How to Finance an Animal Shelter – Two Viable Alternatives to Traditional Financing

Animal Shelter Designed by Shelterplanners - Click for more pics

Animal shelters are such specific buildings.  They are designed to support the sheltering mission and as such necessarily include a host of supporting rooms, details, finishes and equipment that aren’t found in standard construction.  Every component is critical to proper animal care, however, and must be part of the design.

Unlike financing the construction of an office building or a retail center the animal shelter requires such specific spaces, details finishes and equipment that it is almost impossible to refit for any other use except maybe pet boarding and/or pet day care.   This makes conventional financing difficult and humane societies and SPCA’s usually find themselves facing the need to engage in a “capital campaign” to fund their proposed new shelter.  Successful capital campaigns take time, considerable up-front investment and a great deal of work by everyone involved.

There are opportunities for long term financing available in the right circumstances.  In most states, local government can qualify for long term “lease/purchase” financing for projects involved in “essential services” like fire stations, for instance.  Animal shelters also qualify when sheltering animals is mandated either by local or state ordinances.

So if your organization provides sheltering services under contract with your local jurisdiction, you may be able to take advantage of “lease purchase” financing.  You will have to encourage your jurisdiction to work with you and provide a long term contract or “backing” by co-signature that can support say a 20-25 year deal.  With that arrangement in hand, you can approach a private capital corporation that specializes in government finance.  You will still have to raise some funds, but only about 20% of the total cost.

So what if you don’t have a contract with your local government?  You can look to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for help.  The USDA’s rural development program can provide funding for shelters – we have participated in two successful efforts.  Like the scenario above, you will still have to raise a portion of the total funding, but the USDA’s interest rates and terms are far better than any commercial lender can offer and if you qualify you will have the funds necessary to build.

Community Saves 42 Animals from Euthanasia

1 of 22 Cats Saved

Just when you think no one cares –

On Monday evening, July 22, WVIR ran a story about the crisis emerging at the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center.  The center had so many dogs and cats in the shelter they had run out of space and were facing having to decide which of their companion animals would have to be euthanized.

After learning of the dire situation, the staff at Shelterplanners decided to spend the day helping the community save animals!

The Shenandoah Valley in Virginia stretches from Winchester to Roanoke. Activities there are regularly covered via television broadcast to all of Central Virginia by WVIR, NBC 29 in Charlottesville some 30 miles East across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Volunteers from the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA rose to the call and, drove 45 minutes across Afton Mountain to Lyndhurst, VA to see if they could provide some assistance – and it’s a good thing they did! 

Concerned citizens from not only the Valley but as far away as Culpeper inundated the Center with phone calls and personal visits volunteering to adopt dogs and cats to relieve the shelter’s distress. 

One volunteer transported 5 cats to the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, a No Kill shelter – in all, 19 dogs, 22 cats and a bunny were adopted or transferred to foster homes and other shelters.

Overwhelmed by the response, the staff at the shelter could not keep up with the influx of calls as well as folks who simply arrived unannounced to adopt.  The volunteers from across the mountain helped the shelter staff by providing much needed aid with adoption paperwork, answering phones and helping introduce animals to their new families.

Not a single companion animal had to be euthanized!

How’s that for community involvement in animal welfare?

Why Building a New Animal Shelter Alone Won't Save More Animals

Simply stated, we can’t build our way out of shelter overcrowding.

Sure enough, a properly sized, well designed, and well planned animal shelter is essential to maintaining healthy animals and can contribute to some extent to increased adoption rates.  All of our newly designed shelters have, but long term adoption success requires a great deal more.

Animal welfare organizations that have implemented the array of programs originally put forth by the No Kill movement have experienced significant advances in their animal save rates.  No longer a controversial set of guidelines as they were when first introduced, engaging the community in the “animal rescue mission”; investing in low cost spay neuter; partnering with rescue groups; implementing “TNR” of feral cats; promoting comprehensive adoption programs and fiercely defending the life of every animal in the shelter are now proven components of success.

We have clients looking to build new shelters that are already experiencing save rates above 90% for all of their sheltered animals – all in an older shelter in dire need of more space – consistently reminding me and the Shelterplanners’ team; it’s all about the programs, stupid!

A new animal shelter provides an attractive, stable platform from which your organization can successfully implement programs that will accomplish the goal of saving every healthy companion animal in your care.  The well designed shelter provides you with a bright, cheery, healthy environment that attracts potential adopters - but without the essential programs to keep those adoptions on track, it will be quickly overrun.

Affordable Animal Shelters for Your Community

Save Money on Animal Shelter Design Fees

Shelterplanners created pre-designed models that save communities THOUSANDS of dollars in design fees.  Why spend money for unnecessary design fees? Save the money to save more animals!  After creating a customized Needs Assessment for your animal shelter, you select one of our pre-designed models based on your CURRENT needs.  There’s absolutely no reason to waste money on building an animal shelter that’s too big for your current needs.  SAVE MONEY!

Shelterplanners then customizes the model to meet your needs.

Animal Shelter Designed and Constructed for Growth

When it’s necessary to expand your animal shelter, you will save THOUSANDS on the construction and design cost of the expansion.  How? Your new animal shelter is designed with future expansion in mind.  There’s no reason you should pay hefty construction costs and design fees when it’s time to expand.  

Please contact us today to see how your local animal shelter can improve its current shelter conditions.  Improving your animal shelter's appearance and conditions is directly linked to an increase in adoption rates.

Together we can: Save Time. Save Money. Save Animals. 

Does Your Animal Shelter Have a Customized Plan to Improve Conditions?

“ShelterPlanners.com worked closely with me and my staff, developing a study that analyzed our situation and accurately predicted the size and scope of our new shelter.  The resulting layout includes everything we wanted to achieve.  The design has given us the exciting vision we needed to launch our capital campaign.” 

Gina West, Director

Lewis & Clark Humane Society

Helena, MT

It’s difficult to think about a plan when you’re busy trying to care for and save the animals at your animal shelter. However, we sincerely hope you have a specific plan and measurable goals to improve your current conditions.  How can you clearly communicate your mission and vision to potential donors and your community without a customized plan?

We know you are extremely busy and you likely don’t have the resources to create a blueprint for the future of your shelter.  That’s why we created a Needs Assessment Study.

The Needs Assessment Study provides the following: 

• Proposed shelter size  based on animal intake statistics
• Proposed shelter size for the future: 10-year and 20-year projections calculated
• A detailed description of sizing and space needed to house and support the animals you serve. Also provides description and size for every space needed for your staff and volunteers to properly care for the animals
• A cost range projection based on recently constructed animal shelters

This in-depth report is customized to your shelter’s specific mission and vision.  The report will allow the shelter director to easily communicate not only the mission/vision but also the capital requirements to the community and local government.  It’s one of the first steps to transforming your animal shelter.

Make time to create your plan with Shelterplanners.  We have all the tools necessary!  If you would like more information about the Needs Assessment Study, please contact us: contact@shelterplanners.com or 434-971-8848. Together we can: Save Time. Save Money. Save Animals!