Grants
Grant FundingSample Current Grant
Sample Past Grants
Sample Thank You Letters Regarding Past Grants
Grant Funding
Marian's Dream public charity seeks to fund grants to grassroots organizations that deliver sustainable solutions to address the root causes of problems. Addressing the root causes (e.g., unwanted litters) also benefits solutions that focus on addressing the outcomes of problems (e.g., animals needing homes).For example, by investing funding in grants for programs that prevent the pet surplus, we also help those who seek to find adoptive homes for the pets who are born, as there are fewer pets needing immediate placement. All the grants referenced below work effectively towards ending pet surplus, by preventing the birth of thousands of unwanted kittens and pups.
In this section you will read of Marian's Dream past grant recipients who are addressing the root causes of problems.
Note to grant seekers:
Because we have been in the humane arena for nearly 30 years, we are already aware of many, many deserving, effective programs and projects that need financial assistance. We therefore do not accept grant applications or letters of inquiry. It is possible, if sufficient funding is forthcoming, that we will be able to help more groups, and if this results in a policy change, it will be announced here.
Sample Current Grant
H.O.P.E. Spay/Neuter Clinic
Opening in August of 2009, the H.O.P.E. Spay/Neuter Clinic, Inc. is Connecticut's first and only high volume, high quality, low cost spay/neuter clinic for cats and dogs. The demand for their services spans the entire state and comes from rescue organizations, pet owners, animal control departments and feral cat caregivers.
The staff at H.O.P. E. sent Marian's Dream the following:
The generous support of Marian's Dream was instrumental in bringing to life the dream of animal lovers, animal rescuers and animal welfare professionals across the state – the dream of a clinic singularly focused on one thing: ending the overpopulation of feral, homeless and abandoned cats and dogs.Donate specifically to help stationary clinics like this one.
With the help of Marian's Dream, the H.O.P.E. Spay/Neuter Clinic now provides people the opportunity to spay and neuter the animals in their care – people who previously could not afford to sterilize their animals. Additionally, Marian's Dream has also allowed us to create a subsidy fund to provide additional assistance to low and fixed income pet owners and stray animal caretakers, thus ending the breeding cycle of litters destined to become abandoned, homeless or surrendered to shelters. Our two targeted programs – the Feral Cat and Pit Bull Programs – provide much needed sterilization and vaccine services to two animal populations that comprise the majority of animals killed in shelters or left out of other low cost programs.
The Board of Directors, staff and volunteers want to thank Marian's Dream for making our dreams come true.
With gratitude,
The H.O.P.E. Spay/Neuter Clinic, Inc.
Sample Past Grant
Spreading Successful Innovations:
High Volume/ High Quality Spay Clinics
Learning from a Humane Alliance replication clinic
The first of these truly high-volume clinics, Humane Alliance, has been operating in western North Carolina for about ten years, and is now doing about 22,000 surgeries annually, serving 22 counties and about 30 shelters and rescue groups in the region. Realizing that this clinic could serve as a model, and save many more lives by preventing surplus litters, the Humane Alliance has gone on to provide a blueprint for these clinics, and has been responsible for the creation of fifty more clinics in urban areas across the country.
Marian's Dream sees these clinics as one of the true keys to ending the companion animal surplus, and has given funding to two of them. With your help, as funding allows, Marian's Dream will seek to support more of these replication clinics in the future.
Donate specifically to help High Volume/High Quality Spay Clinics (stationary clinics).
Recognizing a Solution:
The Beginnings of Mobile Clinics in the United States
In 1991, Marian's Dream helped the Houston Animal Rescue Team fund one of their first mobile spay clinics, which later went on to become the highly successful SNAP program of Houston. In 1991, mobile clinics were controversial and extremely rare or even unknown, but Marian's Dream realized these mobile clinics were another key to ending the companion animal surplus.
In addition to keeping the Houston stray population in check, the success of the SNAP clinics has been an inspiration, encouraging others to start up mobile spay clinics nationwide. There are now at least 50 in use.
In 1996, a $10,000 seed grant to TEAM helped to launch a statewide effort neutering about 12,000 cats annually via a mobile clinic. About 85 volunteers in various parts of the state ensure there is a steady stream of clients for the van, which operates six days a week, altering about 40 cats daily.
In 1999, a seed grant to the S.P.C.A. in Cattaraugus County, New York, helped to fund the Neuter Scooter. County officials matched the grant from Marian's Dream and the mobile clinic van was launched. Since its inception, the S.P.C.A. has received a huge demand for low-cost spay/neuter from the local public, and the number of calls received by the S.P.C.A. regarding stray and unwanted cats was reduced considerably.
In addition to these mobile clinics, Marian's Dream has funded startups of mobile vans in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon.
Donate specifically to help mobile clinics like this one.
Sample Thank You Letters Regarding Past Grants
FROM THE ALABAMA ANIMAL CONTROL ASSOCIATIONI would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your recent grant of $10,000 to the Alabama Animal Control Association. Working in conjunction with the Alabama Humane Federation, this grant will be used to start a low-cost spay/neuter program in Alabama for low-income caregivers, and will incorporate the funding of numerous animal welfare foundations, corporate sponsors, city and county block grants and the participation of private vets.
The need for a program such as this is profound here in the South. Many counties in our state have no animal shelters and an extremely high rate of low-income people who cannot afford the cost of a spay or neuter for their pets. In these areas, animals are routinely dumped on county roads only to suffer and die slowly. As two state associations working together we can alleviate some of this suffering.
Sincerely,
Lynne Fridley, AACA Board Member
FROM SPAY/OKLAHOMA
Enclosed is a photo of our Spay-OK truck, the 1998 Dodge Diesel truck, still under warranty, that was purchased with the funding provided by Marian's Dream last year. This truck has been a Godsend. It replaced a 1990 pickup that has, as of its last spay/neuter trip, 286,000 miles on its odometer. We could not close down our services yet it simply felt like we were reaching a point of compromising safety in the old truck, especially when transporting animals in weather that was either very hot or very cold.
The new truck, nicknamed Rose, has been used to pick up animals for transport to s/n clinics, to pull the mobile hospital that is now permanently located in Oklahoma and for transportation to meet with the local humane societies throughout eastern Oklahoma for planning the many programs that are now developing there. It is also used to bring the extra crates and supplies that are needed for all of our one-day, high volume clinics that are now held in private veterinary offices in conjunction with our programs. There is a lot happening here; transportation is a critical part of all of it and that was reaching a point of being compromised. Thank you for all you've done to make things happen here in Oklahoma!
Ruth Steinberger, Program Director
Donate specifically to help mobile clinics like this one.
