Sometimes your first idea for serving a mission may not be the best idea. For example, I talk to a lot of aspiring nonprofit leaders who want to help homeless animals, and their first instinct is usually to open a shelter… But most communities already have several shelters in place. In this episode of the Nonprofit Jenni Show, we meet two social sector leaders who are filling other needs of homeless animals in creative ways.
How to Serve Homeless Dogs Without Opening an Animal Shelter
My first interview guest in this podcast episode was Lisa Stetar, the founder and Executive Director of Crossroads Campus. When Lisa first had the idea to open Crossroads Campus, Nashville was experiencing a crisis with its homeless pets: Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control was having to euthanize 80% of the animals which entered its shelter. At first, Lisa thought opening another shelter may be helpful… But after doing some research, she realized Nashville already had the public shelter, Nashville Humane Association, and several smaller shetlers for homeless pets. What the community really needed were more solutions to help lower the euthanasia rate.
Lisa’s solution was to open Crossroads Campus, a nonprofit organization which educates the community about the life changing connections between people and animals.
How A Pet Store Can Serve Homeless Dogs
Crossroads Campus serves homeless dogs by:
Facilitating about 150 adoptions per year through a pet retail store. Crossroads’ social enterprise is housed in a retail space which sells pet products, offers grooming services, and allows shoppers to meet and adopt dogs and cats from Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control’s shelter.
Working with anxious, traumatized dogs to nurture their health, socialize them with people and animals, and get them ready for adoption. Without Crossroads’ intervention, these dogs may have spent much longer in a shelter being overlooked by visitors, or even euthanized after exhibiting negative behaviors.
Providing humane education in the community to teach kids and adults how to read dogs’ body language and respond appropriately.
Training staff and volunteers at the public shelter how to reinforce dogs’ positive behaviors and socialize them so they’re able to be adopted.
How Crossroads Campus Serves Young Adults and Homeless Dogs At the Same Time
Provides job training for young adults (ages 17-24) who face barriers to the workforce. They rotate jobs, learning to work in retail, groom pets, manage adoption services, bake gourmet dog treats, and lead community trainings in humane education.
Offers case management services for these young adults to help them create a strategy for their future.
Provides affordable housing for the young adults as they learn life skills.
Lisa’s Advice for Supporting Your Favorite Cause
Most importantly, Lisa emphasizes the need to work through partnerships to create high level change. Partnering with other organizations (in her case, an animal shelter and nonprofits serving young adults in need) is the only way to offer comprehensive, strategic solutions to far reaching problems.
If you want to serve homeless pets in your area, Lisa also recommends thinking about how you can promote foster care for dogs and cats who can’t fit into shelters, or who may not be well suited for shelter life. There are never enough foster homes for homeless pets in need.
How to Serve Homeless Cats Without Opening an Animal Shelter
My second interview guest for this podcast episode was Maegan Phan, the founder and owner of Mewsic Kitty Cafe. Maegan has a passion for finding “furrever” homes for homeless cats, but realized opening another cat shelter wasn’t practical. Before opening her cat cafe, she had already been volunteering with Nashville Cat Rescue for three years, and realized running a nonprofit shelter is very complicated and requires a lot of work that she just didn’t need to do. When your city already has plenty of well-run animal shelters, why recreate the wheel? Also, Maegan didn’t want to compete with established shelters for volunteers, funding, and other resources.
Instead of opening a cat shelter, Maegan opened the social enterprise Mewsic Kitty Cafe, a cat cafe which serves locally sourced pastries, coffee, and tea while guests can meet and play with adoptable cats.
How a Cat Cafe Can Serve Homeless Cats
Mewsic Kitty Cafe serves homeless cats by:
Caring for about a dozen cats at a time which would otherwise take up space in a shelter or foster home.
Helping cats from Nashville Cat Rescue find homes with cat cafe visitors who want to adopt.
Helping raise awareness about the homeless cat population and Nashville Cat Rescue’s work.
How to Partner with a Nonprofit Animal Shelter
Maegan explains that she drafted a partnership agreement with Nashville Cat Rescue which outlines the following responsibilities:
Nashville Cat Rescue provides adoptable cats with personalities that would work well in Mewsic Kitty Cafe.
Mewsic Kitty Cafe provides a safe space and lots of play time for adoptable cats. The cafe team also helps the cats get adopted more quickly with their brilliant branding and marketing strategy.
All adoption fees benefit Nashville Cat Rescue.
Nashville Cat Rescue volunteers help care for Mewsic Kitty Cafe’s cats by taking care of tasks like emptying litter boxes.
Nashville Cat Rescue and Mewsic Kitty Cafe promote one another’s events and other initiatives to help grow both of their audiences.
The Benefits of Opening a For-Profit Social Enterprise Instead of a Nonprofit
I find a common misconception among philanthropists is they believe starting a for-profit business is selfish, and opening a nonprofit organization is the only way to serve a mission. However, Maegan highlights several benefits to opening her for-profit social enterprise:
A for-profit social enterprise won’t compete with nonprofit organizations for funding, volunteers, and other resources because it has the ability to stand on its own.
Creating and running a nonprofit is very complicated and requires a lot more work than a business which can support the same goals as a nonprofit.
Maegan can sell her business in the future to support her family and other goals if she decides that’s the next step in her journey.
How a Social Enterprise Serving Homeless Animals Can Be Profitable
Both Lisa and Maegan’s social enterprises earn diverse revenue streams to ensure long term stability and profitability. Some of the revenue streams they enjoy include:
Retail sales -- Crossroads Campus sells pet care products, and Mewsic Kitty Cafe sells branded merchandise and other cat-related gift items.
Food sales -- Crossroads Campus sells gourmet dog treats, and Mewsic Kitty Cafe sells pastries, coffee, and tea for humans.
Entry fees -- Mewsic Kitty Cafe charges guests $12 for a one-hour “meet and greet” with the cats in their cafe. This not only generates revenue, but also limits how many people come into the cafe at once to prevent overwhelming the cats.
Special events -- Mewsic Kitty Cafe hosts events like yoga with cats, “paint your pet” lessons, and trivia nights.
Get Help Building a Brand for Your New Nonprofit or Social Enterprise
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