Fundraising for Lost Dog Searches

The search for a lost dog can be amazingly expensive. And yet often, there are many people that would be willing to and would want to donate to the cause if they were asked or at least offered an easy way to do so when their friends, family or even total strangers with compelling stories find themselves in a lost dog search.

Websites such as the following offer easy ways to allow people to donate large or small amounts to a search:

http://www.chipin.com/

http://www.firstgiving.com/

http://www.fundrazr.com/

And there are more that you may be aware of.

As a lost dog recovery specialist, I encourage dog owners (or responsible parties) to consider this option. It's very easy to set up a fundraising account, and link it to a Paypal account. What happens is that funds raised go into a bank account, via Paypal, and what sites like Chipin or Fundrazr or FirstGiving do is provde an image that displays the details of the fundraising effort in an interesting image that is dynamic, and changes as new donations are entered. They also provide a single page devoted to the fundraising effort, allowing you space to make a case for why people should donate to your cause.

Here's an example of a ChipIn "widget" as it's called, which might be placed on a website such as a blog that is centered around a search for a lost dog:

Sadly in the example case, this dog's owner did not publicize the fundraising effort after setting up the account, so this example doesn't show the many contributors and high dollar amounts that you can sometimes see for lost dog searches.

When you set up an account, you get (1) html code to place the image on a website, and (2) a hyperlink to a page which can be sent out in emails, posted to Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, bulletin boards, on websites -- you name it.

And you would be amazed at the response you can get when you ask for help, particularly when you make it this easy, and if you engage people in the search by posting updates. That applies to friends, family and to total strangers!

Many people don't want to go this route at all because they want to fund the search themselves. Sometimes it is that they don't know how expensive it can get, sometimes they are just to uncomfortable to ask for help, and often it is because they assume that no one will be able to or be interested in helping in this way.

For me, it's standard to advise people to consider this option. Check out what fundraising is like today with sites such as these.