Animal Welfare Grants that Celebrate No-Kill: The Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence Grants

Best Friends Network Partners that have already reached a 90% Save Rate face new challenges as they strive to sustain their lifesaving numbers. As leaders in the field, no-kill organizations are critical to our collective goal of making the entire country no-kill.  

Who Can Apply?

• The Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence Grants fund projects that help no-kill organizations maintain their lifesaving while also assisting other organizations in their community reach the 90% benchmark. These grants celebrate groups that are leading the movement through innovative partnerships, mentorships, and progressive collaborations within their community.  

Other Eligibility Requirements

Please make sure you are familiar with the following requirements before applying:

• Organizations must be a part of the Best Friends Network
  • See if your organization is already a network partner
• Data-sharing requirements
  • Submit all monthly data for 2024 through July of 2025 to Shelter Pet Data Alliance (SPDA) for eligible organizations​
    • Create/log in to your SPDA account​
  • Submit 2024 annual community data for non-SPDA eligible organizations​
    • Submit your 2024 annual data
• Programs must be implemented within the United States
• Awarded grant funds must be spent within a one-year period
   

What Types of Projects are Considered?

We anticipate that funded projects will be related, but not exclusive, to:

• Helping hard-to-place animals
• Meeting critical staffing and medical needs
• Impacting regional growth
• Community mentorship programs  
• Innovative animal shelter operations 

No-Kill Excellence Grants will fund scalable programs that support positive outcomes for animals in other network partner cities and emerging no-kill communities.

Here are a few examples of previously funded No-Kill Excellence Grants:

• Free preventative care and educational programs for residents
• Funding to treat medically fragile animals
• Implementation of educational behavior programs for shelters
• Owner retention programs that provide food, medical services, pet deposits, and fencing

See the full list of grants awarded during our last cycle. 

How Much Funding Can I Request?

Your organization can apply for a grant of up to $60,000, with the amount requested not exceeding 10% of your operating budget.

Letter of Interest (LOI) Information

This grant cycle, we will be collecting Letters of Interest (LOI) as the first phase of the grant cycle. When applying for the grant, there will be a short form that you will submit for the grant.

Below, are the questions that are included in the LOI form to help in your preparation. 

• Which Grant are you submitting a grant proposal for? (The Rachael Ray Save Them All, The Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence, Not Sure)
• Project Name
• How would you identify your community? (Urban, Suburban, Rural)
• Have you previously applied for one of these grants in the past? (Yes, No, Not Sure)
• Amount Requested (Note: No-Kill Excellence up to a maximum of $60,000 and not to exceed 10% of operating budget. Save Them All up to a maximum of $50,000 and not to exceed 10% of operating budget.)
• Will you or a partner organization achieve a 90% rate or higher through this project?  
• Lifesaving Gap Population Type(s).
• Lifesaving Programs
• What region is your organization located in?
• Where are your intended impact partners located?
• Impacted Partner (Note: you will need to provide the impacted organizations name)
• Project Summary and Implementation Timeline
• The number of animals impacted by your grant project. (Note: Do not double count animals or estimate indirect impact in your calculations. For example, managing and diverting intakes of 50 cats cannot also be counted as 50 community cat programming.) 

Once LOIs have been reviewed, should your project be of further consideration, you’ll move onto the second phase where you will be invited to submit a full application for funding consideration. 

Reporting

Applicants will be asked to verify that their organization reached and sustained a 90% save rate for the past year. If you are unsure if your organization meets this requirement, please refer to the pet lifesaving dashboard.

Grant recipients will be assigned reports via our grant management platform. Emails are sent to the assignee as reports are assigned.

Please read the following reporting requirements carefully as failure to submit timely and accurate reports on the progress of your project can impact the ability to receive future funding. 

If the reports should be assigned to someone other than the person who submitted the application, please email networkgrants@bestfriends.org.

Quarterly Reporting

Quarterly reporting requirements include providing the number of impacts (Transfer/Transport, Foster Programming, etc) you have completed with the awarded funds.  We also ask you to provide a brief update on how your project is progressing, as well as a story and photo from your project.

• Amount of funding spent through report date
• Impacts depending on project type, attributed to the funds awarded. These include, by species (see definitions here):
  • Transfer/Transport
  • Foster Programming
  • Managing and Diverting Intakes
  • Medical Programming
  • Community Cat Programming
  • Pet Retention/Safety Net Programs
  • Return-to-Home Programming
• Is your organization current on their data?
• If you have impacted shelters as part of your grant, to the best of your knowledge are they current on their data?
• Summary of Progress
• Success Story and Photo
• When your grant is complete, you will also be asked to provide:
  • Project Successes
  • Project Challenges
  • Testimonial

We reserve the right to identify additional reporting metrics appropriate to the scope and impact of the project.

Stay Connected

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