Creating a Homey Space Furkids
Proposal Submitted to Greg Biffle Foundation
Furkids Animal Shelters and Rescue
2650 Pleasantdale Rd. Suite 8, Doraville, GA 30340
27 May 2016
Our Mission & History
Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelter is the largest operating non-profit, cage-free, and no-kill animal rescue and shelter in the Southeast for rescued cats and dogs. Founder and Executive Director, Samantha Shelton, established it in 2002 after finding a litter of kittens with no shelter that would take them.
Our mission here at Furkids is to help end pet overpopulation in Georgia through sterilization, high-quality adoption and by providing valuable spay/neuter services and pet care education to people in the community.
Furkids has been able to help over fifteen thousand animals in need of a home between the cat shelter in Doraville and the dog shelter in Alpharetta. We have partnered with PETCO, PetSmart, and foster homes to expedite finding the perfect homes for these animals. Each of these animals has the best care given to them from the loving staff and safe environment that they are surrounded by on a daily basis prior to adoption. Now, Furkids wants to do even more as we continue to grow, adding on more cats and dogs into our shelters.
What qualifies us?
In the past, Furkids has done similar projects to the one that we are conducting right now. We have had to fund for dental x-ray equipment this year, surgery equipment, and more. Our focus for applying for grants has been towards medical equipment, so now that we have what we need in that department, we are going to focus on furniture equipment.
Our Community
We, at Furkids, are highly qualified in many aspects and our history shows that. Furkids is the number one rescue and shelter in the state of Georgia. We are the highest no-kill shelter in the state, with 3,000 predicted for this year. Furkids holds an important part in the local community; We rely heavily on the support of the community finically and on the collaborations with fundraising. We rely on volunteers of the community to help in the shelters as well as the thrift stores. We look to the community to support all aspects of our business, and they do with bringing in volunteers and attending big mega adoption events and allowing us to visit the schools, public and private, to educate the kids on the proper care of pets. We are a resource for the people in the community to answer any questions that they have on pet care, and for them to bring any animals that they have found who need care. Others that support us are PetSmart and PETCO, both of switch are places where we manage their adoption programs in twelve of their stores.
Achievements
2002-2008
In the first year of being open, in 2002, we rescued two hundred and sixteen animals. During the second year, in 2003, Furkids was invited to manage the PetSmart in Smyrna. In 2005, Furkids signs the lease on our current main shelter and begins the build out on the 5,000 square foot facility that will eventually house up to 275 cats on a daily basis. The shelter allows us to increase the number of cats and kittens we can rescue and provides a colorful, cage-free, one-of-a-kind environment for our cats. Furkids, in 2006, celebrates our grand opening of our shelter and additional adoption centers that are established with PetSmart Midtown and PetSmart Northlake, making those four stores we have collaborated with PetSmart stores. In 2007, Furkids celebrates five years, and Ms. Shelton, Founder, and Executive Director receive a commendation letter from Governor Sonny Perdue congratulating Furkids on our success and important service to the community. We, in 2008, celebrate our 5,000th adoption, and build an in-house spay/neuter surgical suite and hire a part-time veterinarian. With we partner with our 5th PetSmart store in the Mall of Georgia and open our FIV House, a stand-alone facility to exclusively house our FIV + cats.
2009-2013
During 2009, we establish a benchmark of caring for 450 cats, as well as many dogs, on a daily basis and begin a partnership with PETCO managing their in-store adoption programs at their Holcomb Bridge and Edgewood locations. Cat’s Meow Marketplace is established during this time – now known as the Furkids Thrift Store, a store we own and operate to generate funds to care for the hundreds of animals we care for. We place approximately 620 cats into loving homes and celebrate our 6,000th adoption in 2010 and earn our 6th consecutive Best in America Seal of Excellence award, solidifying our rank as a top local community charity by Independent Charities of America. In its November 2010 “Pets!” issue, Atlanta Magazine names us among the leading animal shelters in Georgia. In 2011 we acquired and assumed total responsibility for the management of Small Dog Rescue and Humane Society, founded in 1995 and dedicated to finding loving families for homeless dogs in Georgia. The union of the organizations greatly extends the reach of Furkids, expanding operations to include the rescue, no-kill care, and adoption of both homeless cats and dogs. In 2012, it is our 10th anniversary. We add on our 10th adoption center with Buckhead PetSmart while closing the year by adding two PETCO adoption centers in Smyrna and Buckhead making this a total of 12 full-time adoption centers in Georgia. Furkids saved almost 1,600 animals in 2013, our largest number in one year and secured a major matching gift from the Choate family and Choate Construction Company to renovate our thirty-four-year-old dog shelter.
2014-Future Goals
We increased the days our cat and dog shelters were opened to the public in 2014 and saved 2,400 animals and achieved 2,200 adoptions. We also signed the lease for a second thrift store and doubled our size for our cat shelter to accommodate our FIV+ cats adding on a quadrupled surgery suite, work space for staff, a kitten pod room and a special room for Purrkids program cats. And for 2015, we launched a new logo and new website, opened two additional thrift stores, and secured a gift to create a customized software program for animal management. We also rose the funding to purchase additional surgery equipment for our expanded surgery suite, increasing our capacity to serve more animals and contracted with a veterinarian to perform high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter surgeries at our shelter. For our long range vision, we want to create a peaceful, unique destination, carved out of nature, where visitors can walk dogs along a nature trail, play with cats in their indoor/outdoor home, enjoy tranquility in a memorial garden, and all of our animals can experience sunlight and fresh air. Our stand-alone shelter would also include a low-cost, high-quality spay/neuter clinic open to the public.
Purpose of Request
At Furkids, we have many partnerships that help to support us in our quest to care for as many animals as possible such as PETCO and PetSmart. Now, these partnerships help us in the best way that they can, but the one way that hasn’t been able to help us, and one of the reasons why we have requested assistance with purchasing new equipment, is with assisting to take care of the FIV cats. PETCO and PetSmart do not permit FIV+ cats in their shelters, meaning the thirteen centers that we have with them do not allow the sixty-five FIV cats are in our Furkids cat shelter in Doraville, Georgia in four rooms into their shelters. We feel that in the long run, the equipment requested below will help to create the space and lounging room for these sixty-five cats to share with one another.
What’s Our Request?
As Furkids has continued to prosper over the last fourteen years, we have taken in more pets and have created more homes for the animals that have not found a foster home just yet. Unfortunately, the issue that has risen is that the space used to house our cats infected with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), is lacking the proper equipment to continue to create an effective living space as the numbers rise of FIV cats. In supplying new equipment and furniture for the areas housing the FIV+ cats, we will be ensuring that the cats’ temporary home is as comfortable and spacious as possible, especially since these are the cats that are more difficult to become adopted due to their having FIV.
We have had volunteers to come in and help to create a more spacious and loving environment by building small sleeping areas along the walls, but as the sleeping areas are wearing and tearing, it has come due time for a larger project: to purchase even more suitable furniture for our FIV+ cats.
By the end of this year, we at Furkids plan to have new equipment in our facility for the FIV+ cats. In the future, we hope to be able to purchase more kinds of this equipment for our cats, since we do have currently sixty-five FIV+ cats in our unit. Over the next few years, we plan to create a euphoric playground, not only for our FIV+ cats but for all our pets. We would like them to have… Ultimately, the establishing of this area will allow for a safer space more rescued cats and dogs – this shows we are not looking for just Greg Biffle. I don’t know if this is good to say.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)
Feline immunodeficiency virus, nicknamed FIV, is a lentivirus in the same class of virus as the human immunodeficiency virus, nicknamed HIV. FIV, however, is a virus found only in felines that reside in many different tissues causing a weakening of the immune system. FIV lives heavily in the salivary glands allowing for the most common transmission from one cat to the other through deep bites. FIV can only be transmitted from cat-to-cat. The least common forms of transmission include blood-to-blood transmissions, through the utero, and from milk from an infected mother cat.
According to the College of veterinary medicine at Cornell University, the percentage of healthy cats infected with FIV ranges from 1.5 to 3 percent. That percentage increases to 15 percent or more in cats already sick or in high risk of infection.
Our FIV+ Cats’ Area
Financials
What is Furkids going to do with the funds?
| Specified Furniture | Crijo Pet Products: Large Tower |
| Exact Pricing | $2995 |
| Shipping & Handling | $778.70 |
| Estimated Tax (7%) | $264.51 |
| Total | $4038.21 |
We would like to accommodate the FIV cats with Crijo Pet Products Large Tower. Utilizing this specific cat tower will allow for more roaming room within the areas that the FIV cats reside. It will be used as another scratching post for the cats as well as something the cats can play, rest and lounge open.
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| REVENUE | Budget | |
| Adoptions | $195,000 | |
| Fundraising | 105,000 | |
| Thrift Store | 350,000 | |
| Donations | 850,000 | |
| Other | 44,000 | |
| Total Income | Budget | |
| $1,544,000 | ||
| EXPENSES | Budget | |
| Rent & Utilities | $217,000 | |
| Veterinary & Medical | 588,500 | |
| Facility Supplies | 60,000 | |
| General & Administrative | 37,000 | |
| Payroll | 620,000 | |
| Fundraising Expenses | 76,000 | |
| Thrift Store Expenses | 140,500 | |
| New Website | ||
| Total Expenses | Budget | |
| $1,739,000 |
The Benefits
This project won’t just help to benefit the FIV+ cats, though that is the main goal of this project, it will also help to create awareness of FIV+ cats. It will bring FIV+ cats to the public’s attention that they are able to be cared for like other cats are, and that they can be around other cats without worry.
Our Organization Benefits
The benefits of your funding our organization will be a great change to the environment around the FIV+ cats. By bringing in the enrichment furniture for the FIV cats it will bring a more beneficial situation for them and will allow Furkids to bring in more cats as there will be a bit more room for them to roam around. Furkids hopes that by asking your foundation for funding, it will help to create a life long relationship and partnership between Greg Biffle Foundation and Furkids, like the relationships that we have created with PETCO and PetSmart.
Your Foundation’s Benefits
The benefits that your foundation will receive from helping our organization with funding will be our helping to fulfill your purpose. The purpose of this grant as you all have stated on your website is to help “nonprofit societies, spay/neuter clinics, and no-kill shelters through the United States”, and that “Grants are rewarded for spay/neuter activities, vet care/medical supplies, pet supplies and operating expenses.” With your kind help, we will also help to fulfill your mission statement of “creat[ing] awareness and serv[ing] as advocates to improve the well-being of animals by engaging the power and passion of the motorsports industry.”
Helping our shelter to receive the best possible equipment for our FIV+ cats, Greg Biffle will be able to connect with rescue and no-kill centers and shelters to fulfill your greater purpose: to help the animals without a voice. This will be a partnership that will grow over the years, and help for Greg Biffle Foundation to receive more notice here in Georgia, as one of the number one shelters reaches out to them.
Citations
“College of Veterinary Medicine – Cornell University.” Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016. <http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/Health_Information/brochure_fiv.cfm>.
“Common Cat Diseases.” ASPCA. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016. <http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/common-cat-diseases>.
“FIV in Cats FAQs.” Best Friends Animal Society. N.p., 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 May 2016. <http://bestfriends.org/resources/fiv-cats-faqs>.