Foster Caregiver Recruitment Collection

Foster Caregiver Recruitment Collection

What does successful foster caregiver recruitment look like? The organization has a comprehensive recruitment plan dedicated to finding foster caregivers using multiple methods to reach the entire community.

Foster programs that are most successful in the area of foster recruitment have the following key characteristics:

  • Organization talks about foster constantly in public-facing communications. 
  • Develops and follows a comprehensive recruitment plan. 
  • Invitation to foster is extended to entire community. 
  • Foster base is as diverse as local community.
  • Fosters are prompted regularly to recruit fosters via word of mouth. 
  • Pleas to foster base are sent regularly, in a variety of ways. 
  • Pets get placed in foster on a timely basis. 

This collection contains Maddie's University courses for foster recruitment as well as many examples from successful programs and plug-and-play resources. 

keywords: foster collection

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Expand your foster base and get more pets into foster and adoptive homes

    Organizations across the country are placing the majority of their pets in foster care, where their physical and emotional needs are far better met than in a shelter setting. How do these organizations find and keep foster caregivers? This course covers the most important principles and methods of expanding your foster base and getting foster pets into foster and adoptive homes. This course is authored by Kelly Duer, Senior Community Solutions Specialist for Maddie's Fund®.


    keywords: marketing, recruit, recruitment

  • Contains 10 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Increase the capacity of your existing foster program

    This course will teach you how to increase the capacity of your existing program through effective communication and marketing, improved logistics and use of volunteers. The course is especially focused on fostering and finding homes for dogs who are harder to place. This course was authored by Kelly Duer, Senior Community Solutions Specialist for Maddie’s Fund®

    Upon completion of this webcast, students' organizations are eligible to apply for a Dog Field Trips grant from Petfinder of up to $1000. (Applicant's organization must be an active Petfinder member with adoptable pets listed on their Petfinder page.)

    This course has been pre-approved for 8.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.

  • Contains 7 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Start or grow your cat and kitten foster programs!

    Your community's capacity to care for cats and kittens depends heavily on your organization's foster programs. The cat program at Austin Pets Alive! started using only foster caregivers; there was no brick and mortar facility for cats. Now APA! has between 400 and 1200 cats and kittens in foster care at any given time, with 1100 cat foster homes active annually. This course will give you all the tools you need to start or grow your cat and kitten foster programs. The course is authored by Monica Tarant, Chief Innovation Officer: Feline Lifesaving at Cincinnati Animal CARE with The Joanie Bernard Foundation and Casandra Mensing, Maddie's® Neonatal Program Director at American Pets Alive!.

    This course has been pre-approved for 4.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.

    feline, neonate, marketing, matchmaking, application, adoption

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Learn how to create a culture of fostering in your community and discover proven strategies for placing more pets in foster.

    In this webcast, you'll learn how to create a culture of fostering in your community and discover several strategies for placing more pets in foster (hint: recruitment is just one of them!). You’ll learn what the latest market research says about messaging and techniques that can turn potential fosters into applicants, how short-term foster programs can help you find the fosters and adopters you need, and how organizations with the most robust foster programs are building their foster base.

    Presenter: Kelly Duer, Foster Care Specialist, Maddie's Fund

    Maddie’s Fund is an approved provider of content which enhances professional competence and aligns with the 5 domains of the CAWA Exam specifications. Every hour of training equals 1 CE towards CAWA Recertification.

    keywords
    webcast, foster care, foster volunteers, foster volunteer recruiting, foster recruitment, foster homes, volunteers, fostering, community outreach, community engagement, marketing foster care, foster care messaging, foster to adopt, short-term foster programs, adoption from foster, foster programs

    Kelly Duer (Moderator)

    Senior Community Solutions Initiative Specialist - Foster Care Specialist

    Maddie's Fund

    As Senior Community Solutions Initiative Specialist, Kelly's focus is on helping shelters and rescue organizations increase lifesaving through the implementation of robust foster care programs. Her role includes consulting with shelters, creating and providing training for organizations and their foster coordinators, writing and assisting with research on foster care.

    Kelly previously coordinated a foster program that brought orphaned children to the United States in order to find them permanent adoptive homes, worked as the Foster Expansion Coordinator for a national study of foster care, and assisted with the behavioral foster study that was conducted at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter. Her work with foster care and social media has been featured in many national publications, websites and networks, including Animal Sheltering magazine, the Huffington Post, Best Friends magazine, BarkPost, iheartdogs.com, HuffPost Live and Fox News.

    Lisa Ward (Moderator)

    Director of Education at Maddie's Fund

    As Director of Education, Lisa works closely with the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and manages the day-to-day activities of Maddie® University. She also manages, mentors and coaches Maddie University employees while overseeing the management of programs and projects.

    Lisa comes to Maddie's Fund® with 30 years of experience as an educator in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, where her career started in 1987. She has served in positions from being a teacher, middle school principal and recently as the Director of Student Services. She has dedicated her life to education and feels it is the foundation for change and growth in the world and is extremely excited to carry on the work in education with Maddie's Fund.

    Lisa holds a two Masters Degrees, one in Educational Leadership, and one in Athletic Administration, along with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation all from Saint Mary's College, Moraga, California. During her undergraduate time at Saint Mary's College, Lisa also competed in Intercollegiate athletics and has been named into the Saint Mary's college Hall of Fame. She lives in the East Bay with her husband, two daughters and two rescues, a labradoodle mix, Thunder, and a lab-mix, Lightning. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, sporting activities, and hikes with the dogs.

    Alison Gibson (Moderator)

    Media Specialist

    Maddie's Fund

    Alison coordinates the planning and production of on-site and online educational opportunities for Maddie's University. She comes to Maddie's Fund® from the field of television where, as an independent producer, she traveled the world capturing live concerts for PBS, documenting 2,000 year-old monuments in China, serializing Flemish classics for Dutch TV, and crafting an array of Emmy® award-winning programs. Along the way, she produced marketing videos for a variety of multinational corporations. 

    She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications and holds continuing education certificates from University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. 

    When her neighbor's kitten somersaulted into her home 21 years ago, Alison was immediately smitten. That prompted her to volunteer as a cat foster and socializer. The neighbors moved a year later, but Murphy the cat stayed and became Alison's greatest teacher of patience and unconditional love. Alison was recently adopted by a community cat named Edgar.

    Jennica Lurie

    Dog Marketing Manager

    Austin Pets Alive!