New Fund-Raising Endeavors Pay Off for Animal-Protection Charity

After six or seven years of making small contributions to the Humane Society of the United States, a dog-loving

couple in Ohio gave the animal-protection group $50,000 in each of the last two years.

Sandy and Andy, who asked that their last name not be used, made the gifts to support a new Humane Society program that brings veterinary services and animal-care education to remote areas, including Ohio’s Appalachia region.

The couple’s contribution in 2002 counted toward a record fund-raising year for the Humane Society, whose donations rose 26 percent to nearly $70-million.

But more important, say officials of the Washington group, the gifts show that the charity’s recent efforts to expand and diversify its approach to fund raising are beginning to pay off. The Humane Society is working aggressively to recruit big donors, and is trying to turn some of the millions of Americans who donate small sums into more concerned and generous donors. In particular, it hopes to reduce its reliance on direct-mail solicitations and raise its public profile.

“We see an opportunity to bring fund-raising expenses down by reaching out to donors in different ways,” says Jan Martin, the Humane Society’s director of major and planned gifts since 2001, when the position was first created.

A Growing Constituency

Direct-mail appeals have served the 49-year-old group well, say Ms. Martin and her colleagues, helping the organization attract more than 7 million members — people who give at least $10 annually — a significant constituency for an organization that focuses so much of its energy on lobbying and advocacy. Direct mail has also been responsible for bringing in more than 90 percent of the donations the group receives each year from individuals, not including bequests. In addition, relying on small gifts has allowed the group to escape the vagaries of the economy, especially in recent years when other nonprofit organizations have been hurt by cutbacks in charitable contributions by some big donors and foundations, says Ms. Martin.

Still, direct mail is expensive, accounting for 89 percent of the nearly $22-million the Humane Society spent last year to raise money. What’s more, many Americans are becoming critical of mail and telephone appeals, says the charity’s chief of staff, Andrew Rowan, so the group will try to do more to attract contributions in other ways.

To expand its fund-raising approach, the charity has been adding staff members. Five people, up from two a couple of years ago, work from the charity’s national office soliciting major gifts and planned gifts. And by early next year, all 10 of the Humane Society’s regional offices around the country are expected to appoint a staff member to handle fund raising — a task the regional offices largely ignored in the past.

Focus on Promotion

The charity is also doing more to solidify its relations with donors of big gifts. In the last few years, the Humane Society has introduced efforts to encourage or acknowledge donations. In 2002, nearly 5,000 donors contributed to the charity through a program, called Our Kindred Spirits, which collects gifts as a memorial to deceased pets. Another donor program, called Humane Legacy, adds the names of contributors who leave bequests worth at least $25,000 to a wood carving in the lobby of the charity’s office in Gaithersburg, Md.

The group is about to embark on a marketing campaign to persuade donors to make contributions through another one of its new programs, called Hip, Hip, Humane!, as an alternative to giving holiday gifts this year. The Humane Society will send festive cards to people on the donor’s gift list to announce when such donations have been made.

The Humane Society is doing more to promote planned gifts, too, especially charitable gift annuities, which allow donors to contribute cash or other assets to a charity in exchange for fixed annual payments. Last year, the charity collected roughly $676,000 in donations associated with annuities, three times the amount in 2001.

It is also focusing on attracting more foundation grants, and on doing a better job of reaching potential donors through the Internet. The charity has spent $1-million on recent efforts to improve its Web site, adding more educational content and more opportunities to involve donors and solicit money. Last year, the Humane Society collected nearly $180,000 through Web site donations, up from $45,000 in 1999.

In addition, the group is sending an increasing number of e-mail messages to potential donors. For instance, it has started a monthly electronic newsletter tracking the group’s effort to return to the wild a whale, named Keiko, made famous for his role as the title character in the film Free Willy. The Humane Society took over responsibility for the effort last year after its main backer, the telecommunications entrepreneur Craig McCaw, dropped his support.

Donor Choices

Key to the success of all its new fund-raising endeavors, according to Humane Society officials, is the organization’s ability to better promote its “brand” and to inform potential donors about its broad range of services and programs. Officials say that the charity is too often mistaken for an association of local animal shelters, which it is not.

The Humane Society runs mobile clinics through its Rural Area Veterinary Services program, and it recently acquired a veterinary clinic in Texas, but, for the most part, the charity doesn’t run its own facilities, instead providing support and training to local shelters and clinics, and their staffs. It also operates a disaster-preparedness-and-relief program to deal with animals during a crisis, a land trust to preserve wildlife habitats, and an effort to promote the humane treatment of farm animals. The Humane Society also lobbies on a variety of issues, especially efforts to toughen laws to prevent cruelty to animals.

To get donors and potential donors closer to the charity’s work, the group has started organizing nature walks that highlight its work in habitat preservation. It also takes groups on what it calls field trips, such as visiting farms where the Humane Society has helped to ensure that animals are well treated.

The Ohio couple who made the $50,000 gift was invited to visit the Humane Society’s mobile spay and neuter clinic, which had traveled to Ohio as part of the Rural Area Veterinary Services program. Since then, the couple has made another $50,000 commitment.

“We like to keep our gifts designated, and this is a great project,” says Andy, a retired lawyer. “It’s important to see where your money goes.”

The rural program is part of what the fund raiser Ms. Martin calls the Humane Society’s “menu of products.”

“We tell donors exactly what we do and what costs we incur so they can see what their money can underwrite,” she says.

And donors’ choices are growing.

Last year it absorbed a high-profile but financially strapped nonprofit organization, formerly called Ark Trust, in Los Angeles.

Through its new Hollywood office, the Humane Society has continued the work of Ark Trust, monitoring the animal issues examined and portrayed in movies, television programs, and the news, and pitching story ideas.

The Humane Society also produces a televised awards show, recognizing people in the entertainment and news industries for bringing animal-protection issues to the fore.

The charity is hoping to raise $1-million a year to cover the Hollywood office’s budget, at least in part by persuading companies to sponsor the awards show. A $30,000 corporate contribution, for example, might earn a company recognition during the show, which airs each year on the cable station Animal Planet.

“The show gives us exposure to a broad audience on TV, and to Hollywood types who come to the event,” says Patricia A. Forkan, the Humane Society’s executive vice president. “It’s the kind of visibility that shows the broad range of things we do, that brings together different parts of the animal-welfare community, and gives us something to point to when talking to donors.”