One thing I personally hope that GFAS does is provide people with a more realistic assessment of how much skill is really needed to run a successful sanctuary. Many of you did it the hard way, the only way at the time, building your sanctuary from the ground up with limited preparation or guidance. And succeeded. A few still do so today. I visited one successful director awhile ago.  In the early years of the organization, she/he was already out meeting with major donors, and today has a huge mailing list for fundraising, built with the help of a professional fundraising company. The organization just added more acres to their property and has the funds in hand to begin building, in this economy, in rural America. The organization is just over 10 years old now. It all began with one person and one animal, as it usually has in the past.

However, just as it is now more difficult to open a retail store with no background in business than it was in 1910, 1970, or even more recently, so too is it harder to start and run a successful sanctuary today.  And it was never EASY. In contrast to the visit to the 10+ year old facility, I visited one that has been in operation for several decades, still struggling on minimal leased acreage.  The director is extremely dedicated, but in actual practice has never made the leap from the role of animal care director to executive director, except for the minimum amount of time needed to stay afloat.

Today, a logical career path might be: Running a nonprofit dog/cat shelter, well-established, learning the ins and outs of working with a board, direct mail, online fundraising, major donor cultivation, volunteer/staff oversight, risk management, disaster preparedness, etc….then starting a sanctuary, with initial major donors lined up ahead of time; or interning at a sanctuary, or being employed by one, as you get your degree in nonprofit management, and then starting a branch of the successful sanctuary; or leading a successful nonprofit such as a hospital, then being hired by a large, established sanctuary as the new executive director.

For those of you with thriving sanctuaries, one of the greatest gifts you can give to the animals is  welcoming  those interested in starting a sanctuary, and allowing internships, developing a strong second-in-command, considering a branch facility under trained, new leadership, and networking with nonprofit leaders in other fields to let them know the sanctuary world needs them and provides rewards beyond their imagination.  I see many of you doing that right now, and the animals thank you!

The statistics for sanctuary founders leaving their sanctuary someday are even worse…100% ultimately leave the sanctuary! Unless you are VERY different from the rest of us, someday you are going to die. And hopefully you are going to be replaced, so that your work will live on. So you need to plan for that. And set a good precedence by signing a prenuptial agreement with your board. The stakes couldn’t be any higher….the lives of the animals in your care and their well being is on the line.

While you may be 100% convinced that your Board will never fire you, I can give you a list of executive directors who thought the same; no, actually they KNEW FOR SURE that they would never be dismissed, and yet they got fired. In fact, the ones we tend to know of are often known for the very reason that it seems so unthinkable that it happened! Yet it did. So to protect you AND your nonprofit, it should be clear NOW, while everything is fine, what would happen if there were a falling out. As an added benefit, this will be in place for when you ARE replaced someday (100% guarantee you will leave someday, remember), and it may be needed then, for the next executive director may not work out for one reason or another. (You’ll be hard to replace!)

You are not off the hook, by the way, if you are an all volunteer director. As you read through the issues below, you will see that they apply to your situation, as well as to a paid director’s position.

Your prenup should cover items such as:

If you personally own the land and lease it to the nonprofit (you DO need a lease, even if the rent is $1 per year), does your firing mean the lease is broken? How much time is the nonprofit allowed to relocate the animals? How much access or interaction would you be allowed, if fired, with staff/volunteers on site, with the animals? What rules govern the nonprofit volunteers/staff coming on your property at that point? Are any of the animals your personal animals? How will their care be handled? Who pays if property gets damaged at that point?

Many of the same questions apply if the nonprofit owns the land and you live in a house on site, except the question is, how much time will you be given to vacate the premises? Is the lease (formal or part of your compensation) automatically brought to an end when you are terminated? What kind of repair state must you leave the house in? If your animals are on the premises, do they remain? Do you begin paying for their care? How long can they remain? How often can you visit?

Another consideration: How would a termination decision be reached? The more you iron out the process now, the less hard feelings there will be if it ever happens. To determine the best process, picture in your mind an evil successor who is pocketing donations. If illegal activity is suspected, how will the Board proceed? Is there an automatic suspension? In that case, what applies regarding land use/house use? If it is a matter of conflict (over productivity, skills, management style, decision making, etc), how will the Board proceed? A process can be set up for that scenario that includes an outside mediator or mediators, perhaps one even representing the voice of the animals, for long-term bonds may be at stake. The important thing is to agree in advance on a process and how it will be funded (if at all) and a time table.

Also to be considered are donor and funder relations. Should the executive director agree to certain terms about confidentiality and what will be announced to the public, in return for the Board adhering to the outlined termination process? (Get legal counsel on this one!)Under what circumstances would the executive director be released from those terms? And in any case, how long before the x-executive director can contact the donors to solicit funds for a new venture? What if the donors make the contact?

One special footnote: If you own the land and rent it to the nonprofit, what happens in the case of your sudden death? This needs to be clearly spelled out and a trust is usually more rock solid than a will. Make sure your appointed executor understands and agrees with the terms you have arrived at. If you have not set up a trust, you need to do so immediately. Otherwise, upon your death, your nonprofit may be on the 5 PM news, begging for foster homes, or frantically calling other sanctuaries, as your heirs may have given them 36 hours to get off the property.

These discussions can be time intensive, painful, and often require a legal eye to look over the final agreement. All that is hard to make time for.  But it is a small investment of time and money and emotion compared to what is spent dealing with a parting gone bad.

So, if you haven’t already done so, hammer out that prenup. It is a way of helping to insure that your nonprofit will always be there for the animals, and that any falling out will have minimal impact on the support for their care or the quality of their care. We owe them that.

 Great resource on succession planning for you and your Board, full of PRACTICAL and EASY TIPS: http://www.help4nonprofits.com/NPLibrary/NP_Bd_SuccessionPlanning_Art.htm

To professionalize even more…
http://www.compasspoint.org/assets/526_buildingleaderfulorganiza.pdf

How about your facility? If a fire broke out, would you escape with only structural damage (devastating as that is)? Would an alarm ring? Even better yet, would a sprinkler system activate? Are animals ever locked in a structure? How long would it take to reach them? To get them out?

Yesterday, for 250 exotic birds, the answers were not good. The newspaper report begins with this horrible sentence: “Hundreds of exotic birds and a dog have died in a blaze that destroyed a building at a private Las Vegas nature preserve and sanctuary.”

The Value of the Accreditation Process

Just before a pilot takes off, s/he reads aloud from a checklist, just to make sure everything vital is checked out. The pilot tests each critical piece of equipment, and checks that all is clear before takeoff. Doesn’t matter if the plane has never had an accident. Doesn’t matter how experienced the pilot is. The checklist is used.

Similarly, the GFAS accreditation application is a chance for a sanctuary to check for critical pieces, and make sure all are in operating condition. The GFAs accreditation process starts with a thorough self-evaluation checklist.

After joining GFAS, on one of my first visits to a model sanctuary, we discovered a smoldering fire in progress when we opened the door and stepped inside a building housing animals, bedded down for the night. I don’t know if everything happens for a reason, but that site visit drove home to me the importance of the accreditation process. If a model sanctuary could have a building with more than twenty animals in it, with a heater running inside, and no fire alarm, no fire extinguisher, no sprinkler system ….I knew it could happen any place. It is all too easy to overlook something, given the overwhelming task that sanctuary work is. The GFAS accreditation process helps a sanctuary spot overlooked areas of risk or weakness and correct them.

Two Common Disasters

By far the two most common disasters (beyond shutting down) that I have seen hit sanctuaries since beginning with GFAS are: 1) barn fires and 2) the sudden departure of the founder.

Think neither can happen at your place?

We all know the unthinkable can and does happen.

You know what to do. Put in place fire alarms which also ring in the main residence, fire extinguishers, and better yet, sprinkler systems. Hold fire drills. Think through your water supply. Have emergency numbers posted. Have everyone equipped with a cell phone. Test emergency equipment often. Store hay in a separate barn from your animals. Have the fire department come out and give recommendations. Make sure they can get into your facility and are familiar with it. These are not luxury items. These are critical pieces from day one. Taking basic precautions against anything that could kill your animals is not something to do “someday”, but rather something to do TODAY, if you have not already done so.

Regarding the founder’s sudden departure, I’ll address that next blog.

The award will be given to a sanctuary or individual who embodies and puts into practice the GFAS philosophy of vision, dedication and excellence in animal care.

Carole Noon, PhD exemplified these traits with an innovative spirit, creating solutions to overwhelming challenges; a deep knowledge of those entrusted to the care of the sanctuary; and a dedication to animals and a determination to succeed that manifested in a commitment to ensure humane and responsible care for the lifetime of each of the sanctuary residents.

Nominations

Nominations are being solicited through the end of July, 2010 . Please state in 500 words or less how the nominee (sanctuary or individual) exemplifies the traits listed above. Send nominations to

Applications are reviewed and a recommendation is made by the GFAS Award Committee, which includes a representative of the past recipient. Both the Sanctuary Director and the Sanctuary Board must understand and be comfortable with the publicity implications that come with the award for a recipient associated with the sanctuary. The final responsibility for selection rests with the GFAS Board of Directors. The award ceremony location and time depends upon opportunities available that year.

The winning sanctuary or sanctuary director receives a distinctive engraved plaque, and a monetary donation to the sanctuary.

But as we do so, let’s not lose sight of the forest. An accreditation program for sanctuaries says that the work of sanctuaries is important enough and matters enough for there to be guidelines. Standards say there are best practices in this field, and lessons that have been learned. Accreditation says that that the level of care, the level of financial stability, and the level of sustainability in a crisis should matter to donors and funders. Standards say that sanctuaries must be prepared to survive the loss of a founder. Simply put, standards say the future of the animals in our care matters. A lot.

Of all the endeavors undertaken in the humane field, sanctuaries are the one effort that MUST not fail. The animals in the care of sanctuaries have already been victimized. We owe a special dispensation to them to insure that they are never victimized again. Together, we can create a community of sanctuaries that have drawn the line in the sand…making it clear that failure is NOT an option, and that the animals are indeed, at last, home and safe, forever.

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 .

Caller:  I’m calling because I want to start an animal sanctuary.

Me:  What kind of species?

Caller: I’m not sure.

Me: Domestic or wildlife?

Caller:  I’m not sure.

Me:  Have you run a business or nonprofit before?

Caller:  No. I’m wondering how you start.

Me: Well, I would suggest you volunteer at a sanctuary as a first step.

Caller: But I was wondering where I go to get money to start. I mean, shouldn’t I buy some land first or something like that?

At that point I began to talk about the virtues of alternative careers.

Running a sanctuary is a very sophisticated business, involving a breathtaking variety of skills and knowledge. I’m in absolute awe of all of you who have accomplished this mission impossible and have done so not just well, but phenomenally well.  Please send us your story of how you became a sanctuary director. If you have any words of advice for anyone contemplating this career, add those too! Email your contributions to GFAS. Please include your name, title, and sanctuary name. Contributions will be published at http://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/gfas/for-sanctuaries/sanctuary-director-stories/. Many thanks to Kari Bagnall, Founder and Executive Director of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, GFAS Accredited,  for kicking off this feature with her story. Like many stories that I love, it begins with a special animal…

I am truly confident that the GFAS accreditation process will help funders feel more secure about giving to sanctuaries. It is one of the many ways GFAS intends to help attract new funding to sanctuaries.

I have also had more than one funder tell me that the grant proposals from animal sanctuaries are some of the most poorly written that they receive. Could it be you are busy with other things, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe caring for the animals?! I understand your time constraints. That is why I urge you to send volunteers, even virtual volunteers (advertise for them on volunteermatch.com), to attend one of the free GFAS webinars on grant writing. Some of the comments from sanctuary attendees and their volunteers to date have been:

“The session was wonderful and I enjoyed it. I got so much useful information I am swimming in it!”

“Your experience as both a funder and a grant seeker is invaluable, especially to those like myself who are really new to all of this.  I look forward to going over my notes and your slides again.  I am determined that 2009 will be a successful grant writing and receiving year for us!”

“I wanted to thank you again for inviting me to your webinar. There was a lot of helpful information. I felt that you were very personable and easy to talk to.”

So please do come join us, and we will try to remove the mystery from grant writing!