The biggest advantage of being a 501c3 organization is that you are
eligible for grants. In fact, because of my experience with arts
organizations, I consider it THE advantage. Individuals for the most
part will donate according to their conscience, not according to
whatever tax-writeoff they might get. Local businesses donate out of
their advertising budget. The real money comes from grants, and most
grant-giving organizations will only look at you if you are 501c3.

But you should be aware that getting and administering grants is often
a fulltime job. Between that and the IRS reporting requirements, it
may not be worth it for a small organization. Half the grant disappears
to grant administration costs; this is normal and built into the
expectations of the system.

Nevertheless, a well-organized shelter, especially one with a few
volunteers who perhaps are more suited to office work than to cleaning
cages, could likely benefit from the grant application process. Note I
say process. It may take a year or more to get a grant. These are not
emergency-service helping hands. It takes organization and preplanning.
And you have to be very clear on your goals and purposes.

The humane society offers a couple of grants to shelters.
<http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pa_shelter_services_grants_available>

HSUS has attracted a lot of criticism for their unwillingness to
participate in actual rescues, but in some ways that is like
criticizing a hospital administrator for tellling someone to call an
ambulance for a car accident that occurs outside his office. You would
not expect him to run out into the street himself to provide care, nor
would you expect him to pull cash out of his pocket to pay for that
particular ambulance run, even though his job may include providing
funding for the ambulance. The ambulance service exists because someone
had the foresight to asess the potential need and seek funding fo make
the services available well before an actual incident.

Continuing this analogy - one wonderful thing about this Ohio rescue
is that it is truly a rescue, not an intake. That is, the ferrets are
being moved along to shelters. An ambulance doesn't keep its clients;
it stabilizes them and takes them elsewhere for treatment. If an
ambulance company tried to treat everyone itself, it could not function
as an ambulance. (At best, it would be a mobile clinic of some sort --
which there may be a need for, but an ambulance needs to be clear on
its mission.)  A well-run ambulance corps needs to have abundant
capacity for action, which means they can't use up their resources for
daily needs, as a clinic (for example) must. The need and mission are
quite different -- which means presenting a different set of goals when
applying for grants.

There are grants out there, but applying for them moves the whole
shelter/rescue process to a different (more bureaucratic) level.

-Claire

[Posted in FML 5756]