This is a time of great challenge!
Surely as time ticks on, we are working harder and harder at the Dog Sanctuary.
With the split into two locations, our work has doubled.
I know it, my volunteers know it, and you know it.
A lot of people have quit on us.
Let me explain why:
List of complaints:
There is no proper shower (on the site).
Conditions are often dirty.
Our schedule is hard to maintain (too few people).
Not everyone is splitting the work "evenly". Communication issues between them.
Half of our staff are off-grid (no phones!)
All this stuff is 100% true and why we have a hard time keeping people to stick to our schedules and plans. ...
So what can we do about this?!
I've spent a lot of time thinking about these issues.
There is a clear path ahead: but it requires a lot of work, and fundraising.
We even spoke about it some months ago, but then when we got the threat to the Dog Sanctuary, we had to change priorities and make the "Emergency build-a-shelter Fundraiser!"
It's time to show everyone how we used our funds for the fundraiser! We raised to this day (in the fundraiser platform for this last quarter):
$8724.65 USD
That funding has finally been fully used. It was able to keep us afloat while we worked on developing the new location, along with it's workers, materials, and dog needs. We were able to provide:
2 1/2 months so far of full-time dog care for ~64 dogs over two locations.
A full [and paid] staff of 6 people for the entire time (with small variations). Weekly food budget for the volunteers/staff, and daily meals for the staff as much as we could afford.
Extra food/medicine/and all expenses for the dogs food over the two months. At the same time, this was done not just by volunteers but by almost exclusively the staff, whom we needed because our main volunteer stream had been temporarily frozen.
Guatemalan labor force (just a couple guys 😆) that helped us work for the 2 months we've been building the next location, moving materials, and clearing land.
All the materials for the construction and development of the new Sanctuary location.
Rather than just tell it to you, I'll provide a simplified budgetary breakdown of all the finances and expenses of the last two months. We could use either an accountant, or an accounting software at this point!
Accounting and Accountability are huge for organizations like us! Here is the big expenses report for our last 2 and a half months:
Financial Report June/July/August 2023 - "Emergency Build-a-Shelter" funds
Employees | Dog Food | Human Food | Building Materials | Laborers | Utilities/. Other | Dog Medicine | |
6/12-6/18 | 900 | 1900 | 400 | 1200 | 625 | 445 | 250 |
6/19-6/25 | 1500 | 1900 | 700 | 3662 | 625 | 200 | 350 |
6/26-7/2 | 1700 | 1900 | 800 | 1049 | 1150 | 400 | 750 |
7/3-7/9 | 2400 | 1900 | 700 | 1289 | 1475 | 600 | 0 |
7/10-7/16 | 2700 | 1900 | 400 | 1700 | 1275 | 350 | 200 |
7/17-7/23 | 1000 | 1900 | 550 | 1845 | 1400 | 300 | 250 |
7/24-7/30 | 1200 | 1900 | 400 | 450 | 1400 | 175 | 400 |
7/31-8/6 | 2400 | 1900 | 400 | 350 | 0 | 300 | 200 |
8/7-8/13 | 3600 | 1900 | 400 | 200 | 0 | 245 | 0 |
TOTAL: | 17400 | 19000 | 4750 | 11745 | 7950 | 3015 | 2400 |
Ultimate total:
66,620 Quetzales =
approximately $9,076 (at 7.3:1 mean conversion rate)
So, in conclusion; the fundraiser was a success! But we yet need a consistent income, to keep operations afloat.
I created the projected goal of $8000 USD because knowing our budget, this amount I knew could cover at least 2-months of non-stop work at the Sanctuary covering absolutely all expenses. However, with all the materials and unexpected costs, we did go over a little more. but the funding lasted an extra 2 weeks longer than we planned.
That's called amazing budgeting skills! Thank you for ALL the donators who made it possible. I hope this helps everyone see more how our funding is used, and as a newly recongized 501 (c)3 non-profit all of our newly reported taxes are 100% public information. So that means finances are 100% accountable and accessible through the IRS and to the public. That's how a proper charity should work!
So...what now?!
Well, we have to raise money again!
Such is the life of the non-profit organization. By being 100% donation based, we have to fundraise constantly to have enough money. Now, expenses are higher than ever. With more employees and less volunteers, we need to be able to pay the small salaries we offer the employees and keep things staffed.
So, we will start a new fundraiser to budget out the rest of the year. I haven't taken the time to do the math and calculations of how much we will be projected to need, but I will do this soon as possible to then post the fundraiser and start raising more money quickly. We are going to need it very soon!
So in the mean time, if you can help support us to get through this next week while I return home to Guatemala, we would REALLY appreciate it. Your assistance is needed.
Below is our "donate" button if you can help us with some extra funding at this time. Our primary need is dog food: your donations will be able to help us feed the dogs this week!
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That's all for today folks!
I'd like to explain more of our goals and our situation that needs a LOT of improvement. But for now, we'll keep it short.
Thank you for all your support, and libertad para los perros!