More Than a Mission Statement: How We Serve Shelters and Rescues

People ask me all the time: What does Who Will Let the Dogs Out do?

The answer to that question is vast. Sometimes it feels like we add another program, tool, or plan every week. Our official mission statement is: Raise awareness and resources for homeless dogs and the heroes who fight for them.

How do we do this?

Utilize social media to educate, inform, and inspire. We are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but we also have a presence on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, Threads, and probably a couple of other random places only Nancy knows about.

Write a weekly blog with hundreds of posts sharing thousands of ideas and stories.

Produce a podcast I am working hard to develop (please find us on Apple, Spotify, or Pocket Casts and subscribe!).

Provide our ever-growing Resource Guide showcasing thousands of solutions. Link here. Writer and advocate Beth Graham regularly adds new articles to the RG.

Share our book, Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues is available on Amazon, directly from us, and free to shelters and rescues.

Provide Three grant programs (more on them next week!).

Offer Stronger Together program. Our next ST will be on November 7 in the Florida Panhandle.

Offer a Downloadable FAQ on the website.

But the basis for all our work is our shelter tours.

It is during these visits that we connect directly with shelters and rescues, learn their stories, gather new ideas/solutions, offer support and recommendations, and build partnerships to offer ongoing help.

We believe it is critical to our work to regularly travel to shelters and rescues across the country to understand the animal crisis and find solutions.

Showing up in person to meet the people and animals, ask questions, seek to understand their unique situation, and offer our support, ideas, and donated supplies is the crux of what we do.

It is from those visits made and connections created that we can continue to offer our support through resources, grant programs, and our always-available team, which includes not just Nancy and me, but our grants advisor, Nicole, and the volunteers and board members who facilitate our programs.

We also send a follow-up ‘report’ to each shelter we visit, crammed with practical ideas for addressing their unique situation. We invite shelter leadership to connect with Nicole for grant assistance and to apply for our three grant programs available only to our shelter partners.

While we are on tour, we work hard to bring you with us through pictures, videos, written accounts, and live broadcasts. We invite you to also support the shelters we visit by sharing their stories, wish lists, and donation links.

Nancy and I spend a lot of hours in the car talking through what we’ve seen and learned. We try to share that with you through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok live videos. These aren’t fancy videos, just our honest reactions to each situation.

I hope you’ll follow along on tour and learn with us. The animal crisis in this country is very real and, sadly, still growing.

We’ve had a unique viewpoint to watch it unfold. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m fairly sure that we’ve walked through more shelters and rescues than any other organization. Click here for the list of most of the shelters and rescues we have visited.

The last few years have been heartbreaking, but I still hold out hope that we can fix the animal crisis. And I still believe it isn’t that people don’t care, but that they simply don’t know what is really happening. We are working hard to tell them. Please help by following, commenting, and sharing our stories.

All our tours are made possible through your donations. Big thanks also to Max & Neo, Kong, and Benebone, who all donated shelter supplies for this tour.

Next week’s tour will take us to five municipal shelters:

Culpeper County Animal Shelter (VA)

Sussex County Animal Services (VA)

Forsyth County Animal Shelter (NC)

Davidson County Animal Shelter (NC)

Swain County Animal Services (NC)

Due to the influx of shelter visit requests, we are doing two tours this fall. The next tour is planned for November, built around a Stronger Together event for the Florida Panhandle area. We hope to visit 10-12 shelters on that tour and meet many more organizations at the ST event.

See you on the road!