Muddy Paws Rescue: REDI Implementation Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
In October 2023, the Petfinder Foundation awarded Muddy Paws Rescue a REDI Implementation grant to fund new technology that would facilitate adoptions for our registered adopters through a custom-built case-management system.
With the Foundation’s support, we are excited to offer our adopters more autonomy in their adoption journey. In turn, this will mitigate the potential for implicit human bias through automations and ultimately maximize our impact and the number of future lives saved.
At the time of this report, we are building the new matchmaking system, which we will first pilot on a smaller scale with our foster community. Eventually, this will be the same structure that will house our adoption matchmaking system.
By starting with the smaller-scale pilot for our fosters, we can best troubleshoot, refine, and solve any major issues before rolling out to a much larger community of registered adopters. We anticipate being able to launch the initial pilot by early July of this year, and completing the full rollout to our adopters by the end of September 2024.
In 2023, we welcomed 987 dogs into our care and placed 979 dogs in adoptive homes. We also increased support to our local shelter partners. As a New Hope partner for New York City Animal Care Centers, we provide support to NYC’s homeless animal population -- especially those who require specialized medical care or behavior training. In October 2023, for the first time that we can remember, NYC Animal Care Centers were forced to close their doors to dog intakes due to a massive spike in intake that far outpaced their adoptions, reunions with owners, and rescue pulls.
In the weeks following the announcement, we arranged for our first-ever local transport in New York City and brought our adoption van to Manhattan ACC so that we could transport our newest ACC intakes back to our headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen. In total, we welcomed 15 dogs into our care that day.
In December, we began piloting our “Native New Yorkers” campaign, which waived the adoption fee for any of the 15 dogs who were still available for adoption, as our ACC pulls are often larger, older, or bully-breed mixes, and they tend to remain in our care longer.
Our goal for the campaign was to bring attention to these dogs by not only making their adoptions more accessible, but more enticing to the general public, with the hope that they would be adopted quicker into loving homes. At the same time, this would open up their foster homes to new dogs in need. As of today, all but one of the dogs has been adopted and we are hopeful we can find a home for Dino very soon.
In total, we were able to welcome 81 dogs from the NYC ASPCA headquarters and NYC Animal Care Centers over the course of 2023. This is a record high for us in a single year and double the number of dogs that we were able to intake locally in 2022. We are confident this achievement is a testament to the incredible support we have received from philanthropic partners such as the Petfinder Foundation.
How many pets did this grant help?
In 2024, we hope to welcome at least 1,100 dogs into our care.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
As part of our ACC transport this past October, we were able to welcome Pretty Letty into our care.
Pretty Letty was surrendered to ACC of Manhattan after her owner was displaced from a house fire. At 9 years old, the sweet senior was said to be quite nervous at the shelter, so we knew she would benefit greatly from being placed in foster care as soon as possible. She arrived into our care with an ongoing cough, overweight, unaltered, and in need of dental work.
Still, her foster parents fell in love with her charming personality right away, telling us: “She’s a gentle soul, taking treats with delicate nibbles and spreading love to everyone she meets. Letty is a devoted walker, always ready for an adventure, making her the ultimate ‘take-me-anywhere’ dog. From cafes to stores, she’s a dream companion.”
As part of our Native New Yorker program, we were able to catch the attention of her adopter quickly by waiving Letty’s adoption fee. As fate would have it, Pretty Letty was adopted the second week of December, just in time to be home for the holidays.
We are immensely grateful to the Petfinder Foundation for supporting happy tails just like Pretty Letty’s, and for countless other pups in need in the year to come. Thank you!
