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"My treasures do not click together or glitter, they gleam in the sun and neigh in the night." — Author Unknown

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Advertising and Marketing 

     Corporate Identity   Your Logo    If You Rescue or Provide Sanctuary for a Particular Breed

     Web 

         Your Site Marketing Your Website Listing Adoptable Horses

         Online Fillable Forms Online Donations Online Surveys and Polls Marketing Your Website

     Print Signage   Press Releases Media Kit 

     E-mail Surveys, E-Newsletters, E-invitations

     Television

     Public Relations and Publicity Free Publicity Free Listings Distribution Crisis Management

     Corporate and Other Partnerships

Other Resources  Arizona Adoptable Horses

 (Top of Page)

Del Camino helps non-profit horse facilities and services find timely information that benefits their program and success.  We want to see horse sanctuaries and retirement stables grow and prosper. We would like horse rescues to be well-operated and fully supported by their local communities.  The benefits of horseback riding to humans is a well-established fact, and the therapeutic benefits to individuals, and cultural benefits to the wider society, mean every effort should be expended to develop viable humane businesses that use well-trained, good tempered, well-seasoned horses. It can be done.

How This Non-Profit Resource Section Works          (Top of Page)

None of these listings were solicited. 
This page distills information from a variety of sources, as well as our own experience, before sending you off on your own quest.  
The descriptive paragraphs at the start of a section are there because we believe they are important.

We update this section of our website fairly often, so we recommend you return regularly.  Why not add this page to your browser's Favorites list?  Doing so does not cause us to send you junk mail.

The focus of the site is to be rich in content, and easy to read onscreen.  A majority of small horse businesses and horse non-profits are on slow dial-up connections (cannot afford cable or DSL) and using older versions of operating systems and browsers on older computer platforms (usually donated by people who upgraded to newer technology.)  Therefore, you won't see tons of frames, flash, page transitions, and multimedia effects here.  We avoid colored text on dark backgrounds, which can be nearly impossible to read on a monitor.  We even keep the pictures small and to a minimum to facilitate page loading. So if the visual effects are bland, you now know why!  We don't want our visitors to give up due to long page-loads and hard to read color combinations and time-consuming bells and whistles - they just don't have that kind of time.

Advertising and Marketing                         (Top of Page)

Ideally, you have a board member, officer, paid staff member or volunteers devoted full time to your year-round marketing, advertising, and publicity efforts.  Most micro businesses, profit and non-profit, do not.  This is a chronic miscalculation for most boarding stables, horse trainers, riding schools and yes, horse non-profits.  If a for-profit business needs to pay real attention to these functions to attract business to survive and prosper, non-profits need, if anything, to be even more focused on them.  You owe it to the horses, if you want to feed them and trim their hooves next year, to be as expert at managing this aspect of your non-profit as you are at giving a therapeutic riding lesson or rehabilitating an abused horse. 

Budget Some Cash

Likewise, you need to budget real CASH for advertising and marketing purposes to be able to recruit quality board members, donors, sponsors, and volunteers and to publicize fund-raising events, horses that are ready for rehoming, or openings at your retirement stable or sanctuary.  While in an ideal world, every service you use to operate your non-profit would be donated, you and your horses live in the real world. 

To survive even a first year, much less succeed and thrive, budget NO LESS THAN ten cents of every dollar you bring in for your marketing plan, that includes advertising and promotion.  Then, besides becoming at expert at obtaining donated goods and services and developing corporate and horse association sponsors, gain skills at finding the best tools, goods, and services at discounts to stretch your budgeted dollars as far as possible.  A for-profit business typically budgets 12-20% of its operating expenses to sales and marketing.  If you are able to get 50% of your expenses in this area discounted or donated or sponsored, you will still have to pay actual money for the remainder.  Thus, budgeting a mere 10 cents on the dollar is actually optimistic, especially if your horse non-profit is relatively new or unknown now. 

The first thing you need to begin marketing your equine-related organization is your business plan and corporate identity, beginning with a color scheme and logo, with or without a tag line.  We have already discussed how mission critical your public image is for recruiting and fund-raising, so get professional help with this if it is not your area of expertise.  Once you spend money to produce website pages, brochures, business cards, stationery, advertisements, horse show banners or booth backdrops, you do not want to have to pay setup fees again when you reorder supplies with new artwork or a different color scheme.

1. You can easily extract your marketing plan from your business or project plan.

2. You are competing today for seconds of people's attention, and first impressions are lasting.  They tell a great deal about your organization's culture, competence, understanding of your market (the people you serve by the service you provide with or for horses).   If you don't know who your audience, or client-base is, stop and ask yourself "who do I want to write checks to sponsor horses for a year?"  or "who do I want to sponsor building a new covered arena for the winter hippotherapy sessions?"  or "who do I want to sponsor our end of year championship competition for Senior Citizen riders?"  Then design for that audience's respect and interests so they will take you seriously.

Corporate Identity                                                           (Top of Page)

Your corporate identity should be summarized in a phrase called a "tag line."  It is a memorable expression of your mission that can be expressed in two seconds or less.

Your Logo

Companies typically pay $1,000 and up for professionally designed logos.  Why spend so much?  Because nothing says more about your business and does more to create your unique and memorable identity.

All of these online corporate logo developers can help you get started for $400 or less.  If you use an in-house volunteer graphic artist, be sure this person has experience in logo design (ask to see samples of previous work) and give the person clear information about your organization, your mission, your culture, your audience and goals. 

Ask for two or three possible logos shown in large and small print, reversed on dark backgrounds, and in digital media like slides, web pages, or videos.  Form a small committee or use a Board of Directors meeting to discuss which ones have the most impact, longevity (not too trendy) and versatility (not to detailed, so a new element for a sub-program could be added at a future date). See the logo alone and with your tag line on stationery, volunteer T-shirts, and maybe a horse show arena banner size or a truck door ad magnet.  Does it work?

These online logo design services offer a quick turnaround (one week or less) and a logo for $100 or less.  Most have some very good educational material about logos and corporate identity as free content, to help you.

Logo Yes    Corporate Logos     Corporate Logo.com

 Logoworks Start Up Package perfect for new businesses. Includes logo design, stationery design, a 3 page website, & 250 business cards.

If You Rescue or Provide Sanctuary for a Particular Breed

Make sure the horse in the logo looks like a Thoroughbred, Belgian, Saddlebred, miniature, as appropriate.  Here's a designer who understands:

Horse Logos.com specializes in logos for horse businesses.  Pricing is reasonable for basic logos, design sets, and professional equestrian clip art you can buy for special events or programs.

Web                                                                             (Top of Page)

Your Site

The quality and timeliness of your website is important, and even more important is that it is extremely easy for donors, volunteers, adopters, surrenderers and the press to find you in a search by a few key words, or through links from related popular sites.  This means you need both the search engine and links working for you.

Even if you take advantage of free hosting, canned templates and a fill-in-the-blanks content editor to make a simple website you can maintain, "simple" does not have the same meaning in 2009 that it did in 1999.  It is no longer sufficient to have static "Home" "About Us" and "What We Do" or "Our Services" pages.  Not only is that below the expectation standards of 80% of American internet users, it is leaving 90% of the excellent work a website can do for your business undone.

There are many ways to get a website for free or at a nominal cost.

There is one technology site specifically founded to support rescue groups.  While they naturally serve mostly dog and cat adoption agencies, they support all animal rescue groups, including birds and exotics.  In addition to websites, they provide online databases for animal records, call logs, and other important organizational data, email services, voicemail, and a "pet listing portal", so that you can post the availability of an adoptable horse once, and allow their software to list the horse with all the myriad listing services on the web.

Rescue Groups.org  for free website and general overview

InfoTeam  25 MB free space for certified non profit organizations. 500 MB data transfer limit per month. You URL will be http://www.nonprofitpages.com/yournp. A Info Team Corporation logo with a link will be added to the bottom of your home page for free accounts. http://www.nonprofitpages.com/  A site with your own domain name costs $4.95 per month.

Charity Focus  Provides free websites since 1999 to small non-profit organizations, groups, and clubs. http://www.cfsites.org/ Features include:

Webjam.com  is just about the easiest way to start a website or blog with photos for free. 

Net Firms Plus $4.95 per month turnkey package with your own domain name (much more professional than another domain/your rescue.  Contact Customer Service about the free sites for registered non-profits.

1-2-Wonder Web Sites :  NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR FREE NPCS HOSTING  ~  10-31-2007
1-2-Wonder Web Services is once again accepting new applications for Free NPCS (non profit community service) Website Hosting. This is completely FREE web hosting for qualifying nonprofit organizations which perform an eligible community service within their local community. For more information, click the Free Nonprofit Hosting link under Web Hosting Services in the left menu.  More Free Web Templates added  ~  10-31-2007
The Free Sitebuilder (see demo link near top of page) now has 360 templates in it.
 

To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of free websites, and see a more comprehensive list, visit http://www.100best-free-web-space.com/articles/building-a-website/non-profit-sites-19.html

LeagueLineup.com hosts websites for sports teams for free.

If you are considering blogging, many companies now offer free blogs, but the industry king for security, ease of use, and professional looking templates is Wordpress  Here's a good overview of blogging.  http://www.100best-free-web-space.com/articles/blogs-and-blog-hosting/wordpress-blog-software-80.html

Marketing Your Website                                                                   (Top of Page)

If your website is not on the first two pages that appear in a search result when someone types in a phrase, they will not find you.  Seven out of ten people today look on the internet before looking in any print media. It is pointless to have a well-designed website that markets your adoptable horses and solicits donations and volunteers if no one ever visits it.  So the very next step after creating your site is to get it listed with the most important master lists and search engines. 

Del Camino offers web site optimization services at extremely low prices.  They are further discounted for Horse Non-Profit organizations.  Products and Services for Horses Businesses

Listing Adoptable Horses

When you have both a website that represents your rescue well, and horses ready to rehome, it is time to advertise those horses.  That can mean many hours entering the information for classified ads on dozens of horse classified ad websites and pet adoption websites.  While nearly all will post your ad for free, they all have slightly different formats, length of time the ad runs, and may or may not include a free photo or web link or video link.  Do not despair!  There is a technology company that automates this process for you, submitting your horse ad to multiple sites.

Pet Adoption Portal subsidiary of Rescue Groups.org 

s another business willing to post an attractive professional listing of your adoptable horses on its website?  Here is the one Del Camino runs for Adoptable Horses in Arizona.  These 501(c)3 Non-Profit Equine Rescues are registered with Petfinder.com for free and able to "go viral" with their adoptable horse listings

Online Fillable Forms                                                                      (Top of Page)

We consult with equine non-profits to improve efficiency and make it easier for donors, volunteers, and clients to take action (donate, volunteer, or sign up for a service).  Invariably, a glaring need exists to get paperwork under control.  An absolutely necessary evil of commercial equine operations and non-profits alike, paperwork such as applications, release forms, sign up sheets, timesheets, horse descriptions, show entry forms - you name it, have to be created, made available to the people who use them, completed, received by someone, used, and stored. 

Are your basic client, donor, or volunteer applications available on your website in obvious places?  Are they in a form that does not require specific software, like a certain word processor or spreadsheet package?  If they are forms with sections (fields) for the applicant to complete, or boxes to check, did you type a line or symbol, or create a database field that they can fill in without changing the form?  If you created a form, can they download it, fill in the data on their computer, save the form, and send it back to you as a form rather than just a document, so you can import it right into your donor, volunteer, or client management software and generate a report or make the information available to a volunteer who does initial follow-up calls part-time from his home computer?  If you are not using fillable forms online, YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD and you are reducing the chance that the visitor to your website will TAKE ACTION by as much as 50%.

For help turning your spreadsheets and documents into fillable forms in .PDF or other formats and making them available on your website, contact us for more information.

For online software to do it yourself, visit FormSite, an online web form builder  and look at the sample forms, like the camp registration, and the features of the free plan as well as those that cost money to use. There are templates for volunteer applications and other forms you might use.

Online Donations

Don't forget how important it is to make online donation, including employer gift matching easy to do on your website, and not just on a single page, but at various appropriate entry and exit points.  (See the Fundraising section.)  An excellent example is on this page of Equine Voices, a horse rescue in Green Valley, Arizona that specializes in PMU mares

Print                                                                          (Top of Page)

Everything you produce for print distribution discussed below (press releases, media kit, brochures, etc.) must be available in digital form on your website, too.

Signage                                                                   (Top of Page)

Don't forget the importance of clean, crisp, signage that carries your corporate identity and colors in readable consistent fonts and durable appropriate materials.  You'll need signs on your premises, at speaking events, community outreach events, trade shows, and horse shows, and trail rides.  You may also need booth backdrops or displays, car magnets or window decals to get your name out there! 

 TIP:  A well-placed street sign promotes your event 24 per day, 7 days per week.  About 18% of the neighborhood residents are new to your area. Well-worded, good quality signs can be used for years — they are one of the most economical marketing investments you can make!  Plenty of professional signage at the right height for your event will enhance your farm's professional image.  Even if you must get a permit to put up a street sign, the cost of the sign and the permit may still be one of the best promotional investments you make in your stable's future.

The Small Business Administration has tutorial resources about signage here that is worth reading.

While for quick signs and banners Build-A-Sign and large vendors like them are usually able to offer the most competitive pricing for events, for some designs you need either:

For the main signs that provide a major part of the decor and personality of your stable, budget like you would for furniture, fixtures, and equipment that lasts twenty years or more and visit one of these kinds of sign makers who are like your facilities designer or web designer. 

EZ Signs Online specializes in stable, farm, and ranch signs. A twenty year old company that has offered signs online for about 13 years, they even have designs for memorial markers.

Old West Signs and Custom Sign Reproductions has a distinctly western flair. A related sign business, Barn Sign Works offers hand-carved wood signs, gates, and metal artwork of a more New England style.

Wood Signs of Gatlinburg offers custom personalized wood signs have a beautiful Southern flavor from the Great Smokey Mountains.

Custom Hand Carved Signs by Sally Claus Foucht are timeless and elegant.

Press Releases

Many publications are happy to print brief, well-written press releases accompanied by good photographs.  Also, many will provide free or deeply discounted advertising space to charities.  The Arizona Equine Resource Guide, for example, is an annual directory distributed free at horse shows, and members of horse clubs and associations.  Horse rescues and hippotherapy centers receive a half page color ad in this handy spiral bound pocket directory, and a free link from the online version on their website.  The "sister" publications are The Equine Resource Guide of Minnesota, Equine Resource Guide of Wisconsin, and Equine Resource Guide of Illinois.  Contact the publisher through the website: http://www.EquineResourceGuide.com.

Need a press release written for your non-profit and distributed electronically quickly?  Need a planned set of press releases for your next calendar year prepared and a list created of media to distribute it to?  Contact us for help.

Media Kit                                                                           (Top of Page)

Regardless of the type of equine non-profit you are (horse show association, trail riding club, horse rescue, equine-assisted learning center, therapeutic riding center) you must have a media kit.  If you have a mission statement, by-laws, officers, annual operating budget, marketing plan, website, etc. then you are well on the way to being able to create an effective media kit.

We have referred to the media kit in disaster preparedness, crisis management, free publicity, and other marketing sections.  Without a media kit you are in danger of missing many opportunities to get factual, positive information about your non-profit in front of the public in a timely way.  Need help putting together an up-to-date useful media kit for your equine non-profit?  Contact us.

Online Surveys and Polls

Find out about your visitor's interests, needs, and their reactions to what you offer.  Add an easy online poll to your website with Polldaddy.com 's plug-and-play application.

Another good online resource for quickly and professionally creating polls and surveys that reside online is Zoomerang

E-mail Surveys, E-Newsletters, E-invitations                               (Top of Page)

Communicate regularly with clients, volunteers, donors, special event participants, and vendors through e-mail.  With templates, signatures, and distribution lists, you can quickly produce and send e-mails to each group using features in robust user e-mail software like Microsoft Outlook. 

If you want a more polished e-newsletter, with opt-in and opt-out subscription managed automatically for larger databases, the capability to conduct e-mail surveys and polls, and even event invitations, an online service stores your templates, address lists, and is able to import and export data. Here are three popular services:

Vertical Response offers a free service of 10,000 emails per month for non-profit organizations.  This does not include as robust a design template library, polls, or event invitations as do Constant Contact and iContact below, but does have an inexpensive printed postcard program.

 Constant Contact and iContact.  At present Constant Contact offers a longer trial period, while iContact offers a lower monthly rate. Service and features are comparable, so if you are just starting to use e-mail to communicate with distribution lists, besides individual messages, and do not foresee your needs growing dramatically in the near future, getting full service while spending $10 less per month is a good deal. 

Do you have small lists (under 50 names) of volunteers and clients to manage for equine-activity sessions, volunteer training, or small events?  Do you work from E-mail Address Books, spreadsheets, and simple databases, instead of sophisticated donor, volunteer, and event management software?  Is it okay for people you invite to activities at your facility to receive party planning advertisements and other marketing?  If the answer to all of these questions is "Yes", then Evite invitations may work for you.  The simple user interface, templates, and email notification of RSVPs may be all you need.  TIP: If you use it, upload your logo and use the "Design Your Own" template, for a more professional look.

Want some help getting started with one of these options?  Contact us.

Television                                                                    (Top of Page)

Several specialty cable and online networks focus on animals generally, horses specifically, sports, outdoor lifestyles, children's activities, or health wellness and fitness.  Virtually all of them are voracious in their quest for programming content.  Your organization could be featured in a one minute, five minute, or ten minute segment of a show.

It is worthwhile to develop a collection of abstracts of academic research that supports your work, so that you can cite relevant excerpts.  Here is an example: Self-Esteem Assessment of Adolescents Involved in Horsemanship Activities, Saunders-Ferguson, K.E., Barnett, R.V., Culen, G. & TenBroeck, S.  from the website of the University of Florida Family, Youth and Community Science department.

YouTube.com  This phenomenon of self-produced short videos posted by the public has swept the country like a storm.  Are videos of your adoptable horses or retiring therapy horses online?  Are videos of your volunteers enjoying grooming and barn chores online?  Did you launch a new community service at your center for which you need more donors and sponsors?  Have you done a video mission statement or brochure?  How about a public service announcement (PSA) that features your equine non-profit?  Instead of printing full-color tri-fold mailers, why not post a moving account of your non-profit as a video?

You can add captions and subtitles to videos you upload (if you don't have the software to do that in your camera or on your computer before you upload.)  You can even add interactive commentary and links, so people can click on a scene and go to the target page on your website.

If your target audience for a short video is women who already ride horses, consider BarnMice as a place to post your movie message.

Recruit a volunteer who is an amateur or professional videographer and get busy.  You can start by adding video clips to your website, media kit, and sponsor presentation kit.

In Arizona we know a great professional videographer who works with horses and non-profits.  Contact us for more information on how to storyboard or script a compelling short movie, or for a referral.

Public Relations and Publicity                        (Top of Page)

Where's your Media Kit?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.  It must include a backgrounder about your organization, a few excellent reproducible photos, and a current press release.  Everything must have current contact information, including a knowledgeable spokesperson contact who can be reached after normal business hours.  The media does not develop stories during banker's hours.  (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Where's your Sponsor Packet?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.

The annual marketing campaign, and the campaign for special projects, plus general news, must include press releases, and other publicity venues. 

Free Publicity                                                                          (Top of Page)

Master the art of the one-page press release!  Put together a media database to email press releases and newsletters to.  Then actually do it in a timely fashion!  Remember that "news" by definition is fresh.  What to put in your database, and how to keep it up-to-date with the actual names of contacts, deadlines, special issue themes, special interest sections, is practically an art form of research and organization. 

If possible, you should have a volunteer with publicity or public relations experience spend several hours on this aspect of marketing your non-profit every month.  You do not need to be putting on Celebrity Events all the time to warrant publicity.  Every organization should plan to distribute at least eight press releases per year. (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Free Listings Distribution

Do you have partnerships with local businesses?  Can you put a banner up at a local horse show?  Will a regional equine event or state fair donate a booth in the concessions/vendors area?  What if you have a card table with brochures and water for people and horses at a trail head when a local club arrives for a planned trail ride?

Is another business willing to post an attractive professional listing of your adoptable horses on its website?  Here is the one Del Camino runs for Adoptable Horses in Arizona.  These 501(c)3 Non-Profit Equine Rescues are registered with Petfinder.com for free and able to "go viral" with their adoptable horse listings.

Crisis Management                                                  (Top of Page)

Sooner or later something negative or sad happens and you may be asked to comment about it or even be interviewed for television, radio, or print coverage.  It could be something directly involving your non-profit, such as a fire, flood, or current hay prices.  Or it could be something more general, even politically charged, like a proposed city ordinance or the national debate over horse slaughter.

Some points to remember, at all times:

1. The reporter, news producer, or editor is NOT your friend.  Even if this individual is a personal friend, or has supported your charity personally in the past, in this context, he or she has a single goal:  to get a juicy "sound bite" from you that draws viewers, listeners, or readers so that the station or newspaper can sell advertising.  If making you, your mission, or your efforts appear fruitless, hopeless, overwhelmed, disorganized, or over emotional will help "sell" the story, whatever the story's supposed "angle", that is the slant your contact will use.  If your contact doesn't, by the time the editor or producer gets finished with it, you may not recognize the story as having anything to do with what the reporter claimed to be covering.

2. Whatever you say WILL be taken out of context.  That is the definition of a "sound bite."  Make sure every sentence can stand alone if it could be used by itself.  Now don't you wish you had a media kit with a one-page backgrounder handy?  Don't you wish you kept a database of call logs, or service records, not just a monthly income statement from the accountant?  Then you could refer to facts about clients served, clients turned away due to lack of resources, costs to maintain a horse or deliver a hippotherapy session, the actual percentage increase in feed costs year-to-date, or, if the figures are not available, have a prepared answer that sounds responsive, organized, but not speculative, other than "I don't know." 

3. For obvious political issues, such as zoning, animal cruelty laws, feed cost increases, horse slaughter, horse identification, government subsidies, disaster relief, livestock waster pollution, the unique relationship of horses to man in history, etc. your rescue should have a brief one paragraph position statement followed by supporting bullet-style single sentence facts citing reliable sources, such as the USDA, your state or county extension service, the actual law or ordinance, or proposed bill.  If you don't follow political issues that impact your operation, you are shooting yourselves in the foot.  Discuss these matters with your Board of Directors periodically or when they arise, develop a position paper, contact your city, county, state, and federal representatives and give them your position as a concerned local business, and keep those positions updated in an accessible manner.

4. If there are celebrities, academics, renowned professionals, or politicians who support your position, you should be able to name them.  Especially if you are a relative "nobody" in town, or your organization is not a well-established pivotal member of the community, cite someone famous or authoritative with credentials on the topic, with whom you generally agree, rather than being sucked into stating your own opinion badly. 
    

CASE STUDY:  Presently, reporters around the country are "localizing" a pro-horse slaughter "news" piece at the behest of the American Horse Council's marketing firm are interviewing breeders, auctioneers, livestock officers, and horse rescues.  The article states that the only solution to the extra hundred thousand horses produced and mostly not trained annually is slaughter, because all the horse rescues are receiving quadruple the inquiries from surrenderers that they must turn away.  They assert that those amateur horse owners, impoverished by the high gas prices, are abandoning their family recreational and companion horses in state, tribal, and federal lands.  While only some of the horse rescues are experiencing a flood of calls, none of them quoted in these articles cited statistics from call logs about the reasons for the surrender requests, the socio-economic background of the callers, the age of the horse, etc.  In the articles, the livestock official was induced to speculate about the future possibility of abandonments, or recounted a rumor of a single abandonment that he/she could not confirm - and that eventually was tracked down to be a false rumor.  The headlines all say "Old Horses Being Abandoned on Public Lands Direct Result of Closure of Slaughter Plants."  The rescuer speculated that the closure MIGHT be contributing indirectly to the increase in calls, and only said calls had "probably doubled," or gave some other vague increase.  The rescuer did not say they were all "old" horses, and relied on a "gut" feel during the call that came while they were busy.  The horse rescuer was under the impression he/she was getting positive free publicity that would bring in donations, not that he/she was going to be characterized as believing that the only solution to horse overpopulation was slaughter.  The rescuer did not refer to a prepared and researched position paper that could cite the USDA statistics that as recently as 2004 there were only 47,000 horses slaughtered in the USA, and some of those were imported from Canada to supply the remaining 3 struggling plants.  The rescuer was not given an opportunity to note that while rescues are getting many more calls in some areas, much of it is due to increased publicity and the efforts of the Unwanted Horse Coalition subsidiary of the AHC widely distributing pamphlets to horse owners urging them to surrender their horses instead of attempting to sell them or rehome the animals themselves. Traditionally, people advertise and sell their horse, and many are skipping that process. This is not factually proven to be due to actual financial hardship, but due to a newfound awareness of the rescue option, promoted by the AHC as a first, rather than last, resort, and disingenuously characterized as "Owning Responsibly.".  The rescuer did not have at his/her fingertips in a file or binder the fact that supporters of solutions other than slaughter include: Willy Nelson, Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day (deceased, but a pioneer), Paul Sorvino, to name a few, and all of this year's Presidential nominees of both parties, along with 69.5% of the American public.  The pro-slaughter AAEP position statement is provided to the reporters by the AHC marketing firm with the "article suggestion."  The rescuer could have cited and sourced the opposite view given in the excellent white paper by the Veterinarians for Equine Welfare which is NOT the radical American Veterinary Medical Association that is allied with the HSUS, but a dissenting group of sober, practical, AAEP members.  The rescuer did not even think, in the "ambush" interview, to mention that donations can be made to their non-profit securely via a service like "Network for Good" from their website.  You do not get the "plug" if you don't provide "how to buy" information!

Public Speaking                                                                          (Top of Page)

Is one of your board members, officers, or volunteers a dynamic speaker with a story to tell?  Has your organization implemented a successful program?  Have you overcome adversity?  Is your mission important?  Perhaps you can package that enthusiasm, knowledge and message into a half hour or fifty minute presentation.  While many opportunities to speak are not paid, others are.  It is appropriate to receive an honorarium for speaking, in addition to travel expenses.  The same presentation that you give as a guest speaker at a corporate event for $1,000 plus expenses might be delivered gratis to a non-profit association.  Why make the non-profit presentation?  In many cases, members in the audience are decision makers at for-profit or government agencies that would be able to pay for the same presentation to be given to their employees or customers.

Visit idealist.org and search their database of 3,668 speakers for some ideas of how presentations are marketed to non-profits, a friendly venue in which to get your feet wet and hone your topics that sell.

Special Events                                                                               (Top of Page)

If you like to throw a party, or put together other social events, this form of fund raising may be an annual event that brings in a substantial portion of your operating expenses or capital improvement dollars, and enables you to publicly recognize your major contributors. A special event, whether a silent auction, horse show, trail ride or a party, is an opportunity to network with people.  Attend the most successful special events you can in your town to learn what attracts individuals as well as businesses before planning your non-profit's event.  You may find that some of your assumptions are mistaken, and you are not appealing to the right crowd in the right way with your own events.

Set goals and use a committee of talented people.  Most of the good annual events for equine non-profits in Phoenix require the dedicated work of many people for nine months of the year — but produce as much as 25% or more of their annual funds.  We know a great equine non-profit in Tucson that takes such pains over its annual black tie event that they even care how the napkins are folded.  Don't laugh — they are highly successful at capturing the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of attendees, and raise not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of dollars with one function every year!  Visit our Equine Business Shows Clinics Camps & Special Events Management page for creative ideas and practical help planning and marketing successful events.

TIP:  Here's some food for thought about special events when you sell tables: Who will be your table captains?  Perhaps you just assumed people will come from the company that purchased a table, and one person in particular will play "host" to fire up your dinner guests to participate in the Silent Auction or learn more about your charity.  Just because a local bank sponsors a table does not mean there will be people sitting in those chairs who bid on your items.  If you are satisfied with selling all the seats and do not care how much the auction items raise, this is fine.  If not, it is much better to recruit and educate someone from the bank to be the "table captain" and remind its employees or guests to attend.  Then engage the "captain" as a participant during the party to get that person interested in your mission and projects.  That "captain" can then influence the other guests to learn more or to join in.

CAUTION:  Do not let your celebrity announcer, auctioneer, board or staff member, or ardent volunteer pitch buying auction items, or contributing to the priority donation campaigns of your event by referring to how bad the economy is!  Those reminders of economic uncertainty discourage people from bidding and donating right when you want them to open their wallets.  Instead, pitch the importance and value of the need you are addressing, or how your costs have risen, and how meaningful and useful your benefactor's donation or purchase will be.

After your special event, follow up!  Use e-mail and survey software to get attendee satisfaction with their experience.  This information is critical to improving your events, and anecdotal feedback from just a few people can be very misleading.  Zoomerang offers a free version of their service for simple surveys, and there are templates you can easily customize, so this is not time-consuming and no programming is required.   Other online survey services include SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo. Many bulk email services also offer surveys and polls.  The service you already use may do so.  Do you want some help getting started?  Contact us.

Corporate and Other Partnerships                         (Top of Page)

 Take advantage of opportunities offered by horse suppliers to link to their products and services enabling people to donate.   Some companies provide matching funds.  Of course, your website needs to receive high volume traffic for this to produce significant funds.  All the more reason to have a great website with useful, attractive, compelling content, and be easily located with a few keywords via any major search engine!  A link sitting on a never-visited site isn't going to put hay in the mangers.

Corporate events can be staged at your facility to bring you the benefits of their professional paid publicity.  Even a department picnic that is covered in the company employee newsletter can help you. This is called "co-branding."  They get the benefit of getting their name in front of people interested in your service, and creating community goodwill.  You get money, or the ability to do events you could not afford to do otherwise.

Can you partner with a for-profit boarding stable, riding school or horse trainer?  For example, many horses that are not sellable or suitable for a regular lesson program, hippotherapy, mounted police unit, or adoptable simply lack training or need to be desensitized to a new environment.  Most of these organizations are willing to work with a horse that is well trained to be ridden English or Western by an experienced rider, but only have a few days to acclimate the horse to their stable routine, and thirty or fewer days to introduce their special activities and evaluate the horse's ability to adapt to novice and volunteer handling, special equipment, mounting, and environmental conditions.  Many horses that have been show competitors, or backyard pets simply need more than 90 days of professional humane training to qualify.  What if you partnered with a trainer who likes training more than showing and enjoys "tuning up" and "rehabilitating" horses?  Breeders complain to the news media that a primary reason why most of their unsold stock must be sent to auction is that those horses are not trained, and there are not enough trainers in their area to send these surplus horses to for training.  Can you capitalize on this hot job market that is not being properly reported?  Just think, well-bred, young fit horses, that just need training, and seasoned, trained horses that just need ground manners and desensitization, could all be sold if trainers could be recruited and compensated for working with them!  Plus, someone needs to "train the trainer."  Another partnering opportunity, if you have horses to train, a trainer could use your "string" of horses to train his/her trainer-in-training students.

Direct Donation or Payment for Fundraising Item Online          (Top of Page)

This section appears in both the Fundraising category and the advertising and marketing category.  The primary purpose of these relationships is to increase individual donations,  the source of 70% of the typical agency's revenues. however, these listing and co-branding opportunities vastly multiply your web presence and reach many people who never visit your website and live outside your service area.  So, we've included them as an advertising and marketing tool.

PayPal.com  You must ask for the order!  When people visit your compelling website, they come from various searches.  The "landing page" may be the ad for a particular adoptable horse.  It may be your "home" page, our the story of a recent event you held.  There should be an appropriate PayPal button on that page.  Do you want a regular monthly donation to support a particular horse that you are rehabilitating?  There should be a 100% support, a 50% support, and a one-time only fill-in-the-amount button on that horse's page.  Once someone navigates away from the one page where you have placed clickable donation buttons or links, there is a 80% likelihood they will not return to it.  Put the links next to the topic.  If you are trying to raise funds for a capital improvement, the page describing the project should have donation links. PayPal enables people to immediately make a contribution while the spirit moves them.  It is safe, since they don't have to give you their credit card information.  The buttons are easy to build.  The money goes into your PayPal account, from which you can pay vendors directly, or transfer funds to checking or savings accounts.  If you are not using PayPal to its full potential, you are missing the boat!

PayPal may have pioneered online secure payments, but there are many more ways besides PayPal to take donations online and confirm their legitimacy. Here are four alternatives specifically catering to charitable donations:

American Express Giving Express Online connects cardholders to more than one million charities with a variety of donation options. Besides one-time contributions or purchases of fundraising items, cardholders can schedule monthly payments, which is particularly valuable for "support a horse" or "rider scholarships" or "support a program" campaigns. Members can even redeem their Rewards Points to make a donation. 

JustGive.org,

Well-established, well-run rescues and sanctuaries should also be able to accept donations through  

Network for Good, which enables you to build custom donation links easily for your web page and professional solicitation e-newsletters.

Payroll Deduction Giving Programs                      (Top of Page)

Payroll deduction giving through annual enrollment campaigns was pioneered by The United Way with businesses. This makes donating easy to budget and an efficient way to give for the year to favorite charities. 

Note:  Evaluate the giving policies of the companies, foundations and government agencies that sponsor your programs or give you grants before choosing to participate in The United Way.  Some exclude non-profits funded by The United Way.  You may or may not want to trade one source of funding for another.  You may be able to compromise by enrolling as an affiliated non-profit.  People can choose your organization by United Way identification number to give by payroll deduction, but you will not participate in a percentage of the general campaign.

Today, one in five people work for a government entity in the U.S. and the main program that mirrors the United Way is the Combined Federal Campaign in promoting, managing and distributing payroll deduction contributions.  If your organization has any volunteers or clients that are government employees, the CFC may be a good adjunct or alternative.

    Combined Federal Campaign  which works like the United Way for county, state, and federal (including military) employees to make payroll deduction donations to their choice of thousands of registered charities.  The CFC makes it easier to donate to a specific charity than does the United Way, but does have reional managers who set goals for the year and conduct enrollment promotions.

Passive Giving Online or Instore Donations by Retailers for Shopping or Searching  

iGive Shopping,enables online shoppers to take advantage of promotions and discounts at thousands of businesses, and have a percentage of their purchase donated to their favorite charity.  They also have a donation for searching program similar to GoodSearch, called iSearchiGive.  http://isearch.igive.com

GoodSearch.com enables your supporters to donate pennies to their favorite charity as they search the internet.  This is the modern equivalent of placing a change collection jar on a retail store's checkout counter.  Over time, as more people add your charity to their search tool, these pennies add up.  We have used GoodSearch to support one horse sanctuary.  Over 8 months those pennies, just from online searches, added up to $6.26.  The total for that sanctuary from all supporters using the search engine during the 8 months was $146.54.  It is a very small rescue tucked away in a corner of our state.  But supporters all over the country who do online "google" searches are helping.

Many stores donate a percentage of shoppers' purchases through their own programs, or through a service that manages the donations for them.  For example, the  Basha's grocery store chain in Arizona has its own program, "Shop and Give."  Shoppers use their "Thank You" card to get discounts and promotions at the checkout counter.  Because their card is also linked to a 501(c)(3) non-profit, a church or a school, 1% of their grocery bill is donated to the charity by Basha's, and the charity is eligible for annual gifts of as much as $5,000.  It takes just a minute online for a shopper, who could be one of your volunteers or a grateful client, to register their card online or at the store customer service counter.  One person, shopping to the tune of $50 per week, earns $26.00 for your equine non-profit in a year. 

http://www.escrip.com A conglomerate that includes major chains like Safeway, Macy's, Nordstrom's, and Lands End is eScript.  Bookstores, electronics stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants - many kinds of businesses participate.  Shoppers register their store discount cards (like Safeway) or their credit or debit cards, and link to the registered charity of their choice.  Then, whether they shop in the store or online, a percentage of their purchase total is donated to the charity.  Some stores donate as much as 6%, most donate 1% or 2%. 

Charity Validation Sites                                               (Top of Page)

Validation sites post your latest IRS Tax Return (Form 990) so that people and foundations can research your legitimacy before committing funds.  Here are three of them to choose from.  Your non-profit should be listed with at least one of them once you have filed your first return.  It is also possible for individuals to donate via credit card securely at these sites after doing their due diligence.  It is a good idea to make it easy for donors to act without having to jump from site to site.

Animal Charities of America  is a nonprofit organization that pre-screens high quality animal related charities and presents them for giving consideration. Individuals can donate on the site.  They are a member of Independent Charities of America (see below) and the Combined Federal Campaign (see Payroll Deduction section above.)  Both ICA and CFC require your IRS 990 tax return.
 

Independent Charities of America,

  Charity Navigator,

GuideStar,

There are also organizations that keep track of complaints or publish standards for reputable charities.  Here are two:

  Better Business Bureau. and  Standards for Excellence Institute Certified Non-Profit

Employer Donation Matching                                            (Top of Page)

When someone donates to your equine non-profit, do you check, or provide an easy means for the donor to check, if his/her employer has a matching gift program?  More than fourteen thousand American companies do have such a program.  You cannot afford to leave this money on the table.  Yet, you say, you are too busy caring for rescued horses, giving therapeutic riding lessons, or answering phone calls to look into it?  Guess what, so are MOST small non-profit organizations.  However, very smart ones subscribe to online databases that not only list these companies, but can provide an online donor with the exact information they need to apply for an employer matching gift for you at the same time they make their PayPal, iGive, or other secure online donation.  A good example is Hep Development's e-match donor link software.  Try out the demonstration online.

Branded Items for Donors, Clients, Volunteers, Special Events via e-Stores  (Top of Page)

Four of these methods are online shopping solutions that enable you to offer logo items without the initial outlay of cash for inventory to stock and resell.  What was formerly only available to larger companies is now accessible, via printing on demand and drop shipping to even the smallest home business and start-up non-profit.

Do not underestimate the value of a coaster, calendar, mug, ball cap, refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or mouse pad.  Companies worldwide spend millions per year to provide permanent positive reminders to buyers, investors, employees, and, yes, vendors.  Non-profits have even more reasons to recognize staff and volunteers, clients, vendors, donors and sponsors.  It is also important to identify staff as professionals, and volunteers on your property for visitors, at community outreach events, or to new clients.  While you may give a sports bottle or T-shirt as a gift, many people will gladly purchase additional items to enhance their sense of belonging.  Make it easy for them to do that, and put some money in the till at the same time.

Lands' End Business Outfitters E-Store.    Submit your logo, select your items, and receive commissions on purchases made by donors, clients, staff, and special event supporters.

CafePress  provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  CafePress offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can set up your e-Store with logo items from among thousands of products that are printed on demand with your logo, wording, photo or event artwork. You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Fund-net  provides an e-Store that links from your website with logo items you select.  Fund-net specializes in logo items from among 800,000 products for non-profits, schools, clubs, teams, corporate, special events, and medical facilities.  You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Zazzle    provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  Zazzle offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can select items to customize with your logo, wording or photos from among thousands of products.  They are printed on demand in the size and color the buyer chooses.  You simply prove the artwork and select the products and receive commissions on the sales.  Here is an equine rescue example.

Recycling and Other Passive Giving Fundraising Opportunities                 (Top of Page)

Whether it is branded items in your online store, or passive giving links to companies that donate a portion of sales proceeds, don't just start signing up for anything and everything that comes your way.  Discuss the range of opportunities with your Board of Directors, and present them with a need for a linking and monetizing policy.  The Board, with its roles of governance and fundraising, approves a website policy to include, for example, how links to other websites will be handled.  This protects the non-profit from establishing links contrary to its mission, or that could be in violation of its non-profit status, or discriminatory and subject to lawsuit.  Even if the director chooses links wisely and consistently, it is the Board's job to back him up with a written publicly published policy. 

Here are some current opportunities to consider:

Project KOPEG provides a system for collecting used electronics and components like cell phones and ink cartridges from supporters, either businesses or individuals, and turning them into cash for your non-profit.

Gifts for All of Us  has items for fundraising drives for schools, churches, teams, bands, clubs, and other non-profits.  Plus you can link to their website from yours' to earn up to 40% commissions on gift and specialty items.

cMarket Bidding for Good is an online auction service designed specifically to raise money for non-profit agencies.  Visit them at  to see if an online auction could work for your equine facility.  The Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and other large charities have used them.

Other Resources                                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

  Mounting ramps and blocks for persons with disabilities, waler and gait belts, breakaway stirrups, bareback pads, therapeutic riding surcingles, reinbow loops, instructional aids for therapeutic riding programs.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Charity Advantage is an online source for deeply discounted computers and software for non-profits.

Horse Welfare Statistics -

EqRescQ101: Equine Rescue Yahoo Forum and Message Board.  Network with other Horse Rescues about rescue specific concerns.

National Equine Rescue Coalition

Equine Rescue News and Resources

Equine Rescue Webring

Save a Forgotten Equine Forum

Horse Rescue and Information Network Forum

Society of Animal Welfare Administrators

National Animal Control Association Excellent links to state, county and municipal animal control groups and law enforcement agencies, and timely information affecting them.

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

Ehorseeducation - teleseminars assisting therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted activities non-profit centers in management and professionalism areas. 

Product or Service Providers                                      (Top of Page)

If your company offers a discount to equine non-profits, or offers them a service or co-marketing opportunity, please let us know.  Presently, the best way to do that is by e-mail with a contact name and website address.

Arizona Adoptable Horses                                           (Top of Page)

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