Ideas on how to help my local shelter best

For people who work at shelters or have had experiance helping.... Is it better to donate goods or funds??
The easy thing for me would be to give $$ but if it is better for the shelter to get goods i would be willing to do this. Does anyone know of a good online discount place for food and supplies? or have any ideas of what is the most cost effective store to shop at? Any and all ideas, advice etc. is most appreciated!

Also, any thing from experiance that you have noticed people forget to donate to shelters (food and litter are no brainers for most people to donate) i would love to be able to help pick up the slack in this area. Again, any advice is appreciated!

my local shlter where i got my kitty is awesome! I want to help out any way possible!

www.northeastanimalshelter.org

You have just given me a great idea. We have a lot of good, high quality cat food in this house that is not out of date but do not wish to give to our cats. So DW and I were trying to think of what we could do with all the kitten good we have. (Persi is turning into an adult so we want to pull him of off kitten food and give him the same adult food as our other cat eats. Anyway, the Plano shelter is near here to my house and I am taking all of my kitten food down to them today. Thanks for putting the idea in me!

Originally Posted by fifi1puss

For people who work at shelters or have had experiance helping.... Is it better to donate goods or funds??
The easy thing for me would be to give $$ but if it is better for the shelter to get goods i would be willing to do this. Does anyone know of a good online discount place for food and supplies? or have any ideas of what is the most cost effective store to shop at? Any and all ideas, advice etc. is most appreciated!

Also, any thing from experiance that you have noticed people forget to donate to shelters (food and litter are no brainers for most people to donate) i would love to be able to help pick up the slack in this area. Again, any advice is appreciated!

my local shlter where i got my kitty is awesome! I want to help out any way possible!

www.northeastanimalshelter.org

Click to expand...

I actually like the idea of sponsoring an animal:

http://www.northeastanimalshelter.org/help/sponsor.php

Katie

I am sure a shelter won't turn anything away, but ask them. Some prefer money so that they can buy specific foods and litter and whatnot. Many shelters will not use clumping litter, many will only use certain foods, etc. When I worked at a shelter, they would give away the cat and dog food to the employees if they couldn't use them. I am sure those donators would rather be supporting the shelter and not the employees own personal pets.

Also, some places I know of ask for Walmart gift cards as a donation.

For things people forget about donating:
PAPER TOWELS!!
bleach
laundry detergent
towels and blankets/animal bedding

Originally Posted by Jen

I am sure a shelter won't turn anything away, but ask them. Some prefer money so that they can buy specific foods and litter and whatnot. Many shelters will not use clumping litter, many will only use certain foods, etc. When I worked at a shelter, they would give away the cat and dog food to the employees if they couldn't use them. I am sure those donators would rather be supporting the shelter and not the employees own personal pets.

Also, some places I know of ask for Walmart gift cards as a donation.

For things people forget about donating:
PAPER TOWELS!!
bleach
laundry detergent
towels and blankets/animal bedding

Click to expand...

We pretty much find a use for anything. Anything we cna't use we use in a yard sale.

Paper towels are a big one!! We go through tons of paper towel. Bleach is another big one. As well as Landry detergent.

Litter is also a big one. But make sure you find out what kind of litter they use first. We use regular clay litter, but alot of people donate clumping, which we can't use.

Monetary donations are also verryyy helpful.

A lot of people donate supplies but not a lot donate money...so we end up with a bunch of supplies that we can't always use. There are always vet bills, medicine, wages, utilites, etc. to pay for. My shelter is a part of the science diet shelter plan, which provides them with the food that they need, so pretty much any food donated is not used and usually ends up being given away to people that can't afford to buy it themselves although we usually do keep any canned food we get. The best thing to do is contact the shelter you plan on donating to and ask them what they would prefer or if there is something in particular that they need. For example: my shelter needs metal dishes for both cats and dogs as well as metal litter boxes because they are more sanitary than plastic. Beds, towels, newspapers for lining the cages, bleach, laundry detergant, cat litter (check to see what they use first), garbage bags, etc. are always in need.

Pretty much what eveyrone else has said, but another great thing that are a combination of money/products, are gift certificates!
Gift certificates to Petco, PetSmart or any local pet store are AWESOME!!

My shelter has a list of supplies they accept, and there is a board in the lobby where they have a list of what they need most at the moment. Bleach, paper towels, cat litter both clumping and non-clumping, rawhides for dogs, and canned cat food are always on the list.

Although monetary donations are fab because they do have to buy meds, pay vet bills, etc.

Personally, I buy something for the shelter every time I'm in a pet store. When it builds up I bring it all in at once. Plus I often call and ask if they need anything specific for the rabbits. I love rabbits and most people don't donate anything for them so they run out of hay and never have toys, etc.

We have a list on our website of things that people can donate if they dont want to give money, but I cant think of most of htem - things like bedding are always useful, any toys etc that yours dont like anymore. This year, I am buying a tin of food extra a week (well, I buy a 6pack each month cos I forget) and htat is being split between 2 rescues, then all my coppers are being split between three rescues.