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*Home To Home™ is a program of Panhandle Animal Shelter which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization - your pledge to this campaign may be tax-deductible. Home To Home™ is making the difference in the lives of pets and the people who love them. Watch this video to see a story about a special dog who is living happily ever after because of Home To Home™ and Dr. Marty Becker, "America's Veterinarian", author and founder of Fear Free Pets who endorses the program. Home To Home™ is a non-profit pet rehoming program that saves pets' lives by partnering with animal shelters to keep animals in loving homes, before ever having to enter the animal shelter system.

Everyday, people are faced with difficult decisions. Sometimes, this means having to find a new home for their pet. If you’ve ever been in that situation, it can be hard to know where to turn. Can you take your animal to a shelter? Yes. Is there a better way? Also, yes. Animal shelters are run by wonderful people who love animals. Unbeknownst to many, overcrowding in animal shelters is an issue that many shelters face. Because of this, animals can - and are - euthanized for space. Home To Home™ wants to help change that.

What we need, and why we’re asking for your help

We need 150K for our first round of funding. This will cover:

• A complete website rebuild. As Home To Home™ grows and scales, we need to be able to meet our growing needs and our current platform is not equipped to keep pace with this growth.
• Your contribution could result in saving thousands of pets lives by allowing us to upgrade our platform, which will allow us to be in more shelters nationwide.

Home To Home™ serves people and pets in the following ways:

Benefits your local shelter

• Allows your local shelter to offer Home To Home™ as an alternative to surrendering their pet to the shelter. This allows for more space for other animals that have no other option: strays, emergencies, protective custody, etc.

Benefits the animal

• Animal shelters exist for a reason, and their need in our community is important. As nice as animal welfare personnel strive to make the animals’ experience as positive as possible, it still causes stress and anxiety for the animal. By bypassing the shelter, they never have to experience this stress of entering the shelter system.

Benefits the current owner

• When life circumstances happen and people realize the best place for their pet is no longer with them, it can be devastating. Taking your animal to a shelter is not only stressful for the pet, it’s equally stressful for the family!
• When current owners rehome their pet via Home To Home™, THEY get to choose the next home for their pet, which is a very comforting feeling for the current pet owner. They know their pet better than anyone, so they are really the best source to pick their pet’s next home/family.

Benefits the future adopter

• The future adopter gets to meet the current owner first hand, ask any questions they may have, learn about behavior and medical history, do a meet and greet with their existing pets, etc. This doesn’t always happen when adopting directly from a shelter.

Let’s be the change. Let’s support current owners in their rehoming efforts, not shame them for having to rehome their pet. Let’s spare the shelter so that resources and space can be used for animals that don’t have any other option. When you use and adopt via Home To Home™, you are helping your local animal shelter, your community - and your current or future pet!

How does it work?

• An animal shelter joins the Home To Home™ program, receives training, creates their customized Home To Home™ website, and promotes the program.
• When a pet owner contacts the shelter needing to rehome their pet, the shelter offers Home To Home™ as a solution.
• The pet owner creates a pet profile and the shelter or rescue promotes the pet on Home To Home™ which is integrated with the organization’s Facebook page.
• When a potential adopter is interested in the pet, they communicate directly with the pet owner.
• The pet owner screens the potential adopter and decides if they are a good fit to adopt their pet.
• When the pet owner chooses an adopter, the pet goes from one home to the other, without ever entering a shelter.

What makes Home To Home™ different than other rehoming programs?

• No adoption fees are ever exchanged.
• Shelters partner with their communities to rehome pets.
• Pets are promoted across broad networks, instead of just within a pet owners’ network.
• Home To Home™ looks at rehoming differently. It was started by a shelter, for shelters. We understand the challenges that shelters face, and the challenges that owners face when making the decision that the best life for their pet is no longer with them.
• Home to Home™ is managed and operated at each individual shelter. This provides the best results for both their community and pets. Shelters are the trusted resource in their community, they can provide services and advice to help keep pets in homes or provide a better transition into a new home. Plus, people in the community who are interested in adopting are already looking at the shelter for potential pets so pets on Home To Home™ have a greater chance of being seen and adopted.

We exist to

• Help pets and the people who love them.
• Keep pets out of shelters and in loving homes, so that shelters can apply resources to other animals in their care that have no other option.

We do this by

• Partnering with shelters to add Home To Home™ to their programs that are focused on supporting their community and keeping pets in homes and outside the shelter. This allows Home To Home™ to be operated at a local level which increases engagement at a community level (vs. a national blanketed website).
• Focusing on solutions, not fear, judgment or worst-possible outcomes.

Why this matters

• We have almost four years of data and experience to demonstrate this approach works. We want to share it with the world (starting in the United States).

Home To Home™ was founded by Panhandle Animal Shelter (PAS), an animal shelter located in Sandpoint, Idaho. PAS serves over 8,000 animals each year through its shelter operations and programs aimed at keeping pets in their homes where they belong.

In 2015, PAS experienced a big increase in the number of people surrendering their pets to the shelter. They wanted to seek a better solution for owners and their pets. PAS started Home To Home™ as a pilot program with the goal of helping people rehome their pets instead of turning them into the shelter.

“We knew our social media platforms reached a lot of people so we decided to create a website where pet owners could post their pets when they needed to rehome them. We wanted to truly support pet owners so we made sure the website integrated with our organizations Facebook page so we could promote the pets to all of our followers,” said Mandy Evans, Executive Director of PAS. “Immediately after launching the pilot, we experienced fewer people surrendering their pets to the shelter and more people trying out the program. Honestly, our community LOVED IT. People who had to rehome liked talking to new potential families and the new adopters enjoyed having the opportunity to hear all about the pets before accepting them into their homes. Plus, the shelter experienced a 31% decrease in owner surrenders!, “said Evans.

With such promising outcomes, PAS wanted other shelters to know about the program. Today, 17 shelters in 13 states are using the program, and all are experiencing positive results. But, this is just the beginning of what is possible. Using current adoption and euthanasia data its projected that if all shelters in the United States used Home To Home™, we would experience a significant reduction in the euthanasia of healthy or treatable dogs or cats in shelters.

Panhandle Animal Shelter GuideStar profile: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-3071245

Executive Director Mandy Evans' LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandy-evans-84984632/

Rewards

Below are the designs for the sticker, tote bag, and t-shirt, and pet ID tags:

 

Risks and Challenges

For Shelter Sponsors, we will do everything we can to apply your funds to an animal shelter of your choice. We cannot guarantee the animal shelter you choose will want to join Home To Home™. In that event, we will apply your funds to a different shelter that wishes to become a member. We also cannot guarantee how quickly the animal shelter on-boarding process will take.