New Data Finding: Foster Programs Boost Adoptions by 20 Percentage Points

Eli the dog spent six months at the SPCA of Brevard, a shelter on Florida’s east coast. Shy and reserved after a difficult past, Eli didn’t draw potential adopters in, even as the shelter’s staff tried to help him feel comfortable and safe enough to shine.

Eli’s life changed in December when he went into a foster home through the SPCA of Brevard’s Home for the Pawlidays program — which places dogs and cats into short-term foster homes for the winter holidays. Eli finally relaxed, and showed what a sweet, loving, cuddly dog he is in a home.

Eli’s foster mom snapped this photo of Eli snuggling with her cat, and shared it to the shelter’s Facebook page. The adoption inquiries started almost immediately, and soon Eli had a home of his own — with a new BFF included.

It isn’t news that foster homes save lives by giving pets a safe place to decompress, where they can be their best and most adoptable selves outside of a noisy, stressful shelter environment, and by making room in shelters for pets who need that space.

New research from the Best Friends data team, based on a survey of nearly 650 network partners, shows that these lifesaving programs boost adoption rates by 20 percentage points.

Shelters and rescue groups without foster programs on average adopt out 48% of the animals in their care. Those with foster programs have an average adoption rate of 68%.

For an organization admitting 1,000 animals each year, that’s another 200 pets going home.

For an organization admitting 10,000 animals, that’s another 2,000 pets being adopted, just by having a foster program.

The benefits are even greater for organizations that allow their foster caregivers to process adoptions — a term which may include, for example, accepting and evaluating adoption applications, handling meet and greets, or selecting adopters.

The organizations that said they allow fosters to process adoptions are adopting out an average of 77% of the animals in their care.

This makes sense because fosters have special insight into the pets in their care, and are especially able to champion them, market them, and help make a good adoption match. Fosters may be able to streamline the adoption process, and relieve bottlenecks, if a shelter is understaffed. Adopters may also be more comfortable with a foster, especially if they have already developed a relationship.

The call to action is clear: Build or expand your foster programming — and get fosters involved with adoptions!

The possibilities are limitless. You could:

• Start a holiday or other short-term fostering program
• Hold a foster open house to recruit new fosters
• Streamline your foster application process to be more accessible
• Break down barriers that get in the way of fostering, so more members of your community can become fosters
• Launch a Facebook page for fosters to share stories and photos — and share tips with your fosters about marketing their foster pets
• Compile resources for foster parents onto one central web page, including     information about how to market a foster pet and help them get adopted — One Tail at a Time’s page is a great example
• Have fosters bring their foster pets to adoption events
• For the biggest boost, allow fosters to be involved with the application process — like some organizations with special programs for fosters to recruit, evaluate, and select adopters

We have even more resources on the Network website to help you do all this and more.

There’s no penalty for taking the next step to expand your foster programming and foster engagement. So try something new today and get more pets into homes!