Frequently Asked Questions
With PetGiving, you can pre-fund the costs of care for a shelter animal in urgent need. While other donations to a rescue group may go to veterinary bills, business operations, and other overall efforts, your PetGiving dollars are directed to the point of need.
What do donations cover? What happens if a dog or cat isn’t rescued?
You'll find all the details below for donors, rescue groups and shelters.
The donations we collect help cover the costs a rescue group incurs once they pull an animal from a shelter. These funds pay for critical and necessary veterinary care, such as spaying or neutering, heartworm prevention or treatment, treatment of respiratory or skin infections, broken bones, surgery, and more. They also cover food and boarding.
Animal rescue groups are usually nonprofit organizations comprised of passionate animal lovers who want to help homeless animals find homes. Most rescue groups are 100 percent volunteer-run with members from varying backgrounds who do rescue work in their free time outside of their other jobs. Many animal rescue groups will pull at-risk animals from a shelter environment into a temporary “foster home.” This temporary placement allows the animal to be treated medically and marketed for placement in a permanent, “forever home.” Nearly all rescue groups survive on donations.
All rescues are run by people like you and me – animal advocates who work hard to save lives and help animals find new homes. Donations are their main funding source and many can't do what they do without them.
Rescue groups often struggle due to lack of funds. Many rescues have to limit taking in new animals because of the costs of the animals currently in their care. This is where you can help. Pre-funding helps encourage rescues to pull at-risk animals from shelters: They know they will have the means to care for an animal until they can place it with a new family. We think of it as crowdfunding to save a life.
Rescue groups often struggle due to lack of funds. Many rescues have to limit taking in new animals because of the costs of the animals currently in their care. This is where you can help. Pre-funding helps encourage rescues to pull at-risk animals from shelters: They know they will have the means to care for an animal until they can place it with a new family. We think of it as crowdfunding to save a life.
Unfortunately, it’s a common misconception that shelters are a safe haven for animals. Most municipal shelters were created to provide a public health and safety service for removing animals from the streets and temporarily housing them. But most shelters have finite space and a never-ending influx of animals. Shelters with open admission policies must accept every animal, even if they are at capacity. If more animals come in than a shelter can hold and care for, existing animals must be moved or removed.
In an ideal scenario, an animal is returned to their owner, adopted or temporarily housed in a foster home associated with a rescue group or the shelter itself. While no-kill shelters do exist, most shelters have to make difficult decisions regarding euthanasia for those animals who don’t find placement beyond the shelter.
If an animal you donated to is rescued from a shelter, your funds will go directly to the assisting rescue group. If the animal is placed with a shelter-associated foster, the funds will go to the shelter.
Every single animal on the “Animals in Need" section of this website is currently at risk in a shelter and in need of a positive outcome. Once an animal's situation changes, their profile is moved from this page. The “Animals in Need" page is updated in real time, so you can be assured the animals you’re viewing are indeed shelter animals in need of adoption, rescue or foster.
Begin by browsing our Animals in Need page to view cats and dogs that are currently at risk and in need of rescue. You can browse by animal type, location and shelter.
Click through to the profile of the individual dog or cat you’d like to support. There you’ll find a description of the animal and additional photos and information.
Select the “Fund This Animal” button to donate funds to help cover costs of care and encourage a rescue group to step in to help.
Learn more on our How It Works page.
Yes, that’s the beauty of our tool! Donation totals are updated in real time so that everyone working to help an animal can be aware of the donations totals at any given time.
PetGiving is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are expressly dedicated to reducing the rate of euthanasia of homeless animals in shelters.
While every shelter is different, typically, a rescue group must be pre-approved by a shelter to pull animals and must follow the shelter's rescue policies.
Shelters assign a unique animal ID to the dogs and cats they take in. Using that number, we maintain documentation to track every animal that receives funds through PetGiving.
Once a shelter-approved rescue group notifies us they’ve pulled an animal from the shelter, our administrative staff transfers the donations we’ve collected to that group. Donations made toward an individual animal stay with that animal when funds are transferred.
No. Your donations to a specific animal will go to the rescue group that pulls the animal.
At PetGiving, we are stewards of your donation. If a rescue is approved to pull an animal from a shelter and the animal leaves the shelter with them, the donations raised for that animal will be sent to the rescue. We have never limited transfer of donations to a rescue based on our opinion of that organization. The shelter, and only the shelter, has the right to approve or deny what groups pull animals from them.
One hundred percent of your donation is directed to the point of need – the animal. To help cover credit card processing fees, daily operating expenses, platform maintenance and staffing costs, we add an additional 5% service fee during checkout. This small fee is calculated as a percentage of your donation amount.
For example, at checkout, your $25.00 donation would total $26.25. This allows your entire donation of $25.00 to be transferred to the assisting rescue group or shelter.
Not at all. Every dollar counts to the collective total. Donate what you can afford, even if it’s only a few dollars. Every rescue is incredibly grateful for any support you can give them.
If you are new to donating, common donation amounts can range from $10 - $75 per person. We also have many donors who offer $100 - $1000, and others who donate on a regular basis. The amount and frequency are up to you.
If an animal has any positive outcome other than "rescued," such as adopted or returned to owner, donated funds for that animal are rolled into the PetGiving “Urgent Animal Fund.”
Urgent Animal Fund donations go to other animals at risk the following day, giving priority to the urgent dog cases on the euthanasia list.
The Urgent Animal Fund is focused on helping rescue animals on the euthanasia list. We allocate donations to those animals that are currently at risk.
Every single dollar we receive is applied toward solutions to increase the save rate of animals, including reducing the length of stay for animals through positive outcomes, increasing adoptions and preventing new intakes.
Yes, you can donate directly to the Urgent Animal Fund.
Yes. You may mail a check to:
PetGiving Foundation
11702B Grant Rd #432
Cypress, TX 77429
Yes, you can make a recurring donation in the amount you choose.
Yes, PetGiving is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
No. We do not share your information or sell your information to any other party. We do not have access to your payment information. For more information, please reference the merchant service providers privacy policy.
The founders of PetGiving and volunteers of the organization have been weekly shelter volunteers since 2015. Read more about us on our About page.
We transfer donations once a week. If the animal has an urgent critical medical need, we will transfer those donations within 24 hours. We transfer donations to the rescue group or direct to the veterinarian caring for the animal, not to individual fosters.
We collect donations for individual animals profiled on PetGiving. If you are a shelter-approved rescue and you pull one of the animals profiled on our page, any donations collected for that individual animal are transferred to your organization.
If the shelter you work with is enrolled with PetGiving…
If the shelter has not yet enrolled in PetGiving, please contact us. A PetGiving team member will reach out to the shelter to explain our program and the steps to enroll.
We transfer donations once a week. For animals with urgent medical needs, we transfer funds within 24 hours.
If you are a shelter-approved rescue and you pull an animal for which we’ve collected donations, we will send them to you. Please note that we do not transfer funds to fosters.
If you’re interested in fostering, adopting or otherwise supporting an animal you see here on PetGiving, you can contact the related shelter directly for more information. You’ll find shelter contact information on the animal’s profile page.
At checkout, you’ll notice the option to include a tip. You can include this additional contribution to help us maintain and improve the PetGiving platform.
Yes. You can make a donation directly to PetGiving to help our organization grow.
Each community will need advocates to spread the word that PetGiving is a way everyone can help the animals in need in their community. We can provide you materials you can print out and paint the town.
Each shelter will need individuals willing to help showcase their animals in need. Please reach out to the shelter’s volunteer coordinator.
Each shelter will need individuals willing to help showcase their animals in need. Please reach out to the shelter’s volunteer coordinator.
Not at this time.
We will transfer all the donations collected for the animal to the rescue. If the money raised exceeds the costs of care for that animal we hope the rescue will pull another one from the shelter in need that didn’t receive any donations.
If the animal is fostered through the shelter then the funds will go to the shelter. If there is any other outcome the funds will roll to an Urgent Animal Fund and will be applied to another urgent animal the next day.
No. You will have to work with your local shelters and follow their approval process. We send the collected donations to the rescue that pulls the animal from the shelter. In order to do that you have to follow their process for becoming approved.
You can use PetGiving funds any manner you choose. Some shelters want to grow their foster program. Others have said they want to use the funds to cover heartworm treatment. The choice is up to you and what your current needs are at the time. We just ask for quarterly recaps on how the funding has positively impacted your shelter.
We do both! If an animal leaves with a rescue group the funds collected will be transferred to the rescue group. If they leave with a foster for the shelter the funds collected will be transferred to the shelter.
Giving Is Easy:
Fund An Animal
We believe adoptable animals shouldn’t die in shelters due to lack of space. By pre-funding the costs of care for a shelter animal, you provide the means necessary for rescue groups to save at-risk dogs and cats.
View All Animals in Need