GUEST: Stacy LeBaron hosts a weekly podcast called the Community Cats Podcast where she interviews nationally and internationally renowned experts about cats and cat welfare. She also served for 16 years as president of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, assisting more than 105,000 cats and kittens in and around Salisbury, Massachusetts. Stacy is a current member of the Shelter Medicine Committee at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, an adviser to the Massachusetts Animal Coalition (MAC), Vice President of the Board for PAWSitive Pantry in Vermont, and committee member for HubCats Chelsea. Stacy also facilitates two smaller coalitions in Massachusetts, the Boston Homeless Cats group and Merrimack Valley Partnership.

MAIN QUESTION: What steps do you recommend to revive an organization that has become stagnant or inactive?

TAKEAWAYS:

• There are generally two ways to revive an organization: Reinvigorate the passion of existing people, or allow the organization to start a new life with new leadership or management. Stacy calls this latter “recycling the organization.”
• Identify the key challenges or weaknesses of the organization, which can usually fit into four categories:
  • Funding (lack of funding)
  • People (often lack of energy due to hard work over many years)
  • Vision (the lack of an inspiring vision or direction for the future)
  • Scalability (Issues that hinder growth or desire to stay the same)
• Figure out where you can make the biggest impact for the funding you have.
• Consider doing an assessment of the needs in your community and what other organizations are already doing – look for an unmet need to focus on.
• Consider merging with another organization.
• And consider partnering with other organizations (even outside animal welfare) this could include sharing resources such as HR, bookkeeping, and marketing.

LINKS:

• Community Cats Podcast 
• Community Cats Pyramid about how certain programs affect cat population numbers
• Stacy LeBaron on Shelter Success Simplified podcast Ep12 about tech solutions and innovations for animal groups
• Leadership recommendation: Steps for planning an animal shelter or clinic