"A better world through kindness to animals"
Since we announced the Embrace Pet Insurance alliance with the Best Friends Animal Society, several people have asked me how they can donate to Best Friends.
The easiest way is to go online and make a donation directly - just click the button up above and you're on your way. Or fax or mail in a donation in using this form.
They appreciate every penny you send in.
As you can see from today's press release, we've partnered up with one of the most influential rescue organizations in the US, the Best Friends Animal Society. I'm so excited about this partnership, I think I'm about to burst open!
Here's a summary of the partnership:
Embrace Pet Insurance is proud to announce an affiliate relationship with Best Friends Animal Society. The two companies are working together to ensure that members of Best Friends can easily take advantage of a discount Embrace is offering to Best Friends' adopters, supporters, and donors, as well as to visitors to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. In addition, starting today, Embrace will also make a $25 donation to Best Friends for each policy purchased by any Best Friends member.
Details can be found here: https://www.bestfriends.org/donate/affinity3.cfm#Embrace.
Jonathan, our Business Development Director, went out to Utah to visit the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and took the picture you see here - no, none of the dogs shown are Michael Vick's dogs - as far as we know :).
The shelter is home to over 2,000 pets at any one time, some of whom are adopted, some of whom live the rest of their lives out there.
Related Post:
We recently received a gift certificate from Google as a result of our paid search spending over 2007.
Just when I was getting really excited about spending it on a coffee machine for our new offices (more on that in another post), Alex pointed me in the direction of DonorsChoose.org and told me to spend spend spend.
[Now before you think Alex got all altruistic on me, I should tell you that DonorsChoose.org was what the object of the gift cert from Google - I'm very impressed]
So, I just went over to the site to learn more about what we were donating to and was delighted to find a wonderful concept close to my heart I just had to tell you about.
In short, DonorsChoose.org allows the donor to choose amongst a variety of school projects across the US that need funding. The teacher puts together a pitch for the project, what the money is going to be used for, and the amount needed, and you get to make a charitable donation towards it.
The story behind the site is totally borne from one teacher's frustration in the public school system:
DonorsChoose.org was pioneered by teachers at a Bronx public high school in the spring of 2000. Charles Best, then a social studies teacher, saw first-hand the scarcity of materials in our public school classrooms and the profound impact of this scarcity on kids' education. Looking for a way to address this problem, he sensed an untapped potential in people who were frustrated by their lack of influence over the use of their charitable donations. DonorsChoose.org, a website connecting classrooms in need with individuals who want to help, was born.
Embrace donated to the "Chillin' with a Chapter Book" project at Glendale Primary School in Bedford, Ohio to buy books for students to help reading skills. Here's their teacher's pitch:
I am a third grade teacher and would love to bring the love of reading into my classroom. I would like to give my current and future students the opportunity of reading four different chapter books together in class.
In third grade all students must take the OAT reading achievement test. I would like to incorporate these chapter books into helping them study for the test. We will have out loud reading, quiet time reading, read in pairs, and book discussions. I will make up practice tests with subjects that they will see on the OAT test; such as predicting, summarizing, cause & effect, characters, setting, plot, and author's purpose,etc.
I am asking for a donation of 27 copies of four different books. I would like the same book for each student so we can discuss the same book as a class. I am hoping this will improve scores on the OAT and that it will familiarize the students with some interesting books that they may want to read the remaining books in the series on their own.
A classroom can never have enough books. Thank you for all your support.
My project needs 27 copies each of Annoying Team, Third Grade Detectives #1&2, Jake Drake Know-It-All, and Zombies Don't Play Soccer. The cost of this proposal is $566, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.
I totally agree, a classroom can never have enough books. I'm glad we could do our part.
If you like, you could do your part too for this project or any other you take a fancy to.
'Tis the season after all.
Happy holidays!
We pet parents are pretty much accustomed to getting our pets their regular puppy or kitten boosters and can schedule the spay or neuter as soon as the vet recommends it so that these costs are spread out over several months.
But after a life out in the great unknown, Nugget had a bit of veterinary care catch up to do. The costs of her vaccinations, heartworm test, health check and basic puppy necessities (crate, collar, toys) added up quickly.
Fortunately, there are samaritan groups like Valley Save a Pet available to help with the costs of a spay or neuter. Lea was able to send Save a Pet a money order for just $65 (for a female dog under 50 pounds) in exchange for a voucher for a spay at her own veterinarian. These discounted vouchers are made possible by donations raised by the 100% volunteer organization.
There are more details on spay and neuter programs through Spay USA for low 
income households or through voucher programs such as this. Some programs are strictly cat or dog programs, and may have different criteria for qualification. You may also want to check schedules for a mobile spay or neuter clinics through a group NeuterScooter.com, though national programs are not common.
Do you have a spay or neuter program experience to share?
Just a quick post to alert you to the National Canine Cancer Foundation's campaign to raise $2.2 million. The premise is that if you donate $25 and recruit 3 caring friends who also donate $25 and then they find 3 more caring friends each, etc. the NCCF will raise the $2.2 million.
I can think of 3 friends to ask - can you?
As I mentioned earlier, we made a purse for the Millie's Million Purses for Pups fundraising event. Check out the purses on eBay - they are amazing.
the Embrace purse by CeciPlease check them out and bid for a good cause.
Another announcement from Embrace.
For every policy sold, we will donate $2 to a pet-related charity. So you can do good for the pet community by doing good for your own pets.
We've already made our first donation to The Friends of the City of Cleveland Kennel and hope to make a lot more donations in the near future. Watch this space for our charitbable donation stories.
