5 Most Successful Ways to Raise Money for Animal Shelters Using the Internet

There are several things that are always in short supply at animal shelters – space, volunteers, time, and especially money. Animal shelters are always in need of monetary donations to support their operations, as many of them are non-profit. Giving is a gracious act, and if you are an animal love
then you may want to focus your efforts on various rescue organizations. There are many ways to raise money for animal shelters and now it has become easier and even more convenient to do it electronically using the internet. In “Letterman” fashion (saving the best item for last), the following is a list of my 5 favorite ways (that you can use also!) to raise money online for your favorite rescue organizations without ever leaving the comfort of your easy chair!

5. Credit Cards, Banks & Bill-Pay – check with your credit card company to see if they allow you to donate a certain percentage to a shelter whenever you use your card. Some banks also allow this with their debit cards and some may even donate a certain dollar amount just for opening an account. As another example, my cell phone provider, CREDO.com, allows me to round up my monthly bill to the nearest $1, $5, or $10 and designate which animal charities I want to receive the added donation.

4. Workplace Deductions – depending on where you work, you can donate through your employer to your area’s United Way Combined Federal Campaign, which runs from September to December every year. Alongside familiar charities such as March of Dimes or the American Cancer Society, local animal shelters are now able to receive contributions electronically through an assigned designation number. The simplest way is to donate a recurring amount per paycheck or you can donate in one lump sum. By designating a small amount per paycheck through my employer, I can now afford to donate a larger amount over the course of a year!

3. Charity Websites – these are websites that help you raise money for your favorite cause by allowing you to set up your own personal fundraising webpage to publicize and receive contributions online from others (basically an electronic version of the donation sign-up sheet). The advantage of sites such as FirstGiving.com and JustGiving.com is the ability for both individuals and non-profits alike to post their webpage links to reach a large number of people on most of the popular social websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Then there are the “click-to-give” sites that I visit every day like TheAnimalRescueSite.com and FreeKibble.com. For every click received, these sites donate a certain amount of pet food to participating animal shelters. In addition, at TheAnimalRescueSite.com you can vote daily for your favorite local shelters, qualifying them to receive grants starting at $1,000 if they receive the most votes!

2. Online Auction Websites – in the old days, instead of emptying your garage or basement and taking all the stuff to the dump, you would have a good old-fashioned garage sale or yard sale and donate the proceeds to your favorite shelter. These days the electronic version of the garage sale is to sell your stuff on eBay.com, CraigsList.com, and Amazon.com. The convenience here is that many shelters also have an online donation link which not only accepts credit cards like Visa and MasterCard, but also PayPal which enables you to both receive your proceeds from the auction website and send your donations electronically to the shelter website without ever having to touch one red cent!

1. Wealth Creations Network – this is hands-down my personal favorite method to raise money for animal shelters simply because, as a member, you have the ability to raise a larger amount of money not just once, but EVERY month thereafter on a residual basis. The membership cost is zero-out-of-pocket with the only requirement to qualify for a monthly residual income (currently around $2,000 per month) is to find just 6 like-minded people to join – EVER! So if you have 6 people working at your shelter or you have 6 friends who just love animals and want to be able to donate generously, imagine how quickly that extra monthly income could add up for you and your favorite rescue organization!