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!
Check out more short overview videos on topics like the mobile app, surveys and automated responses, the MPA Website and basic admin functions.
Check out our one-pager, About the App, for organizations.
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.
A: We've created a toolkit of various materials to help foster care coordinators promote the app to foster caregivers.
It includes: an adorable short video directed at caregivers (think orientations, emails or newsletters), an e-card, a postcard and/or flyer for printing out, a cheat sheet to facilitate in-person discussions 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. Please note: Once your data is imported, your organization's MPA account is live and communications will be sent to end users (e.g., adopters and/or foster caregivers) automatically.
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.
- Once published, your data will import, your organization's MPA account is live, and communications will be sent to end users (e.g., adopters and/or foster caregivers) automatically
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.
When your registration is approved, you should see data importing into the MPA Website within 1-3 days. Please note: Once your data is imported, your organization's MPA account is live, and communications will be sent to end users (e.g., adopters and/or foster caregivers) automatically.
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.
When your registration is approved, you should see data importing into the MPA Website within 1-3 days. Please note: Once your data is imported, your organization's MPA account is live, and communications will be sent to end users (e.g., adopters and/or foster caregivers) automatically.
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.
When your registration is approved, you should see data importing into the MPA Website within 1-3 days. Please note: Once your data is imported, your organization's MPA account is live, and communications will be sent to end users (e.g., adopters and/or foster caregivers) automatically.
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.
A: Surveys are available to adopters or foster caregivers on specific days throughout the first month of care - generally on Day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30. The Survey Calendar shows the exact schedule for each pet type.
A: Surveys that have been submitted by adopters or foster caregivers can be viewed in a full list on the Survey Tab of the MPA Website. The How to Review Submitted Surveys document can show you how to filter survey submissions, mark surveys as reviewed, explains the color-coding system and more.
A: The Adoption Experience survey is optional.
Health and Behavior surveys and the associated advice are not customizable from one organization to another. Experts have worked hard to offer a consistent message crafted from the best guidance our industry has to offer. That said, we'd love your feedback. If you have specific suggestions, please email us at mpa@maddiesfund.org.
*You do, however, have the ability to upload "My Favorites" documents, send out custom push notifications, or pre-schedule emails, on specific dates or a certain number of days after adoption date or foster care start date (e.g., 7 days after Fluffy went home) – all through the Admin Tab on the MPA Website.
A: Our experts of course! Meet the shelter medicine veterinarians and veterinary behaviorists providing helpful advice to the most commonly asked questions people face when bringing a new pet into their home.
Pet Info
A: If an adopter or foster caregiver changes a Pet's Name in the mobile app, it will appear as 'NEW NAME (OLD NAME)' in the MPA Website for you. Pet ID is shown on the app for end users to reference at any time. See screenshots of how this looks in mobile and website.
Emails and Communications
A: Once a person's email address is entered or imported in the MPA Website, that person will receive a welcome email within the next few hours. The "Welcome Email" says a little about MPA, explains how and where to download the app, and gives them their personal log in information to get started.
Caregivers will also receive emails regarding survey reminders, vaccination reminders (based on the due date in the MPA Website), and automatic advice (based on the responses they select in the health and behavior surveys).
To see a full list of emails sent to foster caregivers, check out our Canned Email Template document.
For Adoption Programs
A: We've created checklist that that highlights the training materials and resources we think are most important for adoption counselors and front desk staff who are learning the ins-and-outs of how to best utilize Maddie's® Pet Assistant for post-adoption follow up.
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 adopters; and more.
A: We've created a toolkit of various materials to help adoption counselors and front desk staff promote the app to adopters. It includes: an e-card, a postcard and/or flyer for printing out, a cheat sheet to facilitate in-person discussions and more.
