations can help animal organizations?
Takeaways :
* The time for change is when you are the bottleneck.
* If you can understand your smartphone, Facebook or Zoom calls, you can handle most of these new technologies so there’s no need to be intimidated. If you're not sure how to use it, ask for help from friends, family, or colleagues.
* There are technological solutions for nearly every problem: time management, fundraising, scheduling social media, office management, adoptions, fostering, and more. See many of them listed below in the links
Links:
DATA
* Airtable (relational database/super spreadsheet; for example used to track food pantries, adoptions, fosters)
* CatStats (colony management)
ORGANIZATIONAL
* Crew (used by neonatal kitten rescue to connect fosters and works for any team to unify communications and streamline scheduling)
* Top Tracker (time management tracker)
FUNDRAISING
* Bloomerang (donor management)
* GivingGrid (free online fundraising)
* GoGo Photo Contest (donate-to-vote contest software)
* Little Green Light (donor management)
* Virtuous (donor management – donor journeys)
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
* Buffer
* Tailwind
ADOPTIONS
BOOKS
* “Deep Work" by Cal Newport
* “Work Without Walls: An Executive’s Guide To Attention Management, Productivity, and the Future of Work" by Maura Nevel Thomas
OTHER
* Stacy LeBaron: Community Cats Podcast
* Doobert (animal transport coordination, plus help with rescue videos and fundraising)
* Maddie’s Pet Forum technology group
* Leadership recommendation: “How to Pitch a Nonprofit Story to the Media"
* Shelter Success Simplified podcast on "How to Get Media Attention for Your Organization"
Recorded July 28, 2020.