Hi I am student that has been interested in helping animals some time now, I came up with a charity that idea I think has been really innovative in helping animals, I found your site one day and I was really impressed with your writings and ideas, I think we share a lot of the same beliefs on animals and ethics. I was wondering if you would take the time to read it and offer any suggestions for improving it? I've been mass emailing this idea out to hundreds of organizations, such as Colleges, Churches and other charity's, (I sent it out to hundreds but I still have hundreds more to send to) I was wondering if you would take the time to read it and offer any suggestions for improving it that would help animals more? I figured quite a few people would be turned off by an email that just supported animal causes that's why I put so many human organizations in there, even though animals are my # 1 priority. Thanks a lot for your time,
and Take Care.

Best Wishes

Angelo C

Hello I'm a student that has been recently thinking about ways to help less fortunate people and animals, and I came up with an idea that I think your charity could modify to it's own use, that could really impact thousands and hopefully millions of lives. Additionally it will raise money for the organizations providing the services.

It started with an idea I had for my rugby team to raise money; I proposed the idea of walking dogs for money, because I felt so sorry for them being stuck in their cages all day. We raised money on the premise that for every dollar donated to the team we would walk one dog at the local shelter. This works time wise because if a team had 40 people on it, each person would only have to volunteer once every 4 or 5 weeks, but 60 or more dogs could be walked every week.

This breaks down like this.

* 4 people on our team would go for three hours to the shelter were they could each take 9 dogs for a walk or run for 20 minutes. (This would allow 32 dogs to be walked during that time).

* If the team volunteered twice a week then each volunteer would only have to go to the shelter once every 5 weeks for 3 hours.

* But this would allow 64 dogs to be walked every week!

This was truly fun, and we really became closer as a team, we also raised over 3,500 dollars each semester.

I then started getting the idea that I could e-mail this plan to every colleges athletic director, and volunteer organization, in hopes that they would forward it to all their schools sports teams, and college clubs such as the rugby club and geology club, and to email it to all the Churches in the community.

Each team could print out a single paper handout to be given to each member with the idea for the fund raising to show to potential donors, or they could set up a stand in the union building, I think around campus students would gladly give up to 5 dollars for such a cause and faculty and other older members of the community would probably give up to 20 or more dollars. I think teams could easily raise 5,000 dollars each semester for their organization and bigger teams such as the football team with 100 men on the roster could raise much more. All this money could go to the teams for their personal use as the dogs would still be getting walked or (other service provided) or they could agree to donate part of their earnings to charity. I think 20-60 % of donations should be stressed to give to a charity, as the teams would still recieve a significant financial benefit.

Here are a list of some of the potential recipients of this idea via e-mail
Every college in the U.S

Every church in the U.S
Every high school and middle school in the U.S

All the major newspapers

In the future it's possible that this e-mail could also be translated and e-mailed to every church in the world, University etc...

I have also thought about including other charitable causes to include in the E-mail as to give all the organizations receiving it more choices for charitable causes to raise money, such as for every dollar donated we will spend 30 minutes in a children's hospital, or for every dollar donated we could serve five meals at a local soup kitchen etc. I think the list should have about 10 or so other charitable ideas, because every sports team and club of a University couldn't possibly volunteer at the humane shelters there would simply be too many people. Some of the charities I was thinking about putting on it were: Children's Hospitals, The Local Red Cross, Homeless and Abuse shelters, Orphanages, the Humane society, anti-factory farms, Bicycles for Africa, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother organizations, Farm sanctuaries, Camps for blind children, local environmental causes, soup kitchens. I haven't thought of all the ideas yet and would be looking forward to your ideas, or your organization could decide that.

I know this idea sounds like a lot of work with all the e-mails going out, but if a few people or volunteers are to help I think it would go by rather easily as all e-mails can be found on the website. Or if your organization could find an online volunteering organization that could devote time just to sending out e-mails that would be great too. I hope to hear back from you with any input or any suggestions you might have. If this was not the correct recipient please forward it to whom ever it may concern. Thanks very much for your time and compassion.

Sincerely,

a concerned student

P.S below is a quick list of everything you need to do.

* Print out a one page hand out of what your organization is going to do to raise money and a charity that you plan on donating to.(such as for every dollar donated we will spend one half hour at the local hospital etc.)

* Give each member of your team or organization a copy of the handout to show to potential donors.

* Or you can set up a stand in the student common area to explain what your doing and collect money too.

* Perform the volunteer work in your handout and and continue to collect the money.

* Donate 20-60% to a charity of your choice, and keep the rest for your organization.

Well that's it. Have fun, & Good luck!