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Brenda Barnette,
Pets In Need
Brenda Barnette became the Executive Director of Pets In Need in October 1998. In August 2003, Brenda left Pets In Need to become Executive Director of Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, California.
Background
What PIN was like
What happened next
PIN today
Summary
Pets In Need (PIN), founded in 1965 by Alice Hodges and Jean Miller Mahoney, was the first no-kill shelter serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Silicon Valley, and is the only local animal adoption shelter not funded by a city or county animal control contract.
Pets In Need's mission is to bring a loving, healthy home within paw's reach of every adoptable dog and cat in our community. No animal suitable for re-homing is ever put to death at Pets In Need--no matter how long it takes.
On April 11, 2001, the Pets In Need Board approved the current operating budget of $1.7 million for the 2001-2002 fiscal year. In the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the operating budget was $813,160. We have grown from a staff of 8 employees in 1998 to 23 employees today. In 1998 we were open five days a week for 28 hours; today we're open seven days a week for fifty hours. Our donor base in 1998 was 5,180. Today we have 10,645 active donors. In 1998 we had 75 volunteers; today we have over 300. In 1998 we placed 510 dogs and cats into new loving homes, in 2001 we expect to place over 1,000. Every dog and cat we place has been spayed or neutered--a Pets In Need practice before it became the law in California.
What Pets In Need Was Like
The Board of Directors
The Pets In Need Board of Directors was in the process of reorganization when I applied for E.D. Some former members had rotated off and several new recruits were joining. The group was ready to make the transition from a hands-on Board, involved in the day-to-day operation of the shelter, to a professional Board bringing the organization a variety of skills. In fact, they had just made a decision that Board members would no longer volunteer at the shelter.
The newly organized Board included members who had served 2-4 years, new members and the Board President who had been on the Board for more than ten years. The Board had always been good stewards of Pets In Need's financial resources and held funds in reserve equal to a one-year operating budget. They were ready for Pets In Need to grow.
Staff
Pets In Need had a small staff composed of an Interim Executive Director, two managers--one for adoptions and one for animal care, two adoption counselors, and three kennel attendants. There was no development plan. There was a contract with a direct mail firm, and one of the adoption counselors sent out thank-you notes for donations received. There were several job openings, but staff was too busy to interview applicants so many positions remained open.
The Personnel Policy was not being followed, job descriptions did not exist for everyone on staff and the written policies were not readily accessible. Policy and procedure appeared to be held in the memories of two staff managers.
The staff had been very sensitive to the sentiments of the public shelters and therefore avoided promoting Pets In Need as a no-kill shelter. Despite the avoidance of phrases and terms that could make the public shelters uncomfortable, Pets In Need had been unable to form working relationships to obtain dogs and cats from the public contract shelters.
It appeared that there had been an Executive Director fired and a new one hired annually for the previous five or six years. Although I had some concerns about this, when the Board offered me the job, I said yes.
At my previous job, I had learned to trust people who love animals. I saw for myself that if we did a good job, told people about the work we were doing, and asked for help, good people would come forward to help us. I believed I could lead staff to do a good job for the animals; I believed the Board would help me, and I believed that the community would come forward and help us help the animals and the people who love them.
Volunteers
According to the staff, in 1998 Pets In Need had 75 volunteers--many were foster parents and some did community outreach but few came to the shelter on a regular basis. There were a half dozen volunteers who did help out regularly and were, for the most part, appreciated by staff. No records were kept of volunteer hours and new volunteer orientations were not held on a regular basis.
Although staff had not encouraged volunteerism, there were examples of special volunteer support for Pets In Need that I felt demonstrated organizational capacity:
The Crockett Memorial Fund was established by a Board member in 1988 to guarantee that seniors never have to choose between pet-care and self-care.
A volunteer dog trainer organized Canine College in 1990 and began offering training classes to the community and sharing the proceeds with Pets In Need.
Another volunteer offered to create a website for Pets In Need. His skills and creativity produced a high quality website that was and is second to none.
Community
By the end of 1998, when I joined the Pets In Need team, Pets In Need was shrinking rather than growing. Adoptions and donors were on the decline.
Pets In Need was only known to a small part of the community. People either loved the organization and were extremely loyal or had had a negative experience at Pets In Need and harbored strong resentments.
In shelters where the kennel staff sets policy, the policies for shelter guests will often end up being over-protective and short-sighted. Caring kennel staff may grow to believe that nobody but them is capable of providing for the animals properly. They have difficulty recognizing good adopters. This situation results in fewer adoptions and a lessened ability to take in new animals and save more lives.
What Happened Next
The Board of Directors
Within the first month of my tenure, the Board held a strategic planning retreat and we began the process of getting to know each other and building trust. I was new, and the seasoned Board members had been disappointed many times over the previous years by the people they had hired in my position.
I was putting systems in place, creating job descriptions, updating the Personnel Handbook and obtaining employee benefits to make Pets In Need more businesslike. Simultaneously, I was reviewing and revamping the direct mail campaign and developing a fundraising plan. I was trying to meet and work with staff to increase adoptions and to encourage the establishment of stronger relationships with the local public shelters so we could get adoptable animals from them.
Only two months into my job, the Board President and other Board members were receiving calls from volunteers complaining about my focus on increasing adoptions. By January, I was advised that the Board Personnel Committee needed to conduct an evaluation of my job performance. I decided to do my own evaluation to present to the Board Personnel Committee citing what I had found when I assumed my position as Executive Director of Pets In Need, and what I had accomplished in three months.
The Board did not waver in their support and we responded to the allegations in a professional manner stating only the facts about what we were doing. After a time, we turned the corner; Pets in Need was not damaged and our work for the animals started to flourish.
Staff
Staff was fond of doing things their own way and really didn't want to be bothered by their new E.D. In fact, when I would call a staff or managers' meeting, they often would not even attend.
It was clear that staff felt my role was to raise money and to leave running the programs to them. This was hardly what the Board expected since adoptions were declining, and the Board hired me to grow Pets In Need.
I wanted to establish relationships with the public contract shelters so we could rescue dogs and cats suitable for re-homing who were scheduled to be put to death. Staff had been obtaining animals from owner surrenders. When I tried to determine what criterion was used, it sounded like the animals in the worst condition got the available space at Pets In Need. Many of the animals had significant health and behavior problems. Pets In Need had animals who were so special that they required a very special adopter. It soon became clear why staff did not welcome potential adopters. Very few people were equipped to adopt the special needs animals Pets In Need had available. Pets In Need had become a sanctuary for a few animals.
Volunteers
After several months of trying to gain cooperation without success, a number of staff left the organization. They formed a network with disgruntled volunteers who took their complaints to the Board.
The Board and I decided to have a "Town Meeting" with the former volunteers who came en masse--bringing family and friends to demonstrate strength--about 30 in all.
These volunteers had been connected to one staff person while several Executive Directors came and went. They did not know the Board, and, with all the changes, they felt they were losing a cherished animal welfare organization. Although we were certainly disenchanted with their behavior during the previous weeks, which had deflected our energy from saving animals' lives, we can now understand their feeling that a certain amount of authority had suddenly been taken away from them.
Community
Pets In Need was well known to a small part of the community. Many people who knew of the agency were former adopters. However, PIN was not well known beyond our adopter base. Most of the community members who heard negative allegations tried to learn the truth. We invited them to stay in touch with Pets In Need and to decide for themselves if we deserved their continued support.
We wrote a successful grant proposal for funding to send out monthly press releases, and we began building visibility for shelter guests and Pets In Need programs. We revised the format and content of both the PIN Pals Newsletter and our direct mail to focus on success stories and happy endings, rather than focusing on humans' failure to keep companion animals, or other tragic stories.
We held a series of meetings and invited all of the animal welfare groups inour community to explore how we might work together. We had a series of meetings with the leadership at Peninsula Humane Society and forged an agreement called „Partnership for Pets‰ which went into effect prior to the passage of the California law requiring public contract shelters to offer animals to private shelters before they put animals to death. We also started an informal working relationship with the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley and began taking some of the dogs and cats suitable for re-homing, animals who would have been put to death for lack of space if we had not taken them.
Pets In Need Today
Staff
Pets In Need has the normal struggles of all businesses to attract and keep staff. It is hard to compete for the most qualified staff. Fortunately, in the nonprofit world, it is possible to hire highly qualified staff who choose to work in the nonprofit sector to do work of the heart. Donors who invest in our services are more savvy today, and they expect efficiency and a high return on their investment. The days when working for a nonprofit means having a laid back, non-corporate job are gone. The Pets In Need staff is well educated, creative, caring and results oriented. If they aren't, they don't fit the culture at Pets In Need.
We have staff meetings twice a month. We use these meetings for education, team building and to ensure that everyone knows and understands our mission and goals.
The Board of Directors
Pets In Need has a wonderful volunteer Board. One long-term Board member keeps the vision of our co-founder alive in our mission. Other Board members bring a variety of business skills, fundraising connections and marketing expertise. One Board member served as Interim Executive Director to see PIN through the purchase and remodel of the current building. I couldn't ask for better bosses.
We have started a capital campaign to build a new shelter so Pets In Need can provide more services for the animals and people who love them. Board members are speaking so positively about the project that I have had calls from community leaders asking to serve on the Capital Campaign Leadership Committee!
Volunteers
Today, Pets In Need has over 300 active volunteers. We hold volunteer orientations twice a month plus training by the supervisors for each specific volunteer position. Our volunteer force at the shelter, in the development office and out in the community makes all of the difference for the animals. We track the volunteer hours and, in the last year, volunteers gave us working hours that were equivalent to the hours of eight full time staff positions. We started a new tradition and have held two annual volunteer thank you dinners. We don't just call them Volunteers, we call them Volunteer Heroes. In fact, we give them bumper stickers that say they are Volunteer Heroes at Pets In Need.
Community
As Pets In Need's visibility increases, so does our support from volunteers, donors and adopters. There seems to be a growing excitement about what we are doing for the animals, and a genuine interest in helping Pets In Need do even more.
We are developing marketing strategies to try to make Pets In Need a household name in our community. We make it a priority to thank our donors in a timely fashion and to let them know how much we value their support and loyalty.
Most of our shelter guests come from Peninsula Humane Society or the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley. We give first priority to dogs and cats who are suitable for re-homing and will be put to death if we do not take them. We also work with several individuals who do rescue work in the community.
Pets In Need manages the Baseball Aquatic Retrieval Korps (B.A.R.K). In this program, specially trained Portugese Water Dogs jump into San Francisco Bay from the Good Ship Jollipup to retrieve home runs hit out of Pac Bell Park.
During the Sunday games, Pets In Need has an outreach site on the Portwalk of PacBell Park where fans can meet members of the B.A.R.K. team, see adoptable cats and learn more about Pets In Need.
Pets In Need has documented over 12,800,000 media impressions (viewers or readers) across the country for this program during the inaugural season, and, with the start of the baseball season, adoptions doubled. The San Francisco Giants were delighted with the number of lives saved in 2000, and during the 2001 season they will be putting pictures of adoptable dogs and cats on the scoreboard during the games when the B.A.R.K. team is working.
Summary
I remember sitting alone in my office during my first week at Pets In Need and looking up at a burned out fluorescent bulb and thinking, "Oh <!@#, I'm going to have to climb up on my desk and fix this myself."
Since I have been Executive Director of Pets In Need, I have done many things I expected to do such as strategic planning, budgeting, establishing policies and procedures, writing case statements, nurturing Board relationships, cultivating major donors, forging community alliances, supervising staff, and increasing visibility and fundraising for Pets In Need.
I have also done some things I did not expect to be doing such as building walls, cleaning kennels on Christmas Day, learning to update the website, running wire for a computer network, fostering a mom and twelve pups over Thanksgiving and having to fight for truth, justice and using an aggressive adoption program to save lives!
The first eighteen months were difficult but many pluses came our way. One Board member formed the Hillsborough-Atherton Auxiliary and produced a wildly successful sellout event called Roses and Cold Noses. We had an unexpected opportunity to produce the B.A.R.K. program for the San Francisco Giants that resulted in spectacular visibility that began the doubling of our adoptions. After awhile, the community started to show up to let us know they support the work we are doing and to help us. In fact, twenty-three community leaders are serving on our Capital Campaign Leadership Committee, and our donors and our adoptions have doubled.
Today, at Pets In Need, we dream and we take action. As we continue saving lives and making good adoptions--more than ever before--we are planning for the future for the animals in our community. We are raising money to build a model shelter that will not only keep our shelter guests healthy while they wait for a new loving home, but will also eliminate some of the behavior problems caused by traditional sheltering. Today we look forward to the challenges and opportunities that will keep our days interesting as we continue to save more animals' lives.
About the Author:
Prior to becoming Executive Director at Pets In Need, Brenda served as Development Director at The San Francisco SPCA and as the organization's Client Services Manager. Brenda also spent many years building, owning and operating commercial boarding kennels while volunteering with the local humane society and kennel club.
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