Crowdfunding Best Practices

Charity With Clarity: Giving With Both Your Wallet and Your Eyes Wide Open 

We have all heard that timeworn phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words," but its impact is rarely more potent than in the world of fundraising. Searing images pierce our hearts: The physical devastation after a hurricane; the tragic plight of displaced persons; or, more specifically to us at Waggle, the soulful eyes of a desperate canine or feline anxiously awaiting emergency care or treatment for a life-threatening condition. Touching images can pull at your heartstrings — and open your wallet.

But you want the assurances that a discerning giver demands: to know that your money is going to work as you intended it to, that you are giving to a reputable organization, and that it maintains best practices in all it does.

We are a pioneering, nonprofit 501(c)(3) pet crowdfunding nonprofit platform dedicated to helping guardians and their beloved four-legged friends when they find themselves in the untenable position of having to choose between paying for Fluffy or Fido's veterinary bill or putting food on the table. We believe that no family should suffer that anguish. We find it simply unacceptable to think that a family could be forced to "let a pet go" for lack of funds.

Our pivotal purpose is to be a miraculous safety net that pet guardians have hoped for. This is why Waggle was established — to help despairing families avoid the heartache and guilt of what veterinarians call "owner-requested euthanasia" or "economic euthanasia." This is simply intolerable. The number of family pets who meet this heart-rending fate is conservatively estimated to be around half a million, and at animal shelters that number is practically double, according to the ASPCA.

We understand this heart-wrenching suffering, and we are committed to taking a big bite out of those numbers while maintaining crowdfunding best practices. In our nearly five years, we have helped save thousands of pets, assuring them of that second — and deserved — chance to live out their natural lives.  We are that lifeline families wish for — the fairy godmother who can change everything with a swish of a magic wand.

How Does Waggle Create 'Magical' Donations? 

Well, we don't really have a cache of fairy dust, and we cannot achieve our goals alone. You — our heroes — are the faithful believers who actually do it. We are the catalyst, the facilitator, the traffic cop, orchestrating all the moving parts. We have established a very carefully designed and totally trustworthy crowdfunding plan that allows fraught pet parents to bring their pets' stories to millions of potential donors. It takes a village, indeed, and by showcasing a companion animal's tragic story through a crowdfunding campaign on our site, a pet parent can find that village (or a mega-metropolis) of animal lovers! And, conversely, those "village residents" can find that pet in need. We have been able to help thousands of pet guardians reach their fundraising goals to pay emergency or larger-than-anticipated veterinary bills.

As a nonprofit organization, we are held to a high standard to be totally transparent. We follow best practices and strive to maintain the loftiest of ideals. Donations made to a particular pet go only to pay that pet's veterinary bill — and funds are sent directly to the treating veterinarian or hospital, never to the individual. Yes, never. We do not use your donation to Barkley’s or Binky’s campaign to keep our lights on. At the donation check-out page, there is a small percentage add-on — a platform fee — that is used to keep our site up and running and to cover our bare-bones overhead. The Waggle team is lean and mean, and all are dedicated animal lovers, like you.

You may have been turned off by stories in the news about high salaries at a charity to which you've donated, only to learn that very little of each donation actually goes to that charity’s programs. That is one benchmark to determine where and how your money is working. You are right to ask, "How much of the money I give to online fundraisers is actually funneled into the work the charity is supposedly doing?"

We cannot bark loudly enough to underscore that 100% of the monies raised by Waggle help our nonprofit save pets' lives. That is part of our nonprofit credo.

Why Personal Crowdfunding? Why Waggle?

The concept of personal crowdfunding is ingenious and resourceful, and it can blossom exponentially on the internet. The goal is simple: Connect the problem and the problem-solver, instantly and directly, with no bureaucratic red tape separating them. The intermediary is removed from the equation.

We know plenty of crowdfunding websites, but we like to think of ourselves as "the furriest" of them all. We say that with tongue in cheek, but what we mean is that we are arguably the crowdfunding expert in all things pets — the most established, pet-dedicated online fundraising site.

Yes, there are other popular crowdfunding sites, like Kickstarter and Pozible, which help creative ideas (not pets) come to fruition. Others, like Crowdrise, GlobalGiving, Fundly, and JustGiving, promote social causes (not pets); Fundable is geared toward small businesses (not pets); and still others, like GoFundMe and Indiegogo, underwrite just about anything (OK, maybe some pets).

Why Our Crowdfunding Platform and Not Another Online Resource? 

• If you don't carry pet insurance or have additional resources you can draw from for your furry BFF's emergency care, then a crowdfunding fundraiser is a best bet, and perhaps a sure bet with Waggle.
• Short of receiving pennies from heaven, personal crowdfunding is arguably the easiest way to raise money: A little bit here, a little bit there, and suddenly you have reached your fundraising goal — an almost instant animal-emergency fund.
• Moreover — and this is a critical differentiator — Waggle partners with more than a dozen other charitable organizations that frequently provide donation matching and starter grants to many of our campaigns.
• We work with bloggers and influencers who post our campaigns on their social media accounts, reaching a larger potential donor base and … abracadabra! You may end up with the needed funds super-fast.
• We provide an arsenal of tools, guidance, and effective ideas to facilitate the creation of a successful campaign, helping you make it as persuasive as possible, so you can nurture it to the finish line.

Reaching a Larger Community Helps You Reach Your Fundraising Goals Faster 

One of the crowdfunding features of Waggle's platform is the wide range of animal-centric foundation-partners we work with, comprising some top-dog organizations, including country music superstar Miranda Lambert's MuttNation Foundation, Maddie's Fund, and Greater Good Charities. The icing on the cake: Our nonprofit partners give generously to many of our campaigns, often donating starting contributions to get the ball rolling or topping off an almost-funded campaign to help it reach its goal faster. Moreover, many of our collaborating organizations offer matching grants, so a donor's contribution goes twice as far, and $1 magically becomes $2! All this helps many Waggle campaigns reach their goals — a funded pet is on the way to being a healthy pet.

Another best practice employed by Waggle: We work with a phalanx of highly visible and popular pet bloggers and influencers, like Cats With Their Tongues Out, which has millions of followers. Whenever a Waggle campaign is promoted on one of their sites, it is almost always guaranteed to reach its fundraising goal in a heartbeat.

Waggle Is at Your Service to Help You Set Up Your Crowdfunding Campaign 

We provide simple, easy-to follow instructions and helpful guidelines, so you can compose the best possible story and take the most "fetching" pictures of your pet.

That’s where those "thousand words" we referenced come into play. Take a look at our tips and recommendations for crafting a successful campaign, and note that we never suggest graphic, upsetting pictures. Yes, those unsavory pictures you’ll find elsewhere on the internet may tug at a viewer's conscience, but it is never our mission to scare potential donors into giving. We don’t believe in shock value — we don’t want contributors to turn away from our site because a picture is too graphic. That’s why we also recommend that you include "happy" photographs taken before your pet's illness, to show donors just how healthy Ginger will look — and be — when her condition is cured.

Trust and Transparency 

We've all read headline-grabbing news reports of masterful scams perpetrated by unscrupulous tricksters on the internet. Waggle's highly effective, layered software has so many built-in checks and balances that it would be virtually impossible to fool our eagle-eyed experts. We pride ourselves on our trustworthiness.

As a nonprofit organization, we report to you, our donors. And to reiterate, funds raised at Waggle for a dog or cat in need are never sent to the pet guardian — monies are sent only to the treating veterinary practice/hospital.

Animal Shelters and Rescue Organizations

Personal crowdfunding campaigns are not the only ones we showcase. Waggle is also a reliable and unwavering partner to over 1,000 animal welfare organizations in the States, and we'd like to work with even more. According to Spots.com, in North America, there are some 10,000 informal organizations and sanctuaries that offer animal sheltering, over 2,000 registered rescue shelters, and 3,500 brick-and-mortar animal shelters.

When an animal welfare organization accepts a surrendered dog or cat with untreated epilepsy or an infection, for example, the rescue/shelter must spend money to make that future four-legged BFF whole again. An untreated animal is not likely to be an adoptable animal, and the sooner that pet is placed with a loving family, the sooner the animal rescue organization can take in another potential pet. Therefore, we are dedicated to spreading the word among rescues and shelters: We offer a needed lifeline. Whether you need to trustworthy crowdfunding site for a dog's surgery, or for a cat's surgery, we are here for you! 

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), each year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized (390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats). The number of dogs and cats euthanized in U.S. shelters annually has declined from approximately 2.6 million in 2011. Further research shows that that number was a staggering 3.7 million in 2009. Horrible, yes, but look at the strides we are making — all of us. 

Image From Statista

Waggle Hopes You Will Become One of Our Heroes — Donate Now! 

This is truly an animal welfare crisis, indeed, but the needle is moving in the right direction. We would like one day to simply put ourselves out of business. Every dollar raised brings us one step closer. Any amount you can donate helps us reach that hoped-for goal — when no family has to face the pain of economic euthanasia and every shelter animal finds a forever home. We invite you to become a regular contributor by joining our FurEver Fund, knowing that 100% of your monthly donations will find its way to a needy animal and a desperate family.

We stand by our crowdfunding best practices and transparency to do all we can for every Muffy and Marley who needs our help, so all of our donors can take the same pride in our work that we do.