The Business Of Saving Lives Broadens Its Reach

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif., May 20, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Through The Business of Saving Lives, Helen Woodward Animal Center has demonstrated its dedication to saving the lives of orphan pets, not only within its San Diego-based facility, but to those in shelters and rescues across the globe. The ground-breaking educational workshops, offered for over 13 years, have been making their impact on the lives of homeless animals and animal welfare workers from New York to Singapore via free, three-day workshops taught at the Center, and at low-cost, International Conferences held at San Diego based hotels. Now The Business of Saving Lives, in partnership with Blue Buffalo, is gearing up to broaden its reach by traveling, free of charge, to organizations across the world to help implement life-saving techniques. 

The Business of Saving Lives (formerly called ACES) began at Helen Woodward Animal Center in 2002 as quarterly workshops, taught by Center management team members on the Rancho Santa Fe, California grounds. The goal of these workshops was to share the success the Center had experienced through President Mike Arms' business-focused approach. (When applying a business model over a typical non-profit model, factors such as marketing, social media and customer service take on an equal importance to targeted fundraising, successful volunteer-building and humane animal care.) Following the free workshops, attendees began reporting amazing results, placing more pets in lifelong homes, generating added funds to carry on their programs, and expanding their reach into their communities.  As word of the workshops spread, more and more shelter workers from throughout the United States and as far away as China, Argentina, Ethiopia, India, Ireland, Kenya and Romania began to make the "pilgrimage" to Helen Woodward Animal Center to take part in the free training. 

Now The Business of Saving Lives is getting set to broaden its reach one step further. Working in conjunction with Blue Buffalo, Helen Woodward Animal Center has selected two pet adoption organizations as sites for FREE The Business of Saving Lives One-Day Workshop experiences this year. Center management team members will travel to these organizations, at absolutely no cost to the rescue groups, to teach one-day workshops.  The selected organizations have been encouraged to invite other animal welfare professionals from around their communities to attend and network, with any fee they elect to charge benefitting their organization directly.

Applications to be a part of the 2015 The Business of Saving Lives One-Day Workshop experience were made available on Helen Woodward Animal Center's website in early April this year.  In an overwhelming display of need, nearly 40 organizations from Florida to New York to Puerto Rico applied for the training in only 5 weeks' time.  

"There are still animal care facilities in the United States that are euthanizing orphan pets every day of the week, simply because they have no space or because the animals have 'run out of time,'" said Helen Woodward Animal Center President Mike Arms. "These organizations are desperate for help and truly want to save more lives.  We want to help them do that by sharing ideas that will result in increased potential adopters, higher level donors and more media attention for their facilities and their orphan pets."

The upcoming, free, one-day workshops will include an informative and inspirational session with Mike Arms targeted at adapting policies to meet the changing needs of the animals and the community; concrete and proven fundraising methods to build donor bases and diversify fundraising strategies; creative, out-of-the-box public relations techniques to get media attention with little-to-no-cost; social media best practices to engage an online audience through excellent online customer service, helpful to-do's and creative content and a special catered lunch sponsored by Blue Buffalo, to ensure that participants incur no costs on behalf of Helen Woodward Animal Center.  

Applications accepted were required to be from 501c3 or a government recognized non-profit organizations that had been in existence for at least five years and had access to facilities (or chosen sites) that could hold at least fifty participants. Organizations were also required to submit a thorough description as to why they needed the conference, including current challenges, specific needs for inspiration or business techniques, and their commitment and ability to implement the information the Center will provide.

The selected locations for FREE 2015 The Business of Saving Lives One-Day Workshop experiences are Seattle Animal Shelter in Washington (which will take place in August) and Virginia Beach SPCA located in East Virginia (date TBD). Both locations were not only selected for their excellent applications but because they are able to bring together the largest number of groups from their area to benefit from the training, as well.

"We are delighted to introduce our team to these hardworking organizations," stated Arms. "The only way we can really change the world of animal welfare is to work together.  It's an honor to meet with like-minded people who want to make a better world for these beautiful pets.

The Business of Saving Lives offers brand new ways to look at animal welfare, marketing, social media, fundraising, humane education, and more, and explores how these concepts can breathe life into adoption programs that are outdated and killing millions of domestic animals annually.  To become an agent of change for animal welfare, apply for a FREE The Business of Saving Lives workshop in your own town. For more information or to register, visit www.animalcenter.org or call 858-756-4117 x 350. 

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SOURCE Helen Woodward Animal Center

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