Frenzy: The Destructive Trend in Animal Welfare

Bloggers note: I have been in the middle of, beside, passed by, underneath, in front of , the victim of and engulfed by frenzy  a number of times this year. It is a sad trend that is diverting those in the Animal Welfare movement from the real problems and focus. I have been focused mostly on Wild Horse Issues for the majority of 2010 through 2012. The following is why I am reconsidering my support of some of the organizations involved currently in the issue.

Frenzy in the animal welfare, rescue and humane movement in this country.

Yes, I do indeed look at frenzy as being a part and parcel of  sharks smelling blood in the water and just start eating anything they can get their teeth into.

The horse that inspired the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project.
Read more about his story and how he ended up at
Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary here:
Spirit's Story

Those that survive it get a great adrenaline rush and go on to fight another day. The side effect is that they get a euphoric feeling  while they are dismally unaware of what really happened. Their hunger is satisfied and they feel all warm and fuzzy so they dont care about who or what was hurt.  Feelings can in fact be deceptive. Ask anyone who has a bad reaction to a steroid or an anti inflammatory that affects one physiologically. Or for those who survived the 60s and 70s, a bad trip on drugs.

Frenzy is a tool used to manipulate people.
Frenzy is a tool used to manipulate people and get them into an agitated state, usually against a person or group of people, then mob violence ensues. Since most of us are pretty detached from the real situation because we are on-line,  we give in to it by saying defaming and threatening things that can actually add to the frenzy and harm people or their lively hood.

Activism built on hatred or the vilifying of any individual or group does not solve the problem. This sort of activism simply harms more people and the innocent, causes destruction of property and kills any hope the opposing groups have of working on the issue together.  The justification is that you must  accept this destruction of property and people  as  a sort of collateral damage. 

Kind of like  when a mid-eastern country, that shall remain nameless, gave a parcel of land to some radicals in exchange for peace. That parcel of land was rich with infrastructure like schools and hospitals, colleges, government buildings,  thriving shopping centers,  free flowing sources of water and rich developed farm land.  Instead of taking what they had been given and building on it, ,the radicals pretty much  destroyed  most of it.  With that destruction they destroyed their opportunity to be successful and thrive on their own.  Thriving on their own is something free people value and protect. 

These radicals pretty much killed their own children and destroyed their future,.  Then they blamed it on their benefactor, while all the time continuing to break the very peace treaty that they agreed to when they were given that amazing  blessing of land and homes and a future.  Since these specific radicals are pretty good at punching themselves in the face then making it look like the people they hate did it, everyone in the world is pretty much feeling sorry for them and wanting to help them.  While the benefactor country is made to look like a villain.

Here is the sad thing, if the radicals would build their country and their peace  they would probably get everything they are demanding and a future for themselves and their families. Actually these particular radicals don’t want help they just want to destroy their enemies and blow up stuff and break things. Why? because it makes them feel powerful. 

Do you know what happens when Sharks go into frenzy?  Some of them are wounded, then their fellow sharks eat them.
The Animal Welfare and Rescue  movement in this country  has done exactly the same thing. Do you know what happens when Sharks go into frenzy?  Some of them are wounded, then their fellow sharks eat them too. Body parts of Sharks all over the place  and the frenzy doesn’t stop until all of them are very full and sleepy. ( see warm and fuzzy above)

Frenzy does nothing to further the purpose of animal welfare and rescue. It actually destroys the support base and alienates potential supporters.
Nothing gets better , nothing changes as far as animal welfare is  concerned after  these frenzies take place. So here is what happened. Leadership and some factions in the movement, in seeing that the  instances of animal abuse and neglect  were increasing instead of going down,  someone got the bright idea that people  obviously needed to be educated by shocking photos of torture and maiming of animals. Brilliant move, NOT!  This shock therapy did exactly the opposite of what they thought it would. Why? Because, those people who have spent lifetimes trying to make things better were the first casualties.  You see people get into animal rescue because they want to do good, not harm. They want a better life for people and animals. They want to protect the weak from harm. To show them photos and films like that is not only traumatic it also repels them and puts them into a state of feeling hopeless as if nothing they have done to help has done any good. So the support that would be ground breaking is now demolished.

And why is this approach not helping the cause?

Because the Animal Welfare and Rescue movement is not keeping up with their first and foundational purpose: To educate, To intervene and To rescue.

Frenzy Does not  help focus the animal welfare and rescue moment on its first and foundational purpose: to educate, to intervene, to rescue.

If you only rescue animals and pay no regard to the rescue of the people involved, then we all loose.  The reason is because it becomes Seizure and not Rescue. Its traumatic, dramatic and looks really good on TV, but often the animals and people involved are casualties. The reason it trended this way is because a dramatic seizure will get free TV coverage and bring in donations.  Its not working as well these days though.

I could site at least 20 cases over the last year alone where people involved in the Animal Welfare and Rescue movement have rescued the animals, but failed to intervene and educate.  
With all these animals in shelters and  dwindling numbers of people to help them, foster them, and donate.. and even the shelters themselves getting in trouble, this movement needs to adapt to the real circumstances and adjust to the real economy, not the one they think exists.

Defamation of character, threats and worst of all becoming the "Judge and Jury" over what you think is abuse and neglect, is  Not doing this movement any good at all.  I realize that old habits are hard break. And its far more easy to attack someone in trouble than to take the time to know the whole story and really help out. But right now we don’t have the luxury of offending anyone that can be helped or be helpful. We don’t have the luxury of devouring anyone who is for us. We don’t have these luxuries because the ability of people to be in a position to help as volunteers, fosters and with donations is dwindling with the economy. Even the little old lady pensioners on Social Security, where a lot of the donations came from in the past, can not afford to buy their own food, much less donate or support causes.

I’ve been working strictly wild horse issues for the last 3 years. Some of the worst offenders for undermining the support base has come from within that movement. It started with the vilification of people who were successful, wealthy or in government and Judged to be enemies of the cause, then came the vilification of potential supporters JUDGED to be traitors because of guilt by association. No one asked those people if they were for or against their cause.  They just decided that if certain people were on your  Facebook friends list or among your friends locally that you were the enemy. Way to shoot the movement in the foot, folks.  How else are you going to have change, if you don’t talk with people who disagree with your views?

Most recently, a person very active in wild horse protection and education, publicly accused me of  undermining the activities of their work. Guess what I actually did. I posted a news story that supported their position and showed everyone that there was documentation that they were right.  My goodness you would have thought I  had torn their organization down brick by brick. Guess what, that sort of behavior lost them my support.

You don’t  devalue your  volunteers,  you don’t devalue those who aren’t in your group that are not against you but are doing the same thing, and you surely don’t publicly call anyone out, until you have spoken to them in private to get the real story and give them a chance to see the accusations and confirm if they are true or misplaced.

So now this particular organization will not have my support, and I will not publically or privately promote their work or agenda. I also will not name names   because, well ,that just isn’t  classy. And why should I offend possible support and donations in the future for my own projects by stooping to their level.

They have made it very clear that they don’t want my support, nor do they need it.  I gladly move on to others who do need it and want it. I can think of some really hard working women and men right now who could use and would appreciate a hand.  But just be warned, if you have people in your organization who are  doing this sort of thing and your donations are dropping off, its  probably something closer to home, not what you think others outside your organization have done. If look through your organizations practices and its members activities and you aren't offending people, then probably there is another reason for donations being low,  like the economy or that you have maxed your funding base.   That means you have to get creative and adjust to the circumstances. Blaming the people you think are the enemy is not going to help your organization or your cause. Instead you hurt your organization by drawing focus away from your goals publicly and stirring up people in a negative way that doesn't help anyone, especially not the animals.

Remember, you can have all the causes you want,  but if you don't have the support and good will of people, you really are a voice in an empty room.
So are you going to be a shark and devour your base of support ? Or are you  going to get out there and adjust to the circumstances and explore creative ways to sustain your cause during this financially turbulent time.

Click image to see larger

How the Mustang A Day Challenge led to The Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project

In march of this year, I became painfully aware that simply painting a mustang every day wasn’t enough. The event that changed my heart on this was finding myself involved in helping raise money for a beautiful Mustang stallion named Spirit. I painted his picture several times and then sold the items and prints to raise money for him in sanctuary.

Like thousands of Mustangs hidden away on the East Coast  of our country,  his adoptive owners had bought him because he was beautiful.  They had other horses, yet absolutely loved him and his personality. However, they had neither the knowledge, nor the training support to really handle him, so that he could at least be safely cared for. He had his own paddock, had even bred a mare and had two offspring. And others of his relatives were close by. He was tame enough to feed cookies to  and pet. But beyond that, he was not handled. For 15 years: no grooming, no feet trimming and no vetting. He was very much adored as a pet, almost a big dog. And he was reasonably healthy in spite of his circumstances.

Then the inevitable happened. The owners had to sell up and move. This beautiful majestic horse needed to be placed in a home. They tried and tried but no one wanted a horse this old, with no training on their property. Most couldn’t care for his special needs. The choice was to find him sanctuary or put him down. They did not want to take the chance that their beloved pet would end up at a sale and maybe shipped to slaughter.

The reality is that all horses that come to the east coast must have absolutely the minimum of handling so that they can lead, load in a trailer, stand to be groomed and vetted. Also and because the ground is very soft and loamy in most places,  and sometimes even boggy at times, there is no way for a wild horse to wear down his feet, so they must stand to be groomed safely and stand to have their feet trimmed. All of these things are for the benefit of the horses in this highly populated place with small amounts of land that has rich grazing.

This photo of Spirit taken in his
pasture at his home in Delaware.

 A number of activists and advocates worked tirelessly trying to find Spirit a temporary home where he could receive some care and training, so that he might be placed safely in a foster home until a permanent solution could be found. It was coming down to the wire. Then a group that helps place wild horses , from the west coast came forward and agreed to take not only Spirit, but his mother,  the mare that foaled his daughter and son  and any other Mustangs that had no place to go to Black Hills Sanctuary in Wyoming.

As it turned out only two horses went that day, Spirit and his son. The three mares were the victims of a botched loading  event and another stallion was refused to be released at the last moment. All 4 of these horses to my knowledge are still in Delaware.

How different the out come could have been if the following had been in place:
1. A team with experience loading wild horses and the proper trailer to accommodate them
2. A facility where the health of the animals could be assessed, the vetting could be done and feet trimmed because mustang appropriate equipment was in place or could travel to the location.
3. A team of trainers and handlers could come to the home to trouble-shoot problems in training and gentling horses
4. A resource list had been available of local regional tip trainers and other resources was up dated and available. Including  seminars and training opportunities for new owners and trainers that wanted to branch out into Mustangs.
5. The communities could be involved such as the FFA, 4-h, local horse clubs,  and  County Extension offices, etc for special programs and events that give support to avoid such problems.
6. Adoption support for potential adopters including how to "mustang ready" their facilities and first step handling.
7. A special mustang specific layover location where untrained and un-handled horses could stay over night or for a few days to rest while they are moving to their new  adoptive location or to sanctuary.

These are things that the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project could aid in once it is off the ground. These are in fact the goals I have for any non-profit that comes out of the project. And once a model is in place this could be repeated in every non-HMA state in the country. This model could even be adapted in Canada or Australia for their wild horse projects.

First order of Business:

Our first order of business is to build up volunteer support and raise money to take it to the next level. For me I want it funded before we put one horse on the property so we don’t have to worry about it failing and putting any more of these horses in jeopardy. Our first goal is to raise $5,000 or more to get the non-profit going. For my part, every product I design a portion of the royalty will go to funding this project after expenses each month. Remember I am also helping raise money by the sale of the Mustang A Day Challenge Paintings for other worth while mustang projects as well.

Ladies Summer Tank Top:
Buy it here:
Mustang Made in America Design

We are going to do that by both taking contributions as well as by selling products designed by me from the Mustang A Day Challenge Project.  The more products sold the more a portion of the money can go to the project. We need people who are willing to both buy the products and share them with their friends on Social Media so they can buy them too.

Also we need people who can share with their friends this story and other stories to come.
Will I still be painting the mustang a day challenge? YES! Only it will be abbreviated a little until we can find people to take over some of the things I have to multi task on.

Woman's Summer Tank Top
Buy it here:
Born Free-Live Wild Design

This is an amazing project! Anyone who 

loves wild horses on the East Coast should want to be involved in it.

Remember tucked away in the hidden places is a stallion that has been in a 400 by 400 BLM approved pen for his entire adopted life. He is standing almost knee deep in mud during rainy season. He is alone with no companionship.He and his owners need the help this project could provide for them. Remember it probably isn't that they don't love the horse; its that they really don't know what to do to change the situation. Please help. Become involved in this project now.

Here is what you can do to help now!

These two items are ready right now ! Lets take them Viral on the Internet! Share them with your friends and encourage your friends to share them too.

Just a note: If you or your group would like to donate to this project please understand that it is early days yet. We need all the financial support and volunteer grass roots help we can get to make this project a reality. However until we form the non-profit 501c3 we will not be giving tax receipts for donations.

Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project: Stage #1

This little black filly faced an uncertain
future at the Burns Oregon Adoption
Facility last year.  Not only is she black
but her tag number came up as 666.
Sometimes there are many silly and irrational
reasons  a horse might go unadopted.
However with the 3 strike management
policy in a slow adoption year
this filly is destined to Long Term Holding.
Once a horse goes to long term holding the
chances of adoption are reduced by 99%
unless you know the number of the horse.
By painting this filly and telling her story
her chances of adoption improve greatly.
Prints, Notecards, even a shirt with her image
can not only create more awareness, they can
Raise funds for this project and the Non-profit
that submitted her photo for reference.

Good Morning everyone! Lets talk a little about Stage #1

This is the important grass roots foundation building that needs to be done before we begin intense work on the organization.

As most of you know Ive been using the paintings, prints and product designs from the Mustang A Day Challenge to try to help raise support for a number of  persons and organizations surrounding work with mustangs as well as supporting the continuing work of keeping the face of a living mustang before the public each day. All of the work is done on Spec. Meaning that there is not usually, unless someone commissions a painting, any guarantee of money for any specific painting until some one buys it or it is auctioned off.

 Of course the amount of the donations is  dependent upon sales and sales are dependent on  two things: Getting new potential supporters and pleasing the ones who are already there. Right now I'm only tapping maybe 1% of the fund raising potential because I'm spread a little thin. The only thing stopping me from forming a non-profit this week and purchasing property for 5 mustangs I know need sanctuary today, is that the fund raising potential needs to become reality.

This is where you all as volenteers come in.

What I am going to do is show you a design on the Mid-Atlantic Wild horse Project Page in Facebook. I need you to be very honest and tell me 4 things:

1.What do you like about it
2.What you would change about it
3.What price would you pay for it or one like it
4.If the price is too High or too low what price do you think would be good

Then if you like the item I would ask you to write a brief review on the hosting sight and Share the product in your face book groups, pages, and profiles and on twitter and/or other social media you are involved in.

If the majority of you don't like the item I will redesign it or remove it from the store.

Why I am doing this is simple:

 Rescued Mustangs in Shelters and Sanctuaries, Adoptions and mustang mentoring programs and  and the on going documentation by private individuals of public herds.

Each product I design, that is not a commission, a portion of the royalty goes to the photographer or organization that provided the reference photos for continuing documentation of that herd or donation to that specific organization. And A portion of the royalty over expenses will also go to the development of the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horses Project.

This is called building a Sustainable Non-Profit using a companion business as fund raiser. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream was one of the first to pioneer this type of giving model.  We of course will also be taking donations and doing traditional fund raising however my goal is to build a well funded non-profit that can withstand our economy while at the same time contributing to the economy. I want no more failed rescues.

To read more about building a sustainable non-profit and using this model you can read this post on my American Wild Horses Project blog: http://americanwildhorseproject.blogspot.com/2011/11/3-questions-how-you-answer-may-decide.html

I will be  posting the first design very soon. Thanks so much for your help in this. For those of you who would like to volunteer for a little more intensive marketing we are organizing that this week. Contact me through info@llmartin.com if you would like to be involved.

Where I Am on My own Project

Wild Mustang rescued by Amy Flood,
of North Carolina. Featured in the
Mustang A Day Challenge

Wild Horse Support in the Mid-Atlantic States
I wanted to update everyone on where my project is right now. As some of you know Ive been trying to adjust my life to some chronic health issues for the last few months. And it has limited my ability to get out into the public and do some of the PR I had hoped to do as well as exhibits of my art. I am adapting of course. Ive slowed down my project and I'm trying to focus on building my business and fund raising. In this way I can hire the people I need to do the work I am unable to physically do. I admit its a little frustrating. But not altogether a bad thing.

Slowing down the project is giving me time to think it through a bit and see the difference between my grandiose ideas and what is really needed where I live.

My dream is to have a living museum and educational center as a tourist center.

However, the practical application, I have discovered over the last 8 months while doing research that there is a great need here in the Mid-Atlantic states.
After working on several fund raisers for rescued Mustangs here in the region, I have discovered that we are in great need of wild horse specific facilities to take layovers for horses in transit, with special facilities form horses that for one reason or another  were not in good adoptive homes and/or have had no training after they were titled.

In addition to this needs to be a place where short term rehab or a sort of rest stop/ adoption center could be set up to accommodate wild horses unique travel/ rest requirements.

Ive already talked to the BLM to understand what their requirements are for this type of facility. It wouldn't take very much land to do it but it will take a considerable amount of money and would provide employment for up to 10 people at maximum use. Right now to purchase property and upgrade it to wild horse appropriate facility would take about $2-3 Million spread over 2 years.

This facility could house temporarily up to 100 horses at a time, provide quarantine for rescued animals, house a small mustang specific clinic for hoof trimming and vet care and could also be used as an adoption location. Depending on the size of the land available.. around here that is between 12 and 38 acres There could be a permanent sanctuary for 6 to 15 mustangs in retirement in the remaining acreage not used for the facility. A minimum of 5 to 12 acres would be needed for the layover/adoption facility if we bought hay instead of growing it.

So right now that's where I am (in stages):

Stage1.What I would like to do is develop a net work of volunteers to help get the word out about the products I'm designing, the sale of which could help with a large portion of the development. This could be done first through social media and later though events through out the region.

Stage 2.Form a core group from which a non-profit could be formed

Stage 3.Actively seek out donations of property and equipment

Stage 4.Develop a group of volunteers of all ages to help with the projects  and care of the horses and educating of the general public about wild horses and issues surrounding them in a practical way that others can be involved in..

Stage 5. Develop giving programs and outreach to help with on going funding of projects.

You can get in on the ground floor of this project now!

If you are from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or West Virginia and would be interested in helping to build this project with me, please contact me at info@llmartin.com
Be sure you tell me something about what you have to offer and how you can help. At this time I'm beginning Stage #1 which will require volunteers able to net work on social media.

If you are from anywhere else in the world you are welcome to contribute and help us in this venture as well. Again you can contact me through info@llmartin.com

3 Questions: How you answer may decide the success of your project

Three Questions You must Answer Before you Begin
There are three questions that every business has to answer to stay in business. How they answer these three questions will determine if they will be able to stay in business for the long term and during times of economic hardship and sustain themselves for years to come.  A non- profit is no different. Take a look and see how your idea for a non-profit answers these questions.

The Questions:
1. How does it provide something that everyone needs to sustain life in the Global market? I. E. Food, clothes, Shelter?
2. Does it create jobs and boost the economy for the local community?
3. What problem does it solve?

Before we being to write out our proposals we have to answer these questions.Otherwise it just becomes our pet project and a noble idea that everyone will pat you on the back for but you wont get much in the way of financial support.

Most of us can answer questions 2 and 3. Yet, we have a lot of trouble with question 1. In fact if we can answer question 1, then we solve the biggest problem that a non-profit has: FUND RAISING!

Almost everyone I know defaults to begging for money or asking for grants when it comes to funding a non-profit. While that has its place in order to help people get involved and helping to get it started, a truly successful non-profit needs to stand on its own with both support and funding. This mean studying the successful non profits that are still around after 100 years and seeing what they do to thrive. What there seems to be as a new trend in funding non profits has been around for several generations.

As you read on hold on to your hat and be prepared to see the potential.

The Trend for Non-profits:
The trend right now in developing non-profits is to create a for-profit business in which the profits go to supporting a cause or non- profit. As I pointed out before this is not a new concept. Its one of the things that non-profits who have been successful for 3 or 4 generations have used.

Here is an example that I read about last year:

There was a social worker that discovered that there was a great need for shoes in Ethiopia and Sudan. When the poor walked around barefoot little particles of sand would work their way into the pours of their skin through the bottom of their feet and cause a condition of silica poisoning that caused the feet to swell and the person to be unable to walk well or work. Young women who  contracted this condition were doomed to a life of poverty and begging because they were deemed un-marriageable if they had this . It was a totally preventable condition that was corrected by wearing shoes.

So the social worker hit on an idea. Make shoes that will be from natural sustainable materials and market them to raise money to buy shoes for Africa. The shoes ranged in price from $40 to $75 dollars a pair and for each pair of shoes sold they could donate a pair of shoes to a community in Africa. They developed a for profit business to do this. All the profits, after taxes, would go to the charity.  It goes farther than that because not only did they have a business that sold things people needed and hired people to work they actively promoted the non-profit activity as apart of their over all marketing strategy. Every shoe they sold benefited someone by giving a pair of shoes to someone who need it. So they answered the questions by creating two entities: a for profit business and a non profit charity.

1. How does it provide something that everyone needs?  It manufactures and sells shoes through a for profit business.
2. Because it is a manufacturing business that sells a product it puts people in the local economy to work using the for profit business
3. The problem it solves is providing shoes for poor people in Africa that need them.through the non-profit chairty.

This is a sustainable non profit that also has many volunteers and many additional donors, that can weather the storm.

One other note: The success is made more poignant by the fact that  their is a theme in product and provision: Shoes.

So how will you answer the three questions to develop a non-profit for wild horses?

Cultivating Sponsors

Cultivating Sponsors

I’ve mentioned Fairs, Events, and Festivals first because these are the first points of public contact that most of us have. However they aren’t the only ones. In this day and age it is hard to find a sponsor to give the $25,000 to 30,000 it might take to create a trust fund for a horse. However, if you break it down into smaller amounts and present it to groups it makes it possible indeed.

For each Sanctuary horse on your property you know that you need to have a certain amount of money set aside to protect its security. I'm going to now give you a secret to PR that many don’t know.

A Secret to success:
Make yourself available to every single church group, community club, service organization, school and  business association , 4 h club, girl scouts, boy scouts out there to Visit them and give a talk or program to their  organization. Tell them the story of a horse and tell them how their group can become a sponsor of that horse through raising money among their members. Some groups wont be able to fund the entire horse but they will be able to fund a portion. Most of the service organizations will give you some sort of speaker’s fee or donation for your organization.

Some groups will want to have a field trip  to your  place. Do the tour for a donation and charge for box picnic lunches or provide a picnic. Have someone donate the food. Let your volunteers help host it and serve or cook the food. This is also a good time for Volunteers to have a learning experience in giving a tour and answering questions and telling stories. Every time you meet or come in contact with a new group them tell them a positive story about a horse and let them meet that horse. Tell them how they can sponsor.


By giving your talks, and presenting a positive opportunity,don't be surprised if someone in the groups suggests another group you might want to speak to.

Expand your funding base:
When you finish with one Community then move on to the next one until everyone in a 50 mile radius gets to know you. For some of us in the East that is going to mean literally millions of potential one time donors. If you are in a  rural or low population area extend your public outreach to 100 miles or so.

Remember this: the closer to the inner city you get the less money available and  the farther away from the city you get the less money available. Don’t discount going to either of theses because you don’t know that in visiting their organization or club that you haven’t inspired them to donate and become volunteers and maybe something greater. Just be sure that you balance out your travel budget so that those farther away ones are funded with out taking money from the general fund.


Here is are suggestion as to how people who want to be sponsors can be involved. Almost every company has a public service project to nurture good will for their company and their employees. One of the things you can do is to visit the company association and see if they would be interested in sponsoring  a mustang.

Just a word of warning. You have to have a professional face before you go there. And you need to have a contact person who knows your organization,  how its set up and has visited your location and even has met the horses there.  A positive person on the inside can help give your organization validation.

Donations from Sponsoring business associations can sometimes be as small as several thousand dollars and  large enough to fund your organization for an entire year.  Don’t be ungrateful for either extreme or somewhere in the middle.  If they want to sponsor  a band of horses.. meaning a stallion, several mares and younger horses ( anywhere from 5 to 20)  have that information ready for them. Some executives might want to sponsor individual horses. Have that information ready too.

Any time any one, no matter who they are, asks you how much to sponsor a single horse, tell them truthfully.  Because you don’t know who  might already have the money to do it.For the rest of the people give them options.
 
Suggestions for Individuals that might want to Sponsor:
Sponsor a horse for  1 month
Sponsor a horse of   6 months
Sponsor a horse for 9 months
Sponsor a horse for a year
Sponsor a horse from the wild to the Sanctuary
Sponsor a horse for one year plus their trust fund.

Small groups, and Children’s clubs might want to sponsor  in these ways:
Sponsor the horse from the wild to the sanctuary:
Sponsor the horse for a year
Sponsor the horse for medical bills
One time donation to the maintenance trust for the horse

Larger organizations may want to sponsor in this way:
 Sponsor a group of horses from the Wild to the Sanctuary
Fund the Medical fund for a group of horses
Fund the horse for life
Fund the establishment of a Band

 You will have to run the numbers specific to your organization to see what sort of figures you would need to share with potential donors, however, this is all information you should be able to give when asked.  I emphasize when asked. You don’t want to overwhelm them with facts and figures  let them ask and then,help them find a comfortable figure.

Don't forget to write down their contact information. Every person you speak with who asks you for information should be kept for future reference.

As you can probably tell fund raising and finding new support are full time jobs for a non profit. 
A Management strategy for a non profit that doesn’t include one person doing nothing but this important out reach full time, will have a hard time keeping  the cash flow going.

Where To Find the Sponsors

Where to find the sponsors:

If you are an already established non-profit and you are finding it hard to raise money. It may not be that you are doing anything wrong. The problem may be that you have “fished out your stream”.  That means you either need to restock your stream or you need to dig a channel to a new stream or both.

If you live in a very rural area or in a small population area this “fishing out your stream” or having used up all available points of financial contact can be done very quickly simply because of competition with other non-profits like Volunteer Fire Departments, schools, fairs, hospice, humane society, the local hospital,  Lions clubs, and other service organizations etc etc

Going to a small town the same size as yours wont help because you are then just adding more competition for  the limited non-profit money.  So think bigger.  You have to make yourself a house hold name one person at a time. That’s easy in a small town or rural area  but you are going to have to work it in a larger population area too.

A question for all the established non- profits:
 If you meet 100 people at a fair or larger event how many people will give $5 or less to your cause?  How many will give $25 to $50 how many will give over $100 How many will be a repeat giver? How many will offer to come visit your facility? How many will offer to volunteer? How many will say they wish they could volunteer but they live too far away? How many will say I would give if I had the money?
Chances are if you don’t know the answer to all of the above you haven’t got a very well established public face because you aren’t doing enough events.

If your answer was less than these below you have probably tapped out your funding base and need to find new sources
10 people will give $5
5 people will give $25 to $50
1 in fifty will give $100 or more and/or become repeat givers
2 may want to give a donation of goods or services valued at $100 or more
5 in 100 will want to visit
1 in 100 will want to know how to volunteer
1 in 100 would like to be involved but lives too far away
5 in 100 would like to give but don’t have the resources.  1 in 100  of those is really serious and needs to be shown how.

You will notice that I didn’t say anything about sponsorships. This is because generally only 1 in 500 people you meet at an open public event will consider sponsorship. And only 1 in 5,000 will sponsor for big money.

In a Targeted Event when your organization becomes high profile these figures will increase because people will be seeking you out to be involved. In specially targeted events where only people interested in sponsorship are in attendance, generally the numbers will be much higher.  1/3 will become sponsors before they leave the event and another 1/3 will become sponsors  with in 30 days. How many sponsors you get will depend on how many other non profits are in attendance and how many people show up.

Reality Check
Just for fun let me run a few numbers. Lets say you are participating in an Agricultural Fair or Festival  of one day. The anticipated event is expected to draw 5,000 people and it doesn’t rain and your location is good. Maybe 2000 people will pass by your exhibit. Of those 2000 maybe 500 will stop by your booth and look . 250 will look longer than 30seconds. Those 250 are your  stream.
From that event  you may have garnered the following:
$1150 in cash donations
$200plus in goods or services
3 potential short term sponsors
3 potential Volunteers that have some significant time  and skill to give
2 potential volunteers to help in events and fundraising
5  opportunities  for  donations, sponsorships and fund raising help once they visit your farm
50 new contacts for your mailing list to promote activities and opportunities.

Every person that  you talked to and were personable to that day and either gave or expressed a desire to be involved  is worth nurturing because they will at some point  give to your organization if you make them feel wanted and show them how to be a part of it.

Just a note: in a time of economic down turn your goods and services donations usually will go up and offset the loss in cash donations but you will have to nurture it.

Avoiding the pit falls of person to person fund raising
You will notice that I put a lot of emphasis on  the contacts. It only takes one wealthy donor to open the door for more. In this day and age you might not recognize them out right. So its best to be kind, positive and helpful to all right from the start.

If you have political, religious, or personal cause prejudices put those on the back burner and leave them home. Highlighting your pet peve or talking about your target frustration group in public settings where you are trying to fund raise  will not only offend the group you dislike, but it might prevent people who would normally give you money from considering your org because  they  will be distracted from your good works by your ire. The people you want to attract to your organization are people who attract positive financially stable people. People who are attracted to conflict,drama, and confrontation are people that will bring that type of behavior into your organization and they usually are not financially stable.

Be careful not to discourage people from donating
Another thing that will lower your result numbers is that you might accidently discourage people from donating by not  giving them an opportunity to donate. If they ask how they can donate, dont change the subject or allow yourself to be distracted by some one else, until they have a chance to give. Dont let the moment pass. But also know the difference between someone who wants to donate and someone who just wants information. You dont want to be too high pressure, because that might persuade them not to donate in the future.By learning to be sensitive to the person you are talking with it will increase your fund-rasing success.

Next Blog Post: Cultivating Sponsors

The Nitty Gritty of Direct Sponsorship

Sponsorships
One of the most highly used forms of fund raising comes from sponsorships. I’m going to talk about it later in my blog regarding different aspects of running a non-profit. But for those who are already set up and those who plan on starting small or already have your infrastructure in place, I am going to talk about the sponsorship of Wild horses.

Sponsorship programs are not just to get the money of the sponsors. Sponsorship programs are to give people without the time, knowledge or facilities, the opportunity to be active in a wild horse's life. Happy sponsors who feel like they are an important part of the organization are your front line in Public Relations and bringing people new people into your organization.

Before I begin giving you information about this there are several things you need to know up front.

First, The way you set up your non-profit and the laws regarding non-profits will dictate how you run your program. If you have been reading this blog from its beginning you will already have made first contact with a State Agency and possibly a Lawyer about the information you might need regarding the setting up of your non-profit.

The contact that you have at the State level is an important one to nurture because that is the person you will be dealing with throughout the life of your organization. How you treat that person, hopefully cordially and professionally, will determine how easy it is for you to go through the process and glean any important information about reports, taxes, and other information you need. You can ask this person what the requirements are to set up a sponsorship program. They will either tell you out right or direct you to the proper documents online or in a public library.

Second and most importantly when you set up a Sponsorship program you don’t want to drop the ball or it can spell disaster for your organization. From the very beginning in your active budget set up money for the hiring of a Sponsorship Relations Person. This person can hold multiple jobs in your organization such as office manager,  book keeper, Volunteer coordinator, and fund raising support. For a small organization this person can do all of these jobs. But as your organization grows they will have to be split between several people. I cannot say it enough:  there must be excellent communication and transparency in your organization for it to thrive. So the right person involved in your Sponsorship program will not only bring in great sponsors but they will also keep those sponsors happy and coming back for more and bringing their friends.

Thirdly: Set the boundaries of participation clearly and early. While you want your sponsors to be active and participate, you also do not want them to interfere in the daily operation of your organization. Nor do you want them to actively try to undermine all of your good work. Sponsors like Advisory committee members and other volunteers are there by invitation. There purpose is to give and participate, however you and your staff are the heart beat of the operation and you make the policy and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make as well as the outcome.

Sponsorship is generally the financial support by an individual, family, business , non-profit or group.
Sponsorships can be of individual horses
Sponsorships can be of an entire family or Band of horses
Sponsorship can be for a year
Sponsorship can be for the life time of the horse
Sponsorships can also be for smaller amounts of time or for specific needs
 
A good sponsorship program will have these qualities:
~An active connection with a specific horse or group of horses
~Monthly Updates about the horse or group of horses they support
~First call opportunities to participate in volunteer training and activities that will give them more opportunities to see and interact with their sponsor horse/s and others who also are in the program.
~Open visitation during all public hours
~Participation in Annual Volunteer Function and awards for all those who participate in the running of the non-profit

Some Sponsorship Perks are for Larger Sponsor Donations
Special VIP tours or activity days for their friends and families
The opportunity to give input in the form of termed membership on advisory and activity committees
Reduced tickets to all fundraising events depending on the size of their sponsorship
You can really add anything that is legal, in your state, as a sponsorship reward that is unique to your organization.
A word of caution don’t give away anything that you have to raise money to fund. Give from what you have.

 Next Post:  Where to find the sponsors:

How to fund an individual Horse. Part 1

Formula for Security for the Horse

There is a certain amount of money that you must raise before you try to support a single horse. This is the formula for that one horse budget: 
(Foundational Care +  Travel and Prep+ Vet Care+ 6 months of full care ) X number of years you want to keep the horse in sanctuary = security for the horse The estimate is going to vary for each location, as we know already.

How to Fund An individual Horse Part 1
So how are we going to raise that money? How you set up your non-profit is going to determine how you set up your public face and how much the public can be involved.


People want to belong. The want to contribute and they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

 Case Study:

There is a Husky Rescue here in my part of Virginia.  I was incredibly impressed with how they did everything. When I met them in 2008 they had a 99% adoption rate.Wonder how they got that??

First they make the animals appeal to the public. What would make a furry dog, that is more suited to the colder climates, be a perfect dog for a  person living in the city in the south where we have hot  humid weather?
 
They don’t just make these dogs special,they make the dogs special to the people in the location.  If the Dogs need training they get it for the dogs. If the people need training they offer it.  If the potential adopter  cant figure out how to keep the dog and give it exercise, then the rescue becomes a source of information and resources. The rescue always makes sure that the public face of those dogs is well groomed, well behaved and  there is never a photo of them anywhere where the dogs don’t seem to  be smiling.


So the rescue offers training,  customer service, resources, present the animals well, and lastly gets people involved in the whole process.  This particular rescue has no paid employees. So every cent of money goes into care for the animals. In other words they have a very solid financial foundation in place, however they still have to raise money for the operation.

The rescue is all volunteer and every one of those volunteers has to go through rigorous training or equivalent, before they are aloud to foster animals, help with training, care for them or take them on public events.  The fact is that the Volunteers also have some basic PR training, so when they meet the public they don’t just sit behind the table and gossip, they actually are fountains of stories and information the general public needs and wants to hear.

The woman I met , who was in charge, has a pension and works a part time job. Most of the money she makes goes into her rescue efforts. She doesn’t just lead by interacting with people, she leads by doing. The sacrifice is worth the effort to her.


When I met her, she told me She  has low over head because she runs everything from her home which is paid for and in the country. Since animals are only there short term or because she sends them to foster, she doesn’t have a need for large numbers of loud animals on her property that might be considered nuisance.
Her largest expenses are usually vet bills and transportation. Because each person who fosters an animal pays for its feed and upkeep that is a donation in and of its self to the effort. Records obviously have to be kept regarding the foster program.

She is continuously going to events to show case, not her rescue, but the results of the rescue and the animals themselves. Quite often on these location events people who have successfully adopted an animal from them have the animal with them and tell their own story to the public. Their rescue had animals on hand for the public at no less than 32  public events a year at the time I met them. On weekends they don't have festival, fair, or other events they tour Pet stores that will allow them to set up out side. The idea is to generate new contacts and keep the faces of the dogs before the public.

I'm telling you this because there are 6 very interesting things in this antidote that will help you raise money for your operation.

6 Things that will help you raise money:
1. Your commitment of time and money to your project.  What are you willing to sacrifice to make your organization a success? Are you willing to sell all you have and do with out everything but the basic necessities if necessary? How much of your life can you give to it?
2. How you present the animals to the public Are they well groomed, well behaved, Do they have their ears pricked, is there a pleasant look on their face? Is your facility clean, neat and look safe?
3. What is your plan for getting donors directly involved?  How will you educate them? Use their resources and time? How will you put their skills and talents to work? And what will their reward be? Will you try to keep those who have your services on the front row at events and activities you participate in in the name of your organization? How will you build your relationships with past donors, sponsors, adopters to keep them involved?
4.  Efficient use of resources:  Will you buy or rent? How will you maintain the location? Will you use the foster method? Will you have a  permanent location?
5. Results and success stories. How will you get stay in touch with your donors? How will you share with them the victories and the failures? How will you make them a part of the success and show them how  their contribution got the organization there.
6. Getting your projects out where people can see them. People are always interested in hearing the success stories. They also want to know the animal’s background, where they came from their story. They want to meet the animals they heard about. And they want to know how they can help. But if you aren’t public they won’t know about you, your animals or how they can donate. How are you going to get what you are doing to the public on a regular basis, so people know about you and can donate?

***

Take a look at how Safe Harbor Husky Rescue is set up at their Web sight. This only represents a small portion of what they do. You will notice that they took on Cats as a satellite to the Husky rescues. Sometimes its necessary when you end up with one animal to take on all the family pets. And just a note to all of us who intend to help mustangs through non-profits, it is possible that the animals in our care will not simply be horses, we will have a few satellite animals as well.
Notice  also they put just the minimum info they need about their organization to help the public. The majority of the information is about the results.

The key ingredient to their success is a combination of getting those animals and stories out to the public and the caliber of the volunteers training.
When I met this group at a location, when I was exhibiting some of my pet portraits in 2008, they literally had 1 volunteer for each 2 dogs. The people interacted with the public and the dogs. I was told that of the 10 dogs on sight that afternoon, they adopted out 3 and had pending applications for 4 more.
 The Pet Harbor Rescue and Referral Inc http://www.petharbor.org/aboutus.htm

Presentation IS half the battle.
Ask yourself as you are looking through their information? If I can’t get my horses out to the public how can I get the public to my horses. Do I know enough about my horses to tell their story?  How can I present it? What kind of resources do I need to  provide or refer to people  I meet that will help get mustangs adopted or donations into my sanctuary? How can I do this without spending  large amounts of money?


Imagine this if you only had one Mustang to start with that was well trained, did funny little tricks, liked to meet the public. This one horse could be the first educational experience your public has. When people meet the mustang for the first time they want to know more. Tell his story. Tell them how they can give and what you are hoping to accomplish. First thing you do is find the willing people and teach them how to tell the story and how to be involved. Some will do it because they were astonished and some will do it because they just want to spend time with the horse. Make it pleasant and get out and greet and meet. Make sure that every interested person has something in their hand to take home maybe a list of where to adopt mustangs, it might be a short brochure on what you want to accomplish, but it should have all your contact info on it and where to donate as well.  That is an important step to positive public relations that you can do early in your organization and the first public funding of your organization.

**One more note. Not everyone is going to be able to run a non-profit that has no employees, especially one with large animals with special needs. However you can show  how the donations represents the direct positive effect  in the care of the animals.

Next post( Nitty gritty of direct sponsorship per horse)

Foundational Care Part 3: The Argument for the $10K

Why You need $10K when you already have a sustaining income for the horse.

No one can tell when a horse might have a catastrophic illness or injury. If you have a 20 horse or a 200 horse operation and 10% of your horses come down with the same problem you can’t expect the local vet or vet college to fund your catastrophe for you or they will soon be out of business.

Vets are amazing people who are always looking out for ways to help out on non-profits, especially where animal rescue and sanctuary is concerned. But you as the non-profit organizer and founder need also to be responsible for the horses in your care. And unless you are independently wealthy or are in a profession that makes a lot of money for you, you need to fund every aspect of your operation to the best of your ability and manage it well.

So with this in mind, there is a 4 in 1 chance that any horse you bring new on to your property is going to have some sort of devastating illness or injury with in the first 3 months of arriving. 1 in 10 is going to have some catastrophic injury or illness on its way to your location.

So, If you don’t have that $10,000 to fall back on how will you fund the treatment and recovery? Are you willing to take a chance at $2,500? How about at $5,000? What about an insurance policy? Is insurance an option until you can raise the money? Over a 20 year period would it be less expensive to pay for insurance on the animal or to raise the $10,000. What about co-pays and deductibles? What can you afford with what you have available?

These are things you need to investigate yourself and see what applies. Just remember it doesn’t matter if you paid $25 for the horse or $35,000 for the horse, If that animal becomes ill or is injured its cost to your organization will be the same.

Some people are going to tell you that they have been running rescues or sanctuaries for years and have never had any problems like I am suggesting here. But the truth is in this economy and in this environment, we don’t have the luxury of not having a management plan to make sure the animals in our care and people in our employ are cared for if needed.

Personally, I suggest you start small and work your way to larger. Raise what you can of the $10,000; say up to $2,500, before you bring the horse to the farm. Then allow the interest you don’t use in the up keep of the horse be reinvested until your reach that figure. All the other money over the amount you need to keep the horse can go into an escrow account for the next horse and upkeep for the designated horse. The goal is to have every horse funded completely for its entire lifetime.

Ok now we know the formula for keeping a horse so how do we raise the money?
Next Blog post: How to fund an individual Sanctuary/or Rescue horse.

Foundational Care Part 2: The Formula and how to use it

  The Formula and how to use it to sustain a specific living horse.

And how to make sure it isn’t used for any other purpose except care of the specific living horse.

First lets run some numbers:Lets say you are living in the East.
Full board in these areas runs about $300 in bigger barns in the country and $600 plus in the city or suburban areas.  So to set up this foundation for your horse you will need to adjust your figures according to the location.  Lets say  in a 50 mile radius from you Full board runs about $450 a month.
$450 x 12 months = $5,400.00 for a year at full board.  This money either needs to be in an escrow savings account or in a special foundation account where the money will be invested wisely and interest generated.

The average mustang running on good quality pasture is going to cost less than $50 a month to sustain. In the three winter months in the south or south east you might want to add Hay depending on the conditions of the pasture in winter. So that might add another $15 to $35 a month for grass hay depending on hay prices.

So the total amount for keeping a healthy mustang at grass is about $705 a year or spread over a year about: $59.00 a month.

So the interest on the $5,400 needs to cover a minimum of $59 a month just for basic, no frills ,horse care. However, you need to pay someone to check the horses ever day, to rent a locations and the horse’s up keep. Add $30 a month for an employee per horse and $109.00 for facility and maintenance.  

So basically out of that the interest needs to be $200 a month per horse to sustain each horse’s basic quality of life. Some months that will be a larger amount and some a smaller amount.

The hard cruel fact is you need to have the “full board for a year” amount of money in the bank to sustain that horse before it ever comes on the property. And as long as that horse is on the property the money designated for it should not be used on any other horse. Putting the money in a foundation or escrow account will prevent it from being used to over fill your operation. Over filling is how sanctuaries and rescues fail.

The rule of thumb is: Don’t do it if you can’t sustain it! The amount of foundation money of course is going to vary from location to location so here is the formula again.
The Formula for Foundational Care
 
(Full board x 12) + $10,000 per horse x Number of years you need to keep the horse = monthly sustained life time care for one horse
*A Rescue Horse on average will stay with the organization non longer than 3 years on average.

*A Sanctuary horse to live out its life might be anywhere from 7 to 15 years  on average depending on the health and age of the horse.


This means you will have a suggested amount  somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 per horse  per year in residence in escrow to sustain one horse once you have raised the money. The horse will live on the interest for its lifetime and the money will be designated to that specific horse for as long as it is in your organization and cannot be used for any other purpose. Once the horse leaves the organization that money can be assigned to another horse. You also cannot barrow against the money, nor can your creditors take it as an asset.

You can talk to your bank about the details of how to set up such a foundation so it can benefit a number of horses, how your state and federal laws will apply to it and how it can be best managed to the benefit of incoming horses as well as established horses. Each state is a bit different so be sure to do your homework on how to make this work. Be sure to ask about the Specifics of what it will cost to set it up and maintain it.



Next blog: The Argument for the $10K