I hate asking for donations. Seriously. If I had a choice between having a root canal verses asking someone to donate to my organization, I’d take the root canal.
And because I suck at asking for donations and I happen to be the founder/leader/head cheese of the nonprofit organization Missing Pet Partnership, it shouldn’t come as a shock that MPP is on the verge of closing our doors. We have only $500.00 left in the bank and if things don’t turn around in the next few weeks, our web site (which alone has helped so many people and their pets), our Seattle pet detective services, and our vision to develop community-based lost pet services across the USA could all go away. So here’s why (besides my failure to grovel and beg for donations) MPP is so close to tanking:
1. None of the monthly expenses (Internet, phone, attorney fees, insurance, office supplies, plus other monthly operating expenses) have changed. We need $3,500.00 a month to stay afloat.
2. Donations have trickled down to just a few here and there. The last time we received a big check I nearly peed my pants. That has not happened in a very long time. I WOULD LIKE TO NEARLY PEE MY PANTS AGAIN (I’m getting to be that age, you know).
3. You’re probably wondering just why I hung my cat Myron up in a tree…I’ll get to that in a minute.
4. Up until now, MPP has offered FREE lost pet phone consultations (often spending over an hour on the phone with pet owners) and we’ve charge a service fee ($250.00) for MOST (but not all) of our lost pet searches here in Seattle. We’ve also taken on many searches “pro bono” like the Mugsy case, the Buddy case, the Cutie case, and the Bitsy case. We are, after all, a nonprofit and we’re attempting to serve the community and build a program that can be blueprinted across the USA. However, because of our current financial situation, MPP will start charging $50.00 for our phone consultations.
5. Did I mention that the economy SUCKS? Yeah, attempting to start up a nonprofit organization in the midst of a recession is just not easy.
So, instead of holding a fundraiser like normal nonprofits (um…the word “normal” is not usually a word associated with Missing Pet Partnership and our pet detectives), I decided instead to hoist my cat Myron high up into a tree and leave him there until we raise enough money for Missing Pet Partnership. My goal is to raise $10,500.00 which would be enough to pay Missing Pet Partnership’s bills through the end of this year.
Send money, and help bring Myron kitty back home! He’s hungry. And he’s getting cold up there! Please, please, PLEASE donate to Missing Pet Partnership and SAVE A CAT (and the sanity of a KAT)!
OK. I can not lie. I went a little insane after hearing that a woman from Vancouver was able to raise $28,000.00 by rubbing drain cleaner on her face. Those photos of Myron were taken last spring at a Missing Pet Partnership search dog training session. Myron is one of our “target cats” that MPP uses to train cat detection dogs to find missing cats. We needed a way to teach our search dogs to find cats that are stuck up in a tree. You know, cats that go missing because they’re lounging-about-in-a-black-mesh bag-up-in-a-tree. It happens all of the time.
So PLEASE help keep Myron (and my other cat Cheeto and my dogs, Zeke and Kody) employed by making a donation to MPP. I would really, really like to return my focus to working pet detective cases, training more pet detectives and search dogs, and helping more families recover their lost pets (instead of this sucky attempt to raise money). Tax deductible donations can be made through PayPal on MPP’s web site or by sending a check to Missing Pet Partnership, P.O. Box 3085, Federal Way, WA 98063.
You can also watch this news clip here (filmed last night by Seattle’s King 5 News) that shows my tagged car and our volunteers searching for “Ike”, a Border Collie lost in Federal Way while also pleading for donations.
Ike’s family lives 160 miles away in Yakima, WA. His “Daddy” was involved in a car crash driving last week, he went through major surgery to have his jawbone removed, and now Ike escaped and is lost in a strange city. They had no money to board Ike (and as a result, he escaped and is lost)and no money to hire a pet detective. They called Missing Pet Partnership asking for our help. How could we turn them down?
Yup…you guessed it…another MPP pro bono case! Keep your fingers crossed that we’ll capture Ike and get him back home to his Daddy. Finding lost pets is our passion…but we can only continue with community support!
