The following are the most frequently asked questions about Maddie's® Pet Assistant (MPA). If you have a question not answered below, please join us on the Maddie's® Pet Forum to post your question and we will answer it there, or you can email us at mpa@maddiesfund.org.
General
A: Maddie's® Pet Assistant (MPA) is a FREE app, developed by Maddie's Fund®, to follow up with adopters and foster caregivers once a pet is placed in their new permanent or temporary home.
Adjusting to having a new pet in the home can be difficult for both the caregiver and the pet, and having reliable resources available to the caregiver can help ease concerns, and empower caregivers with knowledge and practical information.
Let’s keep more adopted pets in homes and provide foster caregivers with the support they need!
A: Foster Retention
- Enhance caregiver's experience for foster program retention.
A: Customer Service
- Learn how to help adopted pets stay in their new homes and how to help foster pets settle into their temporary homes.
- Clearly communicate to adopters and foster caregivers that you care about their success.
- Enhance the customer service and adoption experience.
A: Program Development & Support
- Strengthening support programs for new pet parents and foster caregivers and most importantly understand which programs they truly need.
- Gather Information about pets in the home.
- Gain valuable data about pets' behavior and health in a home environment; including tracking of weight, vaccinations schedules and more.
A: Professional Development for Volunteer & Staff
- Engage volunteers and staff with continued professional education.
A: Marketing Support
- Collect a wealth of adorable stories, pictures and videos directly from adopters' (fundraising) and foster caregivers' (marketing) success stories via the app's sharing function.
- Gather more information for pet adoption biographies and more!
A: Once your organization’s data is imported or entered into the MPA Website, your caregivers will receive an email with guidance on how to download and log into the app.
Caregivers are then prompted to answer health and behavior surveys about their new pet on specific days throughout the first month of care. Depending upon their concerns and responses, the caregiver will receive immediate advice and resources directly to their phone.
Tired of endless voicemails? MPA hopes to address common concerns quickly so you can spend your valuable time on the more complex cases.
Other benefits:
- Automatic vaccination reminders
- Weight tracking
- Pet bio, photo and video submissions
- Adoption experience data, and more…
Think of it as another tool in your toolbox to help animals succeed in their journey beyond the shelter.
A: Yes! Fill out the short form and we can set you up as a test adopter or test foster caregiver of a pretend pet. You should expect to receive an email within 24 hours letting you know how you can download the app to your mobile phone or tablet, login, and start testing!
For Foster Care Programs
A: We've created a checklist that highlights the training materials and resources we think are most important for foster care program coordinators who are learning the ins-and-outs of how to best utilize Maddie's® Pet Assistant for their program.
It includes links to topics including: what to expect when importing data; how-to's for pet profile information, vaccinations, weight tracking, photo/video submissions and 'my favorites' management on the MPA Website; the survey schedule, example survey questions and advice, and how to review surveys; how to promote the app to foster caregivers; and more.
Getting Started and Data
A: There are two ways to import data into MPA – Automatic and Manual Imports
Automatic Import
If your organization uses Animal Shelter Manager, PetPoint, Shelterluv or Shelter Buddy management software, Maddie's® Pet Assistant can automatically import your organization's data. Once your registration is approved, your organization should see data importing into the MPA Website within 1-3 days.
Manual Import
For all others, or if your organization doesn't currently have a management software, you can simply manually enter your pets', adopters' and/or foster caregivers' data directly into the MPA website.
This sounds great. Let’s do this! Registration is fast and easy:
A: In order to integrate Maddie's® Pet Assistant with Animal Shelter Manager, you'll need to complete two steps:
- Provide your ASM Account Number on the Maddie's® Pet Assistant Registration Form. If you have already registered, just email your ASM Account Number to mpa@maddiesfund.org.
- 'Publish' to Maddie's® Pet Assistant from your ASM account.
Read our How to Integrate with ASM document for more detail.
A: To get your data automatically importing into the MPA Website, all we need is your unique PetPoint Organization ID.
If you have Registered and are using Maddie's® Pet Assistant already, just email your PetPoint Organization ID to mpa@maddiesfund.org. If you have not yet registered, you can add your ID when you fill out the online Registration Form.
Read our How to Integrate with PetPoint document for more detail.
A: To automatically import your organization's data into the MPA Website, all we need is your unique Shelterluv Authentication Key.
If you have Registered and are using Maddie's® Pet Assistant already, just email your Shelterluv Authentication Key to mpa@maddiesfund.org. If you have not yet registered, you can add your Key when you fill out the online Registration Form.
Read our How to Integrate with Shelterluv document for more detail.
A: To get your data automatically importing into the MPA Website, all we need is your unique Shelter Buddy Site URL. It will look like this example: https://testorganization.shelterbuddy.com/.
If you have Registered and are using Maddie's® Pet Assistant already, just email your Shelter Buddy Site URL to mpa@maddiesfund.org. If you have not yet registered, you can add your URL when you fill out the online Registration Form.
Read our How to Integrate with Shelter Buddy document for more detail.
A: If your organization does not use Animal Shelter Manager, PetPoint, Shelterluv or Shelter Buddy management software, or if your organization doesn't currently have a management software, you can manually enter your data directly into the MPA website.
First, you will need to register your organization. Approval should take less than 24 hours.
Then, you can start adding admin and adding pets and their adopters or foster caregivers to the MPA Website. Once an email address is entered, that person will receive an automatic email, letting them know about the app, how to download it and give them their login details.
Surveys and Advice
A: Caregivers are prompted to respond to health and behavior surveys available on various days throughout the first month of care. Survey questions will change depending upon concerns indicated. For example, if a person takes a survey on day 1, then day 3 will ask if that issue has been resolved. Check out these example day 1 surveys for kittens, cats and dogs.
