Home > Out of the Cage! > May 2005 > A Valuable Resource: Imagine Humane: Helping Build Stronger, Smarter Organizations

A Valuable Resource

Imagine Humane: Helping Build Stronger, Smarter Organizations

Instead of reinventing the wheel, Imagine Humane is attempting to turn it.

Since 2002, Imagine Humane has assisted shelters and rescue organizations around the country to learn from each other. They highlight effective programs to increase adoptions, improve spay and neuter capacities, enhance fundraising efforts, and build stronger, smarter organizations.

Imagine Humane is a capacity-building initiative of the ASPCA's National Shelter Outreach. It also draws upon the resources and experience contributed by the staff at PetSmart Charities. By gathering and distilling detailed information about programs that have made a significant impact on the lives of animals, and then offering the "blueprints" to other organizations looking to improve their capacity and efficiency, Imagine Humane is helping to save lives and create more effective animal protection organizations.

"Many people in the animal protection field are hungry for information and resources," says Bert Troughton, Senior Director of Imagine Humane. "We want to make it as easy as possible for them to locate, and put to use, the most accurate and relevant information available."

Imagine Humane focuses on four critical areas within animal protection organizations — fundraising, leadership, learning, and collaboration. It assists organizations through intensive workshops; a rich and easily navigated web site filled with informative articles and program profiles; and consultation to organizations and individuals. It is through this hands-on fieldwork that Imagine Humane learns of programs and strategies that are working and achieving results.

"We look for programs with measurable success — the measurement being the number of lives saved," says Bert. "We take these programs and present them, so other organizations can learn from them and adapt them to their own communities' needs.

Among the organizations featured on the Imagine Humane web site is Neighborhood Cats, an Alliance Participating Organization and member of the New York City Feral Cat Council. Useful information about implementing a TNR program is available, including trapping basics, care of cats in traps, and the Neighborhood Cats TNR Workshop outline.

Tapping the Innovation Bank

Imagine Humane's Innovation Bank offers a wealth of information that organizations can use to implement programs in their own communities. "Organizations can find programs that work for spay/neuter, feral cats, and more, then follow step-by-step guides to build their own programs," explains Bert. "They can pick and choose the tools that will work for them."

Profiles of successful programs are easily accessible on the Imagine Humane web site (www.imaginehumane.com), featuring instructions on implementing the program, resources (including forms and literature) that can be used directly or customized to an organization's particular needs, suggestions on ways to adapt the program to an organization's needs, and information about the organization that developed the program.

The Fundraising section of the site is currently being enhanced to provide downloadable forms and templates, in addition to valuable information about fundraising strategies. Another enhancement being developed will illustrate to users how a featured program was adapted by another community.

"We suggest that an organization first visit the site to locate the information that's relevant to its goals and needs," says Bert. "Then, after reviewing the information, they can contact us with questions and to discuss implementation."

According to Bert, mentoring is an important ingredient of capacity building. "When we talk to people in the field, we find that many organizations want mentors — individuals and organizations that have experience solving problems and establishing programs and procedures with proven results. But oftentimes successful organizations are inundated with requests for help, and they become overwhelmed," she says.

Imagine Humane takes the time to gather from these organizations as much information as possible, including the forms they use, their press releases — every tool available — to make them all available to other organizations. "This frees up huge amounts of time and energy for the mentors, and allows them to share their knowledge and experience in a more efficient manner," explains Bert.

To learn more about Imagine Humane and find out how your organization might put its resources to work for you, please visit www.imaginehumane.org.