Maddie's Fund Gives $1.15 Million Leadership Grant to Support Best Friends Animal Society's Initiative to Take Nation No-Kill By 2025
Kanab, Utah (PRWEB) July 14, 2017 -- Two national animal welfare powerhouse organizations agree efforts to save the lives of shelter dogs and cats is reaching a watershed moment.
Maddie’s Fund®, a family foundation established by Dave and Cheryl Duffield to revolutionize the status and well-being of companion animals, provided Best Friends Animal Society®, the only national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters, with a $1.15M grant in support of Best Friends' audacious goal to take the entire nation no-kill by 2025.
Gregory Castle, Chief Executive Officer, Best Friends Animal Society said: "Maddie’s Fund has been a pivotal, strategic partner to Best Friends for years. We are forever grateful for such a dedicated and pioneering partner in this work. The key to achieving the goal to end the killing is to organize animal welfare advocates around effective practices that have been proven to achieve no-kill at the community level. Thanks to Maddie, this leadership grant will help us to target key strategies to help get us all to our shared goal of saving America’s pets.”
The grant from Maddie’s Fund will support Best Friends’ work in pursuit of taking America no-kill by 2025 in several ways including the key components of: building coalitions through regional animal welfare summits across the U.S.; mentoring grants to five cities within the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets® Network to launch trap-neuter-return and spay-neuter-return programs; leveraging technology and innovation to develop ideas, applications and project roadmaps to save all the dogs and cats in our nation’s shelters; and adding a channel in Maddie’s® Pet Forum for Best Friends Network partners to more easily connect and share advice and important resources.
“We are proud to support the incredible lifesaving work of Best Friends and help America get to no-kill,” said Mary Ippoliti-Smith, Executive Leadership Team, Maddie’s Fund. “Maddie’s Fund believes that collaboration and innovation are two key components to achieving this goal, and Best Friends exemplifies both - and more - in their Campaign to Save Them All.”
Castle added, “The reality is people want to know that pets are safe in their community* and they want shelters to be a safety net for homeless dogs and cats. Working with Maddie’s Fund and a national army of local rescue groups and shelters and people who share this passion, we know we can make America a no-kill nation by 2025.”
*Associated Press/Petside.com poll
About Best Friends Animal Society®
Best Friends Animal Society is the only national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. A leader in the no-kill movement, Best Friends runs lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 1,900 rescue groups and shelters across the country; regional centers in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City; and the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters nationwide from 17 million per year to about two million. That means there are still nearly 5,500 dogs and cats killed every day in shelters, just because they don’t have safe places to call home. We are determined to get that number to zero by the year 2025. Working together with you, we will end the killing and Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.
To become a fan of Best Friends on Facebook, go to Facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety. Follow Best Friends on Twitter (@BestFriends) and Instagram (@BestFriendsAnimalSociety)
About Maddie’s Fund
Maddie's Fund® Is a family foundation created in 1994 by Workday® co-founder Dave Duffield and his wife, Cheryl, who have endowed the Foundation with more than $300 million. Since then, the Foundation has awarded more than $187.8 million in grants toward increased community lifesaving, shelter medicine education, and pet adoptions across the U.S. The Duffields named Maddie's Fund after their Miniature Schnauzer Maddie, who always made them laugh and gave them much joy. Maddie was with Dave and Cheryl for ten years and continues to inspire them today.
Maddie's Fund is the fulfillment of a promise to an inspirational dog, investing its resources to create a no-kill nation where every dog and cat is guaranteed a healthy home or habitat. #ThanksToMaddie.
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Barbara Williamson, Best Friends Animal Society, http://www.bestfriends.org, +1 4356442001 Ext: 4408, [email protected]
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