How Animal Welfare Fundraisers Pivoted to Meet the COVID-19 Moment

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When the pandemic hit, donors large and small responded by channeling support toward the millions of people in need. According to fundraisers at several animal welfare nonprofits, donors also recognized the undeniable importance of animals to the human condition during a difficult year. 

Organizations working in support of companion animals, wildlife and farm animals alike reported increased interest in pets and animal welfare causes, along with growing concern over timely issues like climate change and vulnerabilities in agriculture and food supply chains.

Successful fundraisers were able to pivot their outreach and messaging to meet these growing and shifting interests, while also going digital in response to COVID-era restrictions. More importantly, the public health crisis positioned some of these nonprofits to capitalize on what they’ve learned in order to move forward in 2021.

When COVID-19 was designated a pandemic, Best Friends Animal Society prepared for the worst. It quickly put a strategy in place with a major spend in digital and direct response and their fundraising results remained steady. Best Friends is a national nonprofit with a budget of over $100 million, and a mission to save the more than 1,700 cats and dogs that are killed every day in America’s shelters.

As the first wave of the virus started rolling across the country, the organization knew it had to close its brick-and-mortar animal shelters to keep its staff, volunteers and the public safe. But each center was filled with pets. What to do? How to mitigate this crisis? Finding foster homes was the answer, and teams turned to social media with a request for people to step up and take pets into their homes. Within days, hundreds of people across the country volunteered to house shelter pets. Staff created “curbside pickup,” so pets and all their supplies were ready to be loaded in when cars arrived.

“When our shelters closed down, our animal care workers started doing thank you calls to donors and volunteers, asking were they OK, how were their animals doing, staying top of mind,” said Valerie Dorian, chief development officer. “Stewardship is in our DNA.”

Locked in a socially distanced world, the organization saw that supporters were spending more time than ever on their screens and decided to lean into digital outreach, according to Amy Starnes, senior director of digital engagement. Donors wanted to support the nonprofit in three core ways: support animals, support animal shelters, and connect neighbors.

“We became deliberate about our messaging, engaged social media through email and our website, and started our first connected TV campaign on streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, and then advertised on devices to reinforce the message,” she said.

“We decided to meet our donors where they are,” said Starnes, adding that the organization had to take advantage of this cultural moment with services like TikTok, which exploded in 2020. “We tried to be everywhere.”

As a huge number of people stepped up to foster and adopt animals during the pandemic, the nonprofit redirected its efforts to assist pet owners as an integrated part of its wellness program for both pets and their owners. “People felt isolated, and pets were there to provide comfort and support. That resonated with our donors,” Starnes said. “Our fostering and adopting numbers were phenomenal and we’re not seeing those numbers changing now.”

This June, Best Friends will run its first all-virtual national conference, with an increased level of interconnectivity, enabling the organization to reach a wider audience who can join the meeting and actively ask questions and participate.

COVID canceled its annual benefit in New York City, scheduled for April 2020, and when things were no better in the fall, the organization moved the whole affair online. Donors loved it and asked that they do it again, said Dorian. The nonprofit is experimenting with its first hybrid in-person event this May featuring the opening of a pet resource center in Bentonville, Arkansas, a smaller on-site event with masks, social distancing, and an outside venue that will also be available virtually.

“We’re going to look at lessons learned and adjust for the new year,” Starnes said. How will people spend their time in the future? Will they be on their screens less as the weather gets better and they move outside? When more people are vaccinated? “We want to be part of this evolving moment in a way that feels right to our supporters.”

 She said that most of their online donations come directly through their “Donate Now” button on the home page, where donors can choose a one-time, monthly, in memory of, or in honor of gift. “Our web traffic is up over 60% in the past year,” she added.

But direct mail is still the larger channel for donations, said Dorian, attributing the growing online numbers to changing demographics and donors who might start with a direct mail message and then donate online. She said another successful tactic for the organization was smaller groups of major donors reached by monthly Zoom calls, providing them with insider briefings by a regional director, connecting people in different locales, and effectively creating local fundraising affinity groups.

Dorian said there has been an uptick in donor-advised fund contributions and the organization was trying to make it as easy as possible for giving with notification, recognition and thank yous for each gift.

Data has made a big difference. The organization’s website features an updated dashboard that allows donors to see the impact of their gift at a glance. This dashboard went up two years ago and is the first of its kind in the animal welfare arena, said Dorian. “This is a critical tool for donors and volunteers to get life-saving data,” she noted, citing just another example of Best Friends’ continuing digital efforts to increase support as they link “heart” donors who want to hear the stories with “impact” donors who want to give where the need is greatest.

“Donors found us with the pandemic as a direct result of the connection between food, public health and worker safety,” said Mikaela Saccoccio, executive director of Farmed Animal Funders. A three-year-old, decentralized funding collaborative, Farmed Animal Funders’ mission is to end factory farming and transition to a more plant-based society, with a concurrent increase in food chain sustainability and mitigating damage to the environment.

This collaborative, established as a 501(c)(3) through partnership with another nonprofit, operates as a membership circle, with donors contributing at least $250,000 to join. The organization currently has some 40 members, some of whom prefer to remain anonymous, and relies on peer-to-peer recruiting. The affinity group functions as a learning hub that allows its members to become more educated about the cause and pinpoint the best impact areas to support, without controlling where those dollars go. “We don’t pool funding. Our donors have full autonomy,” she said.

In 2020, membership increased, and the organization switched from in-person events to an online Zoom meeting once a month. Its annual weekend retreat went virtual with a week-long presentation of programming and content, which the organization expects to continue in 2021, depending on pandemic considerations. 

Farmed animal philanthropy is an emerging area, with less than 0.1% of global donor dollars going to this cause. COVID-19 highlighted the direct correlation between American food sources and the immense risk to animals, people and the environment from the pandemic.

“Slaughterhouses were a superspreader during the early days of the pandemic, with factory workers standing shoulder to shoulder, being asked to come to work no matter what,” Saccoccio said. With inconsistencies in the food chain supply, slaughterhouses were asked by the government to increase line speeds by 25%. “That means processing 140 chickens per minute went to 175,” Saccoccio said, noting the increased chance of workplace injury in a business that was already known for its high risk.

Some 15% of all global greenhouse emissions are generated by factory farming, which contributes to animal waste in waterways and soil. “To give you an idea, one pound of beef needs 8,000 gallons of water to process, while one pound of oats needs 300 gallons,” she said. “We have to revisit how our food is provided and what is more sustainable as our population increases.”

One animal nonprofit whose work was magnified by the pandemic in the past year was the Humane Society of the United States, a national animal advocacy organization that works with local groups fighting for all animals on a wide range of global issues, such as ending the puppy mill industry, strengthening cruelty laws, and eliminating large-scale animal abuses.

“Our pillar issues are really working—ending cosmetic animal testing, improving the lives of farm animals, banning trophy hunting, rescues for natural disasters, stopping the hoarding of animals—we really wanted to make sure that our donors knew who the Humane Society is, not what they think it is,” said Jamie Natelson, senior vice president of marketing, referring to the organization’s goals to advocate, educate and raise funds for many of the top-of-mind concerns about animals, from factory farming to wearing fur.

“We were already tied into what happened with COVID-19 in the wet markets in Asia, with the extreme confinement of farm animals as the next viral breeding ground, with the Australian wildfires and loss of wildlife. This allowed us to sustain fundraising throughout the year, but where we struggled and had to pivot was the conference and event space,” said Kimberlee Dinn, senior vice president of philanthropy.

The organization formerly held two major in person galas on the east and west coasts. “With six weeks’ notice that first spring, we pulled off ‘Rock the House for Animals,’” said Dinn. Inspired by supporters Rob and Marisol Thomas, the nonprofit went for an old school telethon with the help of a new online platform, which they live streamed on Facebook and YouTube. “People watched from around the world,” said Dinn, spreading the Humane Society message and bringing in many smaller contributions of $25–$50. Ultimately, the event was viewed in 19 countries, had 131,000 unique viewers, and raised $330,000 in three hours.

“We thought we’d be back to normal in six months, but that didn’t happen, so for the fall gala, we looked to our former ticket and table buyers and did a more classic online gala with large matches, so half the monies were in-hand pre-event.” The virtual gala included both pre-recorded and live content. “A really fun and exciting event that brought in $2 million and exceeded our expectations,” noted Dinn.

So how to keep doing these cost-effective and innovative events in 2021? The organization is looking at hybrid events, a combination of in-person and virtual. “Our donors don’t all live in L.A. or New York, so this fall, we’re looking at a signature event with regional hosts to increase visibility and donor access. The pandemic lit a fire under us on how to expand access,” said Natelson.

Another new tactic Natelson’s team tried was a combination of advertising on radio paired with advertising on streaming services. “Our direct mail and digital fundraising results were solid,” she said. 

One more innovation was the creation of a virtual vegan cooking class. When the nonprofit asked why more people were not vegan, respondents answered that one stumbling block was the lack of cheese. So this May, Chef Leslie Durso will offer an online class on how to make three kinds of plant-based cheese. The nonprofit is looking at other ways to offer interactive activities around their cause-related issues, such as make-at-home, animal-friendly masks, as another experiential way to engage donors.