Grants for training volunteers?

Postby pitbullmamaliz » June 25th, 2010, 9:11 am

Does anybody know if there are organizations that offer grants for training volunteers at shelters? I ask this because I'm in charge of the training program at my shelter now, and I found out that the guy who had this position before me was paying for all of our trainings out of his own pocket. I can't do that. But I still think it's important to keep our specialized teams of trainers for more difficult dogs. I'm planning on asking people to donate $10 each for our next training and that should cover the price, but if there are grants out there we could do so much more.

Any ideas?
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Postby maberi » June 25th, 2010, 9:19 am

What are the costs incurred for training volunteers? Are you having someone come in for training? Are you going to a trainer as a group?
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » June 25th, 2010, 10:28 am

We actually go to my trainer as a group for each training session. She charges $175 no matter the group size, and we normally have about 15-20 people so $10-$15 each would cover it. But I technically have 3 teams of volunteers, several of which have overlapping members:

Basic volunteers - these are the dog walkers that just want to walk the dogs and not work on training per se
Green team - these volunteers are trained in clicker use and basic obedience training
Orange team - these volunteers get training above and beyond to work with the dogs that we don't want Basic and Green volunteers handling, whether it's due to resource guarding, mouthing, deafness, aggression, etc.

Ideally I'd like to have quarterly training for the orange and green teams, but if I have to choose one team to get the training it will be the orange team. The basic volunteers really only need an initial session which is either quarterly or every 6 months, depending on how many new volunteers have started.
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Postby maberi » June 25th, 2010, 10:32 am

Is that $175 for 1 session or multiple sessions? How long is each session?
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » June 25th, 2010, 10:54 am

One session, usually 2-3 hours long.
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Postby maberi » June 25th, 2010, 11:05 am

Hmmm

I've been trying to come up with some fund raising ideas for the shelter out here as well. One thought was to provide a highly reduced 4 week training program for people who adopt from the shelter. There is an area on the shelter grounds that we could gate off to hold small basic obedience classes.

I've also been thinking about holding CGC certification days for dogs adopted from the shelter or the general public. I have a friend who would be willing to come out and test the dogs for free (very easy to become certified if you are interested). Anyone interested in taking the test could donate $20 to the shelter for the test.

Our shelter also does shelter fund raising days throughout the year (cookouts, micro-chipping clinics, bottle and can drives, etc...).

Could you do anything like this to gather funds for the quarterly trainings?
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » June 25th, 2010, 11:15 am

Well, there are always a ton of fundraising things going on, and the shelter seems to always have money, so maybe it's just a matter of petitioning for more of that money to go towards training volunteers? I think the volunteer training budget is like $400 and that doesn't go real far. I love the idea of doing a training class for adopters but our current building is miniscule. The CGC idea is a good one...wonder if I could get certified? Or if my trainer or any of her assistants would be willing to donate a few hours for that...

Good thinking, Matt!
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Postby PetieMarie22 » June 25th, 2010, 11:27 am

maberi wrote:I've also been thinking about holding CGC certification days for dogs adopted from the shelter or the general public. I have a friend who would be willing to come out and test the dogs for free (very easy to become certified if you are interested). Anyone interested in taking the test could donate $20 to the shelter for the test.


Keep us updated on that Matt. I would be interested!
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Postby dlynne1123 » June 25th, 2010, 11:55 am

Our shelters out here just have agreements with local trainers to volunteer their time and knowledge at their expense. Its ok, but I agree anything helps!
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Postby maberi » June 25th, 2010, 12:57 pm

pitbullmamaliz wrote: The CGC idea is a good one...wonder if I could get certified?


Yes

As far as I know it is rather easy to become a CGC evaluator
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Postby Hundilein » June 25th, 2010, 1:39 pm

maberi wrote:
pitbullmamaliz wrote: The CGC idea is a good one...wonder if I could get certified?


Yes

As far as I know it is rather easy to become a CGC evaluator


When I did it a few years ago it was $40 and on online, open book test. I like the CGC idea. It would be a new thing for the shelter to offer, and I think you could make a good case for the money going toward training volunteers and you wouldn't really be competing with their other fundraisers.
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