Community Partnerships

1. First, determine what you hope to accomplish through partnerships. Use the Community Partnership FUN! Brainstorming Worksheet to help.

For example, reduce the number of pets entering the animal shelter because their owner or caregiver was evicted.

2. Make a list of organizations that may help you to achieve this goal.

Use the Outlining Community Partnerships Worksheet as a guide to determine which partnerships you have and uncover potential new partnerships.

Constables, eviction court, tenants’ rights groups, city or county health department,  low-cost, pet-accessible apartment complexes, boarding kennels, code enforcement, family services, homeless services.

3. Determine which partnerships on your list might result in the best outcomes for people and pets.

Make a few phone calls to find the ‘right’ partners and always try to find animal lovers within the agencies you’re contacting. It only takes one animal lover, working in a partner organization, to make a huge impact!  You can use the Potential Community Partnership Contact List to outline the potential partners’ contact information and who among your team will own the partnership and initiate the call.

When you call, be sure to tell a story that speaks to your organization’s mission, or ask the person on the other line if they have a pet, or how their clients or the people they work with benefit from animals in their lives. 

4. Once you find a viable partner, set up a meeting to talk about how you can work together.

Partnerships can be VERY simple so don’t be intimidated by this step. In your initial conversation, cover the following: 

• Learn more about the organization, its mission, and its scope of work
• Tell the organization about you and why you want to partner. Be specific.
• Tell the organization about the goals you would want to accomplish

Example: The animal shelter formed a partnership with the constables’ office (who perform evictions.) The constables used to make people leave in 1 hour but thanks to the partnership, the constables now give pet owners 48 hours to vacate and they provide tenants with a list of resources for emergency and short-term boarding options and other pet resources.

5. Assign a point person (or more than one) in the organization to manage the partnership.

Partnerships, like other relationships, need care and communication so make sure the partner knows how to get help when they need it and who to contact within your organization the animal to get a prompt response.

6. Pilot a partnership just like you would any other new program.

Ongoing communication with your partner will be critical to maintaining relationships and achieving success.

7. As you pilot a partnership,  have a plan, including one or more SOPs, the role and responsibilities of each party, and the amount of staff time and other resources that are necessary.

Some partnerships require very little, but others are more labor-intensive and may even require a full-time volunteer or staff person, or a written MOU or agreement.  For example, San Diego Humane Society created a volunteer position, Community Pantry Partner Liaison to serve as a liaison between the Community Pet Pantry and the partner locations/organizations. 

Example: Pima Animal Care Center formed a partnership with three memory care (assisted living) centers. This partnership involved the residents of the facility fostering kittens. It was a fantastic partnership and  led to the organization receiving several large grants and lots of national attention. However, there were challenges, too. Staff had to select and transport kittens, volunteers were needed to train the residents and memory care staff, and the hardest part was when kittens got sick or had other issues and had to come back to the shelter for care. The shelter felt the benefit was worth the challenges, but eventually, the partnership became too labor-intensive to be sustainable on a large scale. If the organization invested dedicated staff and volunteers before this point, they could have grown the partnership, but they chose to reduce the size of this program and pursue less labor-intensive partnerships instead. 

Example: A small, rural shelter wanted to form a partnership to provide emergency boarding to pet owners who needed to be hospitalized and had no one to care for their pets. They partnered with a local boarding facility and provided vouchers for up to 30 days of boarding for qualifying individuals. They wrote an MOU with the boarding facility and both parties agreed on the terms. They printed numbered vouchers and the staff could give them out to people who met the criteria. The manager ensured only a certain number of vouchers were used each month. This was easy for the shelter and resulted in 120 animals being boarded (in lieu of shelter surrender) in a one-year period.