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Non-profit or Private Rescue
So You Want to Start a Rescue....
The first thing you should know is that not everybody that loves horses should run/operate a rescue. Rescue work can be very fulfilling, but it can also be depressing, upsetting, emotional, time consuming and financially draining. Seeing and dealing with distressed animals can cause a great deal of heartbreak. The hardest part of this business is accepting that no rescue can save them all and losing an animal because you are full, the legal system fails or because no matter how hard you work the animal just cannot be saved can be devastating. This is a highly emotionally charged business, but it is a business and needs to be treated as one. As passionate as you may become about what you are doing you need to remember that it is a business and you are doing a job, albeit an admirable one. If you cannot stand to see animals near death due to neglect or abuse, the front lines are not the place for you. You would be better off helping by adopting a rescue horse (s), by providing financial assistance to an established rescue or even volunteering at a rescue near your home. If you are sensitive to how people feel about you, this is also not the place for you. Often the people who neglect their animals do not see what they are doing as wrong (after all grandpa did it that way or we have been doing this for years) and will attack you verbally, if not physically when you work hard to remove the animals from their care. In addition, there are some within the rescue business that will second-guess your decisions, or there may be some who reported abuse/neglect who will feel that you didn’t do enough. Rescue work is very time consuming. When you get involved with rescue there are no sick days, personal days, vacation days or any other days off. This makes it incredibly hard to balance a personal life, but for your own wellbeing and mental health you need to do whatever it takes to do this. Do not let your life be overcome with this job, but be available to help when it is needed. If you allow it to overtake your life you will burn out and do the horses no favors. As a rescuer I have worked Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday and anniversary, when I was sick and even when I wanted to quit. It took over my life many times, but I have learned how to achieve that balance finally. It is rare that calls come in during business hours; mostly they come in the middle of dinner with the family. Rescue work can become your life and dealing with sick and injured horses can be more than just a little emotionally draining. Building a healthy volunteer base will help you have time to yourself and people to vent to when things are not going well, but we will cover that later in this article and in other articles on this website. While you are in this stage, you should also decide what your mission or goals are going to be. You should make this as detailed as possible, since helping/saving horses is not a real goal or mission. This will help with a great deal of your planning. If you feel that you can handle the emotional and time aspects of rescue there is still plenty of work to do before taking in a single horse. You need to plan on how you will handle finances. Your detailed goals and mission will help you decide how much money you will need to budget for this venture . Limiting your focus to one area (i.e. focusing solely on dealing with owner surrender versus pursuing abuse/neglect case as well as owner surrenders) can help reduce the budget needed for the rescue you are building. Rescuing horses is expensive. If you think that your adoption fees/ sales of horses will cover your expenses you are wrong. People undervalue rescue horses tremendously and the cost of everything horse related is overvalued. No rescue can expect donations or grants to cover their expenses, unless you have written commitments from donors. Often those running rescues end up paying most of the expenses out of their own pockets. If your rescue is going to have its recognition as a non-profit from the IRS you can claim the money used on your taxes, but otherwise it is money that you will more than likely never get back. In addition to the cost of providing care for animals you will need to consider administrative costs. These include, but are not limited to, web hosting, website development, office supplies, computer programs, feed bins, paper and ink and marketing materials. If you have searched your finances and can reasonably support your rescue or have funding available, you are ready to begin planning. Every rescue needs volunteer support. You will need administrative volunteers as well as those who can assist with actually working with the animals. If you plan on incorporating and/or obtaining your non-profit status you will be required to have a board of directors. If you are not going to obtain your non-profit status, I still suggest having a Board or at least Advisors. These have to be people who will not just support your mission, but will keep you from getting in over your head. There will come a time when you have more animals than your rescue can support and you will hear about more that need immediate help, these people will keep you from diving into a situation that you are not prepared to handle and keep you from a disaster. They can also be a wonderful source of inspiration, ideas and suggestions. Often rescuers become so emotionally invested in a situation and a calm reasonable mind can really help sort out the situation. Rather than just picking a treasurer based on convenience I highly suggest someone who is an accountant, CPA or otherwise an expert in taxes, budgeting or business management. For the position of secretary you should also look for someone who is adept at filling out paperwork and keeping records. Even if these people are not avid horse lovers, and it may be better if they are not, they can provide you with a great deal of advice and professional support. They are also more likely to help keep your rescue from failing. There are also several support groups for rescues on the internet. These groups can be helpful in providing support and assistance from those experienced in dealing with the issues you may have opening your rescue. However, there are also several groups that say they are support groups that are nothing more than places for people to undermine each other’s work and to second-guess what someone has done. It may be best when you are starting out to not join any online groups. Instead find a reputable rescue and ask if they would be your mentor during your start up process. There are times you will find yourself in need of experience and advice and this is an excellent way of obtaining it without having to weed through a bunch of garbage. Next, you will need to determine if you are going to incorporate. It is very highly suggested that you go ahead and incorporate. This will protect you from any poor financial decisions or poor advice from your board or advisors. You will also need to determine if you are going to apply to the IRS for your non-profit status. There are pros and cons to doing this and more info on the topic can be found in later articles on this website. However, you need to get your organization set up and determine all your rules and organizational structure BEFORE beginning business. You can change your organizational structure later, but it is very difficult and better done properly in the beginning. Now you will need to determine your ability to care for horses. How many horses can provide care for at your facilities? Do not count on being able to relocate with several animals later as this can involve considerable costs. If you are stalling the majority of the animals, do you have the support or volunteers to clean all of the stalls daily and provide the care needed? How much funding do you have to support the horses? Even if you have a 20-stall barn, if you personally cannot clean that many stalls everyday, don’t take in that many horses unless you have volunteers to help. By the same token, don’t assume that just because you have 30 volunteers for the first few months that they will show up every day for the rest of year. Also, if you have a 3-stall barn and 5 acres, know that you cannot take in more than 4-5 horses. You will need to decide where you will quarantine horses when they arrive at your facility, separate horses that don’t get along during feeding time and provide a place for sick or injured horses. However, just because you don’t have show quality barns and 100 acres do not let that stop you from opening a rescue. It is time to determine your policies and procedures. Will you accept donated horses, or just those from abuse and neglect situations? Will you attend actions? What will your adoption procedures be? How will you keep your records? What records will you keep (part of this will depend on if you are obtaining your IRS non-profit status)? How will you keep track of the various feeding programs for the various animals? Are you going to get training as part of your management and operating the rescue and if so what type? What are your disaster plans? You with the assistance of your board determine all this and each rescue’s policies will be different than another’s. You will also want to cement your mission, goals and scope of work. You will need this for filing paperwork with the state and federal government as well as developing your budget. You will need to develop all the paperwork you will use within the rescue, including reports, auditing procedures, capital expenditures and tracking, donation receipts, files for tracking animals processed through your rescue, abuse forms and many others. Then you will need to develop paperwork used with the public, including adoption contracts, adoption applications and brochures. You will also probably want to develop a website to post adoptable animals and information on your rescue. You will also want to promote your rescue with press releases, website promotion and handing out brochures/flyers. There are many rescues and those that support rescue work that will list your rescue on their site for little or no cost (including this one). I suggest taking advantage of any and all free promotion that you can find. If you are a non-profit you should consider listing your organization with websites like Guide Star (http://www.GuideStar.org). Once you have completed all of these steps you are ready to take in your first horse. It is highly advised that you start slowly and work your way into full time rescue. Start with one or two horses if possible and work your way into your maximum number. You should try to obtain any training within the first year and not do anything outside of your scope of planning or experience as this could jeopardize your reputation or your rescue’s future. If you have followed all the steps above you have done a great deal of work to assure your rescue’s success. When your first horse has been rescued and has found a new home you will feel a sense of accomplishment that cannot be matched. It will be emotional, but very rewarding as long as you have planned properly. We here at
U.E.F are hoping for your success.
Please Let US know how your rescue is doing. If there are any topics that you would like to see us cover
here on our website, let us know. We will try to answer all your questions based on our experience and research.
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