« A Salute to Mentors

At the recent Taking Action for Animals Conference in Washington DC, GFAS presented a panel entitled “The Animal Sanctuary. Start One. Support One.”

One of the panelists was Matt Smith of Project Perry. He gave a super presentation on starting a sanctuary. The nuts and bolts were covered by an excellent handout provided by Kim Sturla of Animal Place, farmed animal sanctuary.

Matt stressed that starting a sanctuary is more than playing with and caring for the animals. It is running a business. He emphasized the need for both passion AND knowledge. Matt started his sanctuary, armed with a MBA and two years spent as a volunteer at Foster Parrots.

That brings me to the point of this blog. Kudos to Marc Johnson and Karen Windsor of Foster Parrots for their willingness to share their knowledge, expertise, donor and foundation contacts, lessons learned, and more with Matt. Karen, in turn, applauds Matt for being willing to listen and learn and to take the time needed to really discover what running a sanctuary is all about.

This is the kind of generous mentoring, and willingness to learn, that allows new sanctuaries to start with a leg up and avoid re-inventing the wheel or repeating mistakes. The animals win! If you have stories of successful mentoring and/or learning that you would be willing to share, please send them to .