Interview! Natalise Kalea, CEO of poundWISHES

"We want to save animals, help animals, and better the lives of animals around the world. We aim to execute on our mission through creative innovation and community."

Natalise has always been an animal lover, who always dreamed of using her business skills and put them to good use. Now that she is the CEO of poundWISHES, she is doing exactly that!

Natalise is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, who did an internship between her first and second years that encouraged her to create an environment of impact in business. When she was younger, she regularly volunteered with Best Friends in Los Angeles, which opened her eyes to how many different programs needed funding. She remembers seeing people take in 5 to 10 animals at a time, which would only put them into debt. Because of this, she wanted to move into a role where she could directly impact the future.

poundWISHES is a crowdfunding platform for animal welfare non-profits that started about 2 1/2 years ago by a little girl who suffered from Leukemia. As a young girl, her family utilized the Make-A-Wish foundation, which always stuck with her. When her family adopted a pet from a shelter when she was 5, she remembered how sad the shelters were and wanted to create a "Make-A-Wish" foundation for them! When she was 12, her and her dad created poundWISHES to help these animals in shelters and elsewhere.

poundWISHES receives crowdfunding request for animals in need who may require surgery, medication, or transport. There are also crowdfunding items for natural disasters, or even things like the creation of a dog park!

It is similar to GoFundMe, but for animals and is much more hands-on. poundWISHES helps rescues craft and optimize their campaigns and shares campaigns to their community of over 90,000 animal lovers. They also highlight campaigns on their social media platforms, which allows shelters to not have to solely depend on themselves to get the word out.

Natalise shares tips on running successful campaigns, such as focusing on the quality and content of the story. Great pictures and videos are a must, along with successfully framing the story to bring an emotional response.

poundWISHES is also working to expand into the e-Commerce industry, similar to an Amazon Wishlist. They are aiming to be a one-stop-shop for rescues so they can strictly focus on the work they have to accomplish at their facility. Donors are able to contribute through physical items, along with monetary donations, allowing rescues to worry less about how they will fundraise and bring needed products and medicine in the door.

Learn more today at poundwishes.com.