By VERA LAWLOR
A dog named Maddie
did what dogs do best — provided love and companionship to her caregivers Dave and
Cheryl Duffield. In
fact the miniature
schnauzer made such
a difference in the c
ouple’s lives, that
they promised if their
PeopleSoft computer
company became
successful, they would
give back in dollars
to animal welfare
what Maddie had
given to them in love
and friendship.
Maddie died of cancer
in 1997 but the Duffields
kept their promise, and
her spirit lives on
through the not-for-profit
Maddie’s Fund.
Established in 1999
with a lead grant of
200 million dollars, the mission of the organization is “to revolutionize the status and
wellbeing of companion animals.”
The ultimate goal of the fund is to build a no-kill nation — one in which all healthy and
treatable shelter dogs and cats find homes.
“When we reach the point where the nation’s healthy animals can be guaranteed a
home, Maddie’s Fund will then focus its resources on funding programs to rehabilitate
the sick, injured, and poorly behaved, knowing that when these animals are whole again,
there will be a loving home waiting for them,” said Maddie’s Fund President Rich
Avanzino.
Since its inception, Maddie’s Fund has spent $52.4 million on animal welfare projects in
over 5,000 cities across 19 states. Grants have gone to more than 500 animal welfare
organizations (more than half being rescue groups), over 1,400 veterinary hospitals, six
universities and eight veterinary medical associations. Long term funding for continuing
programs is estimated at $48.2 million.
The first step to obtaining one of these grants is to link up with other animal welfare
groups in the community.
“We invest in community collaboration — animal welfare groups and organizations
working together to increase spay and neuter surgeries as well as adoptions,” Avanzino
said. “We are also campaigning to get veterinary hospitals in the community to work with
shelter animals.”
Maddie’s Fund believes it takes everyone working together to provide a safe healthy
environment for homeless dogs and cats in a community. When rescue organizations,
traditional shelters, and animal control agencies collaborate, animals who might not find
a home through one agency, have the opportunity to find safe haven through another,
Avanzino said. Add breed rescue groups and feral cat caregivers to the mix, and even
more lives are saved. In addition, private veterinary practices in the community can assist
in the effort by providing low cost spays and neuters. Maddie’s Fund now also offers
grants to veterinary hospitals to do more research and outreach work in the area of
shelter medicine.
Applying for a Maddie’s Fund is no easy task, and requires detailed records of animal
intakes, and adoptions, as well as medical records. The idea is not that a group or
organization gets money and decides on where it should go, Avanzino said. The point is
that an animal welfare community has already come together to work on saving the lives
of all healthy shelter animals. From the viewpoint of Maddie’s Fund representatives to
effectively achieve this goal groups have to keep detailed records.
“A Maddie’s grant awarded to any community helps them do what they were already
working on anyway,” Avanzino said. “We have a variety of start up grants to help groups
take baby steps towards the larger goal.”
While it can be helpful to study what other communities operating with the help of Maddie’
s Fund are doing, there’s no blueprint to receiving a grant. “Not every community will have
the same game plan, each has its own history and its own personality and organizational
goals,” said Avanzino, who speaks at animal welfare conferences nationwide about
applying for a Maddie’s grant.
Lynn Fridley of Alabama, who has worked in animal sheltering for 29 years, was turned
down the first time she sought a grant for a low-cost spay and neuter program in Chilton
County, Alabama.
“They said I needed to collaborate with other animal welfare organizations in the
community, but the thing is we were the only shelter in the county,” said Fridley, now a
Field Representative for Maddie’s Fund. “I had applied for grants before, so I didn’t take
the rejection personally.”
Instead, she sought statewide collaboration and founded the Alabama Humane Federa-
tion, a coalition of 16 traditional shelters, 15 animal control agencies, nine non-kill
organizations, and the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association. Fridley collected data on
animal intakes, adoptions, and euthanasia from all the members and re-applied for a
Maddie’s Fund grant. This time she was turned down due to insufficient data.
“These are multi-million dollar grants, and I can understand why Maddie’s Fund needs
grantees to report statistics accurately — they need to be able to track that a program is
meeting its goals,” Fridley said.
While Fridley didn’t get a full grant, Avanzino suggested that Maddie’s Fund would
sponsor at a cost of 2.4 million dollars a two-year pilot spay and neuter program that was
known as Maddie’s Big Fix for Alabama.
The program, which got underway in 2001, funded the spay and neuter of dogs and cats
belonging to low-income residents, and was administered by the Alabama Veterinary
Medical Association. In addition to 36,047 surgeries, shelters reported a nine percent
drop in euthanasia, or 5,449 fewer deaths over two years.
Maddie’s Big Fix also strengthened the bond between veterinarians and the animal
sheltering community, and led to the formation of animal welfare collaborations in many
counties. Three of those counties applied and received Maddie’s grants after the Maddie’
s Big Fix program had come to an end. Meanwhile, Fridley is working as a mediator in
other Alabama communities to get animal welfare groups working as one team.
“We feel if we can make Alabama a no-kill state, we can do this anywhere in the country,”
she said.
Maddie’s Fund awarded a grant to The Mayor’s Alliance of New York City in 2003.
Founded in 2002, the Alliance is a coalition of animal rescue groups and shelters
working with the city of New York to find a home for every cat and dog. It includes New
York City Animal Care and Control, six founding members (the American Society for the
Prev-ention of Cruelty to Animals, Animal Haven, Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition,
Humane Society of New York, City Critters, and Art for Animals), and more than 100
additional animal welfare organizations.
While it can often be challenging to get animal welfare groups to cooperate with one
another, they all came together for a common cause in forming the alliance.
“It helped that it was an independent not-for-profit (The Animal Law Committee) with no
axe to grind that was forming the Alliance,” said Alliance President Jane Hoffman, who is
a member of The Animal Law Committee, an association of the Bar of the City of New
York, that deals with legal issues pertaining to animals. “We have done pro bono work for
animal rights groups in the city and they respect us.”
The economic carrot — a Maddie’s grant — that would move the groups towards a no-kill
city at a much quicker pace, was also instrumental in bringing the New York City animal
welfare community together. The year the Alliance received its first Maddie’s grant,
records showed 51,855 dogs and cats in the city shelters, and of those 31,803 were
euthanized. Out of the total deaths, approximately 14,000 were healthy. Total progress a
year after the Maddie’s grant was 21,612 adoptions and 8,404 fewer deaths.
The Alliance continues to develop tools, programs and services to meet adoption goals.
Planned initiatives include new adoption kiosks; new adoption festivals, events and
locations; increased publicity and advertising; and website development for smaller
organizations. Hand-in-hand with this is a low-cost spay and neuter campaign to help
end the city’s pet overpopulation problem.
Maddie’s Fund awarded $1,617,840 to the Alliance the beginning of 2006. As goals are
achieved, the foundation will make up to $15.5 million available to Maddie’s Projects in
New York City over a seven-year period.
Every community has the ability to receive the results seen in New York City, according to
Avanzino. “When each animal welfare agency in a community wants to end the killing of
animals, then it’s just a matter of putting aside their differences and egos, and working
together to achieve that goal,” Avanzino said.
First Published December 2006 in The Animal Companion.
A dog named Maddie
did what dogs do best — provided love and companionship to her caregivers Dave and
Cheryl Duffield. In
fact the miniature
schnauzer made such
a difference in the c
ouple’s lives, that
they promised if their
PeopleSoft computer
company became
successful, they would
give back in dollars
to animal welfare
what Maddie had
given to them in love
and friendship.
Maddie died of cancer
in 1997 but the Duffields
kept their promise, and
her spirit lives on
through the not-for-profit
Maddie’s Fund.
Established in 1999
with a lead grant of
200 million dollars, the mission of the organization is “to revolutionize the status and
wellbeing of companion animals.”
The ultimate goal of the fund is to build a no-kill nation — one in which all healthy and
treatable shelter dogs and cats find homes.
“When we reach the point where the nation’s healthy animals can be guaranteed a
home, Maddie’s Fund will then focus its resources on funding programs to rehabilitate
the sick, injured, and poorly behaved, knowing that when these animals are whole again,
there will be a loving home waiting for them,” said Maddie’s Fund President Rich
Avanzino.
Since its inception, Maddie’s Fund has spent $52.4 million on animal welfare projects in
over 5,000 cities across 19 states. Grants have gone to more than 500 animal welfare
organizations (more than half being rescue groups), over 1,400 veterinary hospitals, six
universities and eight veterinary medical associations. Long term funding for continuing
programs is estimated at $48.2 million.
The first step to obtaining one of these grants is to link up with other animal welfare
groups in the community.
“We invest in community collaboration — animal welfare groups and organizations
working together to increase spay and neuter surgeries as well as adoptions,” Avanzino
said. “We are also campaigning to get veterinary hospitals in the community to work with
shelter animals.”
Maddie’s Fund believes it takes everyone working together to provide a safe healthy
environment for homeless dogs and cats in a community. When rescue organizations,
traditional shelters, and animal control agencies collaborate, animals who might not find
a home through one agency, have the opportunity to find safe haven through another,
Avanzino said. Add breed rescue groups and feral cat caregivers to the mix, and even
more lives are saved. In addition, private veterinary practices in the community can assist
in the effort by providing low cost spays and neuters. Maddie’s Fund now also offers
grants to veterinary hospitals to do more research and outreach work in the area of
shelter medicine.
Applying for a Maddie’s Fund is no easy task, and requires detailed records of animal
intakes, and adoptions, as well as medical records. The idea is not that a group or
organization gets money and decides on where it should go, Avanzino said. The point is
that an animal welfare community has already come together to work on saving the lives
of all healthy shelter animals. From the viewpoint of Maddie’s Fund representatives to
effectively achieve this goal groups have to keep detailed records.
“A Maddie’s grant awarded to any community helps them do what they were already
working on anyway,” Avanzino said. “We have a variety of start up grants to help groups
take baby steps towards the larger goal.”
While it can be helpful to study what other communities operating with the help of Maddie’
s Fund are doing, there’s no blueprint to receiving a grant. “Not every community will have
the same game plan, each has its own history and its own personality and organizational
goals,” said Avanzino, who speaks at animal welfare conferences nationwide about
applying for a Maddie’s grant.
Lynn Fridley of Alabama, who has worked in animal sheltering for 29 years, was turned
down the first time she sought a grant for a low-cost spay and neuter program in Chilton
County, Alabama.
“They said I needed to collaborate with other animal welfare organizations in the
community, but the thing is we were the only shelter in the county,” said Fridley, now a
Field Representative for Maddie’s Fund. “I had applied for grants before, so I didn’t take
the rejection personally.”
Instead, she sought statewide collaboration and founded the Alabama Humane Federa-
tion, a coalition of 16 traditional shelters, 15 animal control agencies, nine non-kill
organizations, and the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association. Fridley collected data on
animal intakes, adoptions, and euthanasia from all the members and re-applied for a
Maddie’s Fund grant. This time she was turned down due to insufficient data.
“These are multi-million dollar grants, and I can understand why Maddie’s Fund needs
grantees to report statistics accurately — they need to be able to track that a program is
meeting its goals,” Fridley said.
While Fridley didn’t get a full grant, Avanzino suggested that Maddie’s Fund would
sponsor at a cost of 2.4 million dollars a two-year pilot spay and neuter program that was
known as Maddie’s Big Fix for Alabama.
The program, which got underway in 2001, funded the spay and neuter of dogs and cats
belonging to low-income residents, and was administered by the Alabama Veterinary
Medical Association. In addition to 36,047 surgeries, shelters reported a nine percent
drop in euthanasia, or 5,449 fewer deaths over two years.
Maddie’s Big Fix also strengthened the bond between veterinarians and the animal
sheltering community, and led to the formation of animal welfare collaborations in many
counties. Three of those counties applied and received Maddie’s grants after the Maddie’
s Big Fix program had come to an end. Meanwhile, Fridley is working as a mediator in
other Alabama communities to get animal welfare groups working as one team.
“We feel if we can make Alabama a no-kill state, we can do this anywhere in the country,”
she said.
Maddie’s Fund awarded a grant to The Mayor’s Alliance of New York City in 2003.
Founded in 2002, the Alliance is a coalition of animal rescue groups and shelters
working with the city of New York to find a home for every cat and dog. It includes New
York City Animal Care and Control, six founding members (the American Society for the
Prev-ention of Cruelty to Animals, Animal Haven, Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition,
Humane Society of New York, City Critters, and Art for Animals), and more than 100
additional animal welfare organizations.
While it can often be challenging to get animal welfare groups to cooperate with one
another, they all came together for a common cause in forming the alliance.
“It helped that it was an independent not-for-profit (The Animal Law Committee) with no
axe to grind that was forming the Alliance,” said Alliance President Jane Hoffman, who is
a member of The Animal Law Committee, an association of the Bar of the City of New
York, that deals with legal issues pertaining to animals. “We have done pro bono work for
animal rights groups in the city and they respect us.”
The economic carrot — a Maddie’s grant — that would move the groups towards a no-kill
city at a much quicker pace, was also instrumental in bringing the New York City animal
welfare community together. The year the Alliance received its first Maddie’s grant,
records showed 51,855 dogs and cats in the city shelters, and of those 31,803 were
euthanized. Out of the total deaths, approximately 14,000 were healthy. Total progress a
year after the Maddie’s grant was 21,612 adoptions and 8,404 fewer deaths.
The Alliance continues to develop tools, programs and services to meet adoption goals.
Planned initiatives include new adoption kiosks; new adoption festivals, events and
locations; increased publicity and advertising; and website development for smaller
organizations. Hand-in-hand with this is a low-cost spay and neuter campaign to help
end the city’s pet overpopulation problem.
Maddie’s Fund awarded $1,617,840 to the Alliance the beginning of 2006. As goals are
achieved, the foundation will make up to $15.5 million available to Maddie’s Projects in
New York City over a seven-year period.
Every community has the ability to receive the results seen in New York City, according to
Avanzino. “When each animal welfare agency in a community wants to end the killing of
animals, then it’s just a matter of putting aside their differences and egos, and working
together to achieve that goal,” Avanzino said.
First Published December 2006 in The Animal Companion.
| Subscribe Today! Gotta get your Animal Companion! |
| MADDIE'S FUND: Revolutionizing the Status and Wellbeing of Companion Animals |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
