If your area is experiencing a boom in construction, or in sales of current housing, you may want to partner with the local realtors, real estate agencies and homebuilders to gain support for your rescue!
Whether you are looking for in-kind donations of building materials from a construction company, or you need help in raising money for your group, you should send a letter first to introduce your group and the concept of working together. Call the construction or realty offices to find out who is in charge if you don’t already know. Get the proper spelling of their name, their company title, their direct phone line, and whether they are male or female. Yes, it can be tricky to talk to someone later on if you are asking for Terry, Chris, Dana or Pat!
Send your letter along with your group’s brochure, and pay attention to when it will arrive. Plan to call the person 2 days after the letter arrives to set up a meeting in the near future to discuss the partnership. Then, at the meeting, you can present your proposal for partnerships, such as naming surgical or puppy rooms after the company or agent, securing ongoing funding from the realtors (such as a sponsorship level of $500 a month for next 2 years), holding a promotion for the real estate company to donate $500 from every home sale in a specific month, and detail what they will get in return.
Start putting together your proposal. What can you offer them? Naming opportunities for rooms, office equipment, a memorial garden, etc. You can also help create Welcome Packets of info for their new home owner clients who have pets, including articles and brochures on local plants to avoid, helpful tips for cleaning carpets, and ideas for pet-proofing your house. You can also mention your partnership regularly in your group’s newsletter, and provide advertising space for their logo and contact info. Your group will be able to send out press releases about your new partnership to local media outlets. Include their logo on your signs or a banner during the building process of your new shelter or memorial garden. Their real estate or construction company will be mentioned frequently by your rescue, including at the ground breaking ceremony where one of their company officers will be present with a shovel to dig, and again at the opening ceremony. You’ll need to come up with a cost amount for various levels of sponsorship that companies can commit to, with various tiers indicating their level of support.
Sample Letter to Realtors to request donations/ sponsorships of new shelter building (written on group’s logo letterhead)
Dear (Realty Company Representative/ Manager),
It’s a great time to be living in OurTown where the world of opportunity awaits! (Or use another intro sentence that will grab their attention.) Your company has a strong presence in our growing community. It is obvious that you believe in Our Town and YourCompany is committed to seeing OurTown become a great city of the future. Our animal group, (insert name), is proud to be a well-established charity (pillar?) of this community, saving animals one life at a time. But, with this status comes the realization that more growth in our community equals more work for our group. We welcome the hard work because we believe in the future of OurTown and the right for all animals to ______. (insert your mission statement or just the “right for all animals to live humanely”.)
As a responsible animal welfare group of OurTown, OurGroup is looking toward the future and we are designing plans to build a new state of the art sanctuary to care for the many animals (use stats if you have them) in our community. We aim to cease the senseless euthanasia of over 80% of the surrendered animals in OurTown, to increase adoption rates for adoptable animals, and increase spays and neuters of owned pets in our community, thereby reducing the overpopulation of unwanted animals in OurTown. But we can’t do this great work without some assistance.
I’d like to set up a time to discuss with you a sponsorship opportunity that will help OurGroup bring our vision to a reality. Our success depends on our ability to create a partnership with companies such as YourCompany who believe in the future of OurTown and that “all” of its citizens should be cared for with love and respect. OurGroup believes that by joining forces with other committed companies in OurTown such as YourCompany, we can make a difference in the lives of all animals in our area. I will contact you later this week to set up a time to meet in person to discuss ways that our group and your company can work together for a great future of OurTown. If you should need to contact me prior to our phone call, my contact info is listed below. Thank you for your consideration.
For the Animals,
A. Loyal Volunteer
President, SuperRescue
Contact Info
SuperRescue is a 501(c)3 charity dedicated to finding animals of OurTown their lifelong, loving homes. (Or use your own tagline here, but be sure to mention your charity status)
Enclosures (this means include your brochure, your biz card, etc.)
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Points to get across:
“future of OurTown”
dedicated to change
we are an established group in OurTown (a pillar of the community)
thinking ahead
success depends on partnerships
established goals (end euthanasia, increase adoptions, more spay/neuter)
Need help from companies
Set up meeting for later where you actually discuss $s and what THEY get out of your partnership!
Excellent post on fundraising thank you letter sample! I really enjoyed reading it, and my site is about Easy Fund Raising Ideas so I’m not just saying is lightly. Keep up the great work!