Free Webinars for Sanctuaries and Volunteers
Topics, Past & Present
- Grant Writing for Animal Sanctuaries
- Training for Operations Specialist for GFAS site visits
- Training for Animal Care Specialist for GFAS site visits
- Applying for Equine Accreditation
- When to Treat – When to Euthanize: Setting some Guidelines for Equine Euthanasia
- When to Say No-Setting Guidelines for Animal Intake and How to Delince Animals In Need
- Using Technology for a More Effective Organization: Free Google Apps Education
How To Sign Up
Schedule of Upcoming Webinars
Testimonials from Webinar Participants
What are webinars?
GFAS is pleased to offer free webinars designed specifically for animal sanctuary personnel and volunteers. Webinars are online workshops, offered in a variety of formats. The GFAS webinars take place via a teleconference call (it is NOT an 800#, you will be responsible for the normal charges you pay for long distance calls) and an internet site. Along with the phone number and dial-in instructions, you will be sent a special website address to log onto, in order to view the PowerPoint slides online, as the presenter discusses the slides. On the teleconference call, all phones will be active, so please mute your phone unless asking or responding to a question.
Webinar Topic Descriptions
Grant Writing for Animal Sanctuaries, 85 minutes
This workshop, with a United States focus, is for appropriate for both sanctuary personnel and for volunteers wishing to help a sanctuary with grant writing. If you have never written a grant proposal before, this workshop walks you through the basics, yet experienced grant writers are sure to pick up some new tips. This is an interactive workshop with plenty of time for questions, limited to 25 participants.
Presenter: Patty Finch, Executive Director of GFAS.
Patty’s grant experience includes serving as a main author of a successful $9.2 million grant from the US Dept. of Education; designing and overseeing two grant award programs for the Think Tank at Maricopa Community College District; serving as a bi-state grant manager for the University of California at Fullerton; and conceptualizing the forerunner of the current grants program at PetSmart Charities, overseeing up to 375 active grants annually and evaluating up to 600 applications per year. She served in several positions at PetSmart Charities, including Director of Charitable Giving and Programs, overseeing the distribution of more than $10 million in annual grants. Patty has a Master’s Degree, summa cum laude, from Arizona State University.
When to Say No-Setting Guidelines for Animal Intake and How to Decline Animals in Need, 60 minutes
One of the most difficult challenges to navigate for a sanctuary, animal shelter, educational farm or even a private individual who is known to be an animal “lover” – is how to say “no” to taking in more animals than one can properly take care of. The slippery slope from animal rescuer to animal collector is becoming well known across the country.
All animal care facilities become the destination for every person looking to re-home animals ranging from roosters, sheep, cats, exotic birds, native wildlife, monkeys, horses and animals of every conceivable species. Often the situation the person and animal are in is desperate.
At the base of the animal intake discussion is the well-being of an individual animal in need and a person who is coming to you for help – but it also immediately raises budgetary issues, animal welfare issues, human resource capacity, facility concerns and poses an important organizational question. What is best for the sanctuary/organization to do in this case?
And that is where the trouble can start. No one likes to say “no” and no one likes to hear the answer “No, we can’t take your animal”.
Join this webinar to focus on the topic of how to say “no” from the perspective of a sanctuary/organizational administrator. What procedures, processes and approaches can you implement that can help you to turn down an animal that is offered to you?
Presenter: Michael E. Kaufmann, Farm and Wildlife Director, Green Chimneys Children Services/Green Chimneys School.
Training for Operations Specialist for GFAS site visits, 60 minutes
This training is for volunteers who wish to go to sanctuaries for GFAS in order to conduct the operations portion of the site visits. This will cover administrative and policy aspects. You should be a person who is observant and comfortable asking probing questions. Going through this training does not obligate you to do any site visits. You will be free to turn down any requests that you feel are not a good fit for you or your schedule. You will record your observations for GFAS and will not be the person to convey the final findings to the sanctuary. GFAS carries out that role.
GFAS can cover reasonable transportation costs as needed, meals for the inspection visit and a $100 honorarium. If for any reason you feel you can’t receive the honorarium or don’t wish to receive the honorarium, you can ask that we instead donate it to the sanctuary you are visiting, or you can request that we put it back into the GFAS fund for sanctuary visits, helping our dollars go further. Most sanctuary visits will be fairly local in nature, as we have a very limited budget for travel.
The training is one hour, though 25 additional minutes are scheduled in case anyone wants additional information.
Presenter: Patty Finch, Executive Director of GFAS.
Training for Animal Care Specialist for GFAS site visits, 60 minutes
This training is for volunteers who wish to go to sanctuaries for GFAS in order to conduct the animal care portion of the site visits. This will cover animal care and veterinary aspects. You should be very knowledgeable about one or more species in particular. Veterinarians, veterinarian technicians, state trained agency workers, nonprofit directors, and others are all possible candidates. Going through this training does not obligate you to do any site visits. You will be free to turn down any requests that you feel are not a good fit for you or your schedule. You will record your observations for GFAS and will not be the person to convey the final findings to the sanctuary. GFAS carries out that role.
GFAS can cover reasonable transportation costs as needed, meals for the inspection visit and a $100 honorarium. If for any reason you feel you can’t receive the honorarium or don’t wish to receive the honorarium, you can ask that we instead donate it to the sanctuary you are visiting, or you can request that we put it back into the GFAS fund for sanctuary visits, helping our dollars go further. Most sanctuary visits will be fairly local in nature, as we have a very limited budget for travel.
The training is one hour, though 25 additional minutes are scheduled in case anyone wants additional information.
Presenter: Patty Finch, Executive Director of GFAS.
Applying for Equine Accreditation, 60 minutes
Are you an Equine Sanctuary or Rescue considering Accreditation? Are you wondering what the benefits are? Do you want to know what the process entails?
There may come a time in the near future where some of the major animal grant funders may require GFAS Verification or Accreditation in order to be eligible for a grant. Will you be ready?
This free webinar will answer those questions, the questions you would like to ask and some questions that you probably haven’t thought of yet.
We will discuss whether Accreditation or Verification is the best first step for your organization and how to get the process started. We will discuss each of the components of the review process including the applications and site visits.
The session is one hour, though 25 additional minutes are scheduled in case anyone wants additional information.
Presenter: Jeannine Alexander, Deputy Director- Equine, GFAS
Using Technology for a More Effective Organization: Free Google Apps Education, 60 minutes
Time is money, and both are in short supply these days. That is why having a central depository for all of your important documents and a hub for all of your key staff and volunteers is so important. In this webinar, you will learn how to use google’s free Education App to create an internal website, that is password protected, even if you have no experience in web design.
Carole Baskin will show you how her organization initiates new volunteers and keeps all their training documents up to date and easily accessible; tracks and manages fundraisers; manages calendars; manages the daily med charts; and a number of other ways her organization uses this tool.
Presenter: Carole Baskin, CEO, Big Cat Rescue.
To Sign Up
To sign up, email robin@sanctuaryfederation.org. PLEASE INCLUDE THE WEBINAR NUMBER, YOUR NAME, POSITION, SANCTUARY NAME AND TIME ZONE (so that your invitation can reflect the correct local time for you). After you sign up, you will be either sent a “sorry, this workshop is already full” notice, or an invite to the webinar. Just prior to the webinar you will receive a reminder of the webinar, with the website address and phone number, with access information. Don’t worry. If you can dial a phone, you will be able to participate!
Schedule of Upcoming Webinars
Watch this site for several exciting upcoming webinars!
| Webinar Number | Title | Date | US Eastern Standard Time | US Central Standard Time | US Mountain Standard Time | US Pacific Coast Standard Time |
| 52 | Grant Writing for Animal Sanctuaries / Rescues | Wed., Sept. 7, 2011 | 2:00 p.m. | 1:00 p.m. | 12:00 p.m. | 11:00 a.m. |
| 53 | Applying for Equine Accreditation | Wed., Sept. 21, 2011 | 4:00 p.m. | 3:00 p.m. | 2:00 p.m. | 1:00 p.m. |
Testimonials from Webinar Participants
“I just wanted to say thank you for the webinar today. The information you provided and the questions you answered today certainly helped me, and I will be working on learning as much as possible before writing grants to try to purchase our own property. I really appreciate the time you took to help.” -Terri G.
“Thank you Patty for sharing your knowledge and insight into grant writing for Animal Sanctuaries. It was extremely helpful in identifying resources, pointing out where we need improvement but also validated things we are doing well. We are setting a goal to at least double grant funding income in 2010.” -Dee D.
“I learned so much more than I even hoped for.” -Cindy