5 ideas to boost adoptions at your animal shelter or rescue

In honor of National Puppy Day we wanted to show our support for #adoptdontshop.

We know how hard you work at your shelter, or rescue, and what comes with that, is the very tough job of finding forever homes for the many animals that come into your care. So we gathered the most attention-grabbing ideas to help you raise awareness, drive interest from potential adopters and boost more adoptions.

#1 Enlist the pup-a-razzi

Recruit a volunteer to take photos of shelter pets to showcase their personalities. These photos can be used on your website, on social media or on animal adoption sites to help drive interest and traffic to your shelter.

#2 Shoot a music video

There’s something to be said for adding a bit of humor and fun to an often sad topic of homeless animals. By creating a light-hearted music video you are spreading joy, which then in turn draws attention and motivates potential adopters to come visit your shelter to meet those animals. Again, this video can be shared on social and could even go viral like the great example below!

#3 Get creative with adoption bios

This follows along the same idea of framing the animals in a more uplifting way that showcases their personality and unique traits rather than their current situation. Many shelters are using templates like the one below which can be purchased and updated on your own – no designer needed! These bio’s also can include a keyword with a shortcode that allows potential adopters to keep updated on the animal’s adoption status.

#4 Charity pup walk

A great way to create faster adoptions is to parade your adoptable pups around a large group of dog lovers! A charity walk that is focused on dogs builds community and can work as a wonderful fundraiser, particularly when you add in element of peer-to-peer fundraising to raise money for the shelter.

#5 Doggy updates & alerts

When most potential adopters are looking around, they go to different shelters and websites, but what if you could stay step ahead of that? With a unique keyword and shortcode (i.e. Text ADOPT to 71777 or DOGLOVERS to 51555) the potential adopters can opt in to receive text updates about adoption fairs, types of animals available, or a video of all the new animals over the week. It’s easy to share these keywords on social media, in the shelter on dog bios, on posters, or even used on radio.

Our goal at GiveSmart is to help nonprofit organizations create and manage successful digital fundraising campaigns, raise more money and retain donors longer. Request a free demo with one of our fundraising experts to learn, step by step, how GiveSmart can simply help set up your campaigns while transforming your results.