October 2016 by Paula Fasseas

Audience: Executive Leadership, Shelter/Rescue Staff & Volunteers

Video Length: 1:08

Could your animal shelter use 5,000 volunteers? That's the size of the dedicated volunteer force at PAWS Chicago, a shelter that includes a state-of-the-art Adoption Center that finds homes for nearly 6,000 pets annually; the Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic and the GusMobile, which spays and neuters 18,000 pets each year for low-income families; and, on top of all that, PAWS Chicago also has a cutting edge shelter medicine and behavior program. How do they do it? With a dedicated staff, and a huge volunteer base!

Join PAWS Chicago founder Paula Fasseas for a webcast on volunteer recruitment, training and retention. The free on-demand version of this webcast is now available.

In this free webcast, Paula will cover:

  • The role of volunteers and their impact
    • The importance of a formal volunteer program
      • How to recruit and retain volunteers
        • What makes the "volunteer culture" of an organization so important
          • How to create a "volunteer culture"
            • Insights from the PAWS Chicago experience


              This course has been pre-approved for Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits.

              About Paula Fasseas

              Paula Fasseas founded PAWS Chicago in 1997 and has built a No-Kill national model for animal welfare. Only 17 years ago, PAWS Chicago was an all-volunteer, grassroots organization. Today, its mounting impact reflects PAWS' reputation as a dynamic and innovative nonprofit.

              With her business background, Paula developed a solutions-based plan to address the plight of homeless pets and raise public awareness on the staggering number of pets that were being killed in silence at traditional shelters. Since then, the number of homeless pets killed in the city has declined by 80% from a high of over 42,000 pets euthanized in 1997.

              PAWS Chicago continues to receive inquiries from small shelters throughout the United States and works diligently to assist them in improving their business practices and strategies. PAWS Chicago received national acclaim through Oprah Winfrey who featured Paula on her television show and has adopted her last three pets through PAWS Chicago.