Applying for Accreditation/Grants
Accreditation
If you represent a sanctuary which would like to apply for accreditation, please contact Patty Finch,
the Executive Director at 
.
Patty will help you determine if your organization should apply to become a GFAS Accredited Sanctuary or a GFAS Verified Sanctuary.
The Process for Accreditation and Verification
Your organization will complete an application form and complete a
self-assessment, using GFAS criteria. We verify this self-assessment through required responses and attachments,
interviews, and a site visit. As part of the process, we support your sanctuary in establishing three-year goals.
If you don't meet the criteria, we don't publish your name, and we help you with resources needed to successfully complete the process.
After approval, we publish the sanctuary name as a GFAS Accredited Sanctuary, or a GFAS Verified Sanctuary. Annually we ask for a brief update. At the three-year mark, we ask for a more complete update and do another site visit. Your sanctuary is asked to cover the direct average site visit costs. New goals are established for the next three-year mark.
Cost: There is no charge for the initial site visit, nor any annual dues. Site visits are required every three years, and at the three year mark, sanctuaries are asked to cover the direct average cost for a site visit. Site visits are required for both GFAS Verified Sanctuaries and GFAS Accredited Sanctuaries.
Benefits of Becoming a GFAS Accredited Sanctuary or Verified Sanctuary:
- The entire field benefits from having true sanctuaries recognized as such. The public needs and appreciates the help in knowing which facilities are legitimate, and providing humane and responsible care for the animals.
- Donors, funders, and legislators are reassured by this process.
Accreditation in particular offers these benefits:
- The self-examination process in itself results in positive growth.
- Funders can handle organizations not being perfect (and of course no organization is!). Grant makers and donors have great faith in an in-depth look at your organization, confirmed by an outside agency, including a site visit. Your three-year goals, also verified by an outside agency as prudent next steps, help donors and grant makers know that their dollars are going to fund legitimate needs that will help take your sanctuary to the next level, regardless of your current level of achievement. (Your accreditation information is kept confidential by us, but we are happy to share it in confidence with funders and donors at your request.)
- Recognition by a credible source is invaluable. The readiness for outside confirmation signals increasing confidence and professionalism within individual organizations and within the field.
- Respect is gained not only from donors and funders, but also legislators, potential adopters (for farmed animals and others as outlined in the GFAS criteria), law enforcement, media, and the larger animal protection community.
- Via accreditation, opportunities for you to provide leadership as a GFAS mentor arise, as well as access to peer-mentors as your organization grows.
- It is a process for uniting to facilitate continuous improvement.
- Accreditation for the field says that the work of sanctuaries/rescues is important enough and demanding enough in terms of knowledge and skills to merit establishment of performance criteria, qualifications, and benchmarks for quality.
- Access to GFAS resources, such as our free webinars, is guaranteed with accreditation. Look for more resources soon.
Compliance grants
At this time, GFAS is not offering compliance grants, though it is our intention to do so in the future,
as we obtain funding for that purpose. However, GFAS has very directly helped several individual sanctuaries receive
$30,500 combined in grant awards in the past six months, by alerting sanctuaries to grant opportunities they were not
aware of, and giving specific advice on applications. (Be sure to sign up for one of our free grant
writing webinars.)
In addition, GFAS has received a grant from the ASPCAź which covers the direct site assessment costs for a number of equine sanctuaries, with none of the funds going towards GFAS overhead. GFAS will continue to work diligently to attract funding so that sanctuaries, regardless of species in residence, do not have to pay for their first site assessment, nor any annual dues.