An adoption fee arrives when an animal is ready to go home; the vet bills arrive before it is. A private request is for the specific bill in front of you: one surgery, one transport, one season of hay, sent to the people who already follow your animals.
A foster-based rescue pulled a young dog with a broken leg from a rural shelter. The orthopedic vet's estimate for the repair is $1,400. The rescue's account has $600 in it, and the surgery is booked for the 22nd. The foster has the dog, the vet has the estimate, and the gap is $800.
The rescue doesn't need a gala. It needs $800 before the 22nd.
An adoption event brings in the people who come to the event. A donation page reaches the people who find it. A request reaches the people who would have given anyway if someone had asked them directly: the family who adopted from you last spring, the volunteers' parents, the neighbor who drops off towels.
It also behaves differently from both:
| What the rescue keeps | 100% of every contribution. The 6.9% fee is added at checkout and paid by the contributor, not taken out of what you receive. |
| When it arrives | Standard payouts reach the bank in 2-3 business days. |
| Who sees it | Only the people you send the link to, unless you choose to make it public. Nothing is listed or searchable by default. |
An estimate attached to a request names a vet, a price and an animal. You decide who reads it.
Nothing to create a request. Nothing to send it. The only fee is the 6.9% a contributor pays on top of their own contribution — so a $100 contribution costs the giver $106.90 and the rescue receives $100.00.
One specific thing with a number on it, for animals in your care. Seven kinds of organization, and what each one actually needs money for:
Humane societies and city or county shelters. Cats and dogs, every day, with the costs that arrive on top of the budget: an outbreak in the puppy room, a large intake from a hoarding case, dental work for a senior cat who will not be adopted until it is done. The budget covers the ordinary day; a request covers the thing the budget did not see coming.
Foster-based rescues with no building. The animals live in volunteers' homes, so the costs live there too: one foster's vet bill, another's crate and food, a transport from a rural shelter. A request names the one cost in front of the rescue and goes to the people who know that foster and that animal.
Spay and neuter programs, and trap-neuter-return for community cats. The money is surgeries, priced per cat by the clinic, plus traps and recovery supplies. A colony with the clinic's rate attached is a number someone can say yes to.
Wildlife rehabilitation. Formula for orphaned fawns and squirrels, enclosures that meet the conditions of your permit, vet care for an injured hawk. The season is the clock: spring babies arrive whether or not the money has.
Horse and farm-animal rescue. Hay by the ton, the farrier on a schedule that does not move, board when there is no barn of your own, and a vet who comes out to the field. These costs are steady rather than sudden, which makes them easy to name: one season of hay, with the supplier's quote.
Sanctuaries. The animals do not leave. There is no adoption fee coming, because the care is for the rest of each animal's life. A request fits that by naming a period rather than a single bill: a year of care for one elderly goat, a winter of feed for the barn.
Search and rescue dog teams, and lost-pet recovery. Handler-and-dog teams training for searches, and volunteers who bring lost pets home with humane traps and trail cameras. The costs are equipment, certification and travel to a search: specific, priced, and easy to attach a receipt to.
Contributions start at $100. That is the scale this is built for: the family who adopted last spring covering one vaccine round, two volunteers splitting a transport. Eight people, and an $800 surgery is paid for.
Keep running them. They do something a request doesn't — they put people and animals in the same room.
A request is what you reach for when one of these is already planned and one animal's bill can't wait for it.
