Animal rehoming centre help

forafriend_2

Hi,




Money is very tight at the moment, it is a major concern, we get most of our money through donations and company sponsorship, ie, one company supplies all our dog and cat food in return for advertising, and we get some money from rehoming (but that doesn't cover costs from that particular animal).

I have looked on here and googled for info on setting up a non profit making organisation and am now really confused - lol! Do we actually need to set up as anything or can we just continue as we are? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

ukbill69

Why dont you want to register as a charity?

Savvy_Sue

I agree with what bill said. There is no legal status of Not for Profit organisations in the UK, and if you're growing the advantages of setting up as a charity should make the work you'll need to do worthwhile.

If you google CVS plus your local area / county, you should find your local volunteer advice service and they should be able to offer you some advice on the way forward.

forafriend_2

Hi,

Trouble is we are not growing, we are struggling along. Also, and I know this is wrong but accounts haven't been kept for the last couple of years, mainly because of the lack of money and a couple of volunteers have been putting their own money in to keep it going. As I understand it to set up as a charity we need to have several people for a comittee and there aren't enough of us.

I will check out our local CVS though thanks.

paulwf

Have you got in touch with other animal sanctuaries, there are quite a few across the country that may be able to help?

Aside from any legal obligations accounts need to be kept so you can work out what is going wrong with cashflow and how to put it right. Unfortunately so many animal sanctuaries have either closed down or are really struggling at the moment, which stretches the remaining ones even more.

My girlfriend and I have given a lot of money to animal charities especially sanctuaries and although they do excellent work to be honest I'm getting frustrated by the lack of financial planning by some. Donating to them just seems to be throwing money into a black hole, a couple of months after a big funding push they are struggling again and are likely to close down.

I think in the future I'm only going to donate to charities that can show some kind of financial planning...that's a very difficult decision to make when it comes to animal charities but some just seem to have no grip on finances. It would be best to produce proper accounts and then work out a plan from there for how many animals you can look after, and you may have to make the heartbreaking decision not to take any more in. Being able to look after 100 long term and create a solid donations base is better than taking in 200 then closing down.

It's not just small scale charities that are struggling. The local cat rehoming centre (RSPCA run but for some reason not RSPCA funded) suddenly announced a £100,000 black hole. No mention in funding drives about how it happened or how they would solve it long term. Of course they raised thousands of pounds then announced it would keep them open for a couple of months then they would still close...not sure I can see the point in donating to something like that myself.

fengirl_2

If you are already set up then you cannot just abandon that legal set up - you would need to formally amend whatever governing document you already have. You cannot be registered as an organisation with the LA - that is not LA's functions.

Savvy_Sue

forafriend wrote: »

Trouble is we are not growing, we are struggling along. Also, and I know this is wrong but accounts haven't been kept for the last couple of years, mainly because of the lack of money and a couple of volunteers have been putting their own money in to keep it going. As I understand it to set up as a charity we need to have several people for a comittee and there aren't enough of us.

I will check out our local CVS though thanks.

I know what Paul has written seems hard-hearted, but I can only echo all of it.

Within any successful people or animal focussed charity, you need both the touchy feely people whose heart goes out to the people / animals and are prepared to get their hands dirty doing 'the work', and the more calculating 'bottom line' people who sit at a desk enabling 'the work' to happen.

When I joined my current charity, our annual income was less than £150,000, and nearly 10 years later we have twice as many staff and we need over £500,000. That hasn't happened by simply employing more people whose hearts melt and who just HAVE to get alongside our clients: it's happened by ALSO employing more people like me who would probably say "Get a grip!" more often than is helpful.

We have a large volunteer team, and we have a tighter recruitment process for that as well, you can't just turn up and muck in any more. We have volunteers in the office as well, without whom we couldn't function as well as we do.

See if, through your CVS, you can access someone with business skills, because that is what you need, to be run on a professional and business-like footing, whether that's through charging more for re-homing, upping your game on promoting your work and raising money, or reducing costs. And if accounts aren't being kept, I'd start right there.

Savvy_Sue

Just to cheer you up some more (!) DH was at a training course the other day where it was spelled out that even if you are not registered as a charity, this may not absolve you of the responsibilities you'd have if you were a charity.

There's some very readable and relevant 'case studies' here, which you might find useful.

Debt_Free_Chick

forafriend wrote: »

I think Paul has hit the nail on the head, we get donations but it all goes within a week or two and we are back to square one. And I completely understand what you are saying about not donating unless there are proper plans for the money - a black hole is right!

SavvySue, we are all the soft hearted type, I think we need to have a proper discussion between the volunteers to see which way to go (if any). The money side just does not work, if we were a proper company we would have gone bust a long time, it is just the generosity of people keeping us going week to week.

We would love to charge more for rehoming but we are in deprived area where animals don't seem to be worth anything and people breed and sell for very little so for instance, last year we had kittens we couldn't rehome because everyone else was giving them away and not caring where they go - it is so sad.

Thanks for all your help, I think I am going to have a chat with the lady who runs the rescue about our future.

Make it easy for you all .... think of it as no different to a budget for running your home. Set out what you have to spend on a weekly or monthly basis so you can see exactly what you need in order to simply exist.

annasbee

The Blue Cross are proposing to close the rescue centre in Felixstowe Suffolk claiming that this is not for financial reasons but to enable them to buid a larger centre in the North West enabling them to help 20% more animals.
This will leave Suffolk without a centre, a situation that we cannot contemplate.
Last year the Centre rehomed over 400 dogs and cats.
Please show your support for the Centre by joining our Facebook Group entitled "Save Felixstowe's Blue Cross".
Your support would be so greatly appreciated.
Thankyou so much.

Debt_Free_Chick

annasbee wrote: »

The Blue Cross are proposing to close the rescue centre in Felixstowe Suffolk claiming that this is not for financial reasons but to enable them to buid a larger centre in the North West enabling them to help 20% more animals.
This will leave Suffolk without a centre, a situation that we cannot contemplate.
Last year the Centre rehomed over 400 dogs and cats.
Please show your support for the Centre by joining our Facebook Group entitled "Save Felixstowe's Blue Cross".
Your support would be so greatly appreciated.
Thankyou so much.

Interesting .... the Blue Cross are also proposing closure of the centre at Northiam, in East Sussex too. It's not clear where the nearest Equine Centre will be, when Northiam closes ....????

I do not own horses and have no connection with them, but (even) I can see that in a rural area where horses and equine activities are crucial to the local economy, that a lack of "social care" towards horses can not be a positive move ..... !!!!!