About Barbara
I'm a former Executive Director in Animal Welfare and I've walked in your shoes trying to keep all the plates spinning in the air - leading the organization, bringing money in, creating programs, managing staff and volunteers (including the board), juggling the finances, and always reacting to what came at me next. I've discoverd there's an easier way to help you and your organization expand and grow, keeping all the plates in the air without causing you burnout.
HELPING ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS GO FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING.
I've Been In Your Shoes
I started out as an interim Executive Director at an animal shelter here in western New York for an ED who was out on sick leave. Up until that point, I had been a consultant for a variety of nonprofits in both the U.S. and Canada helping them with strategy, financial modeling, marketing, communications, and fund development. Even though I had had no direct animal welfare experience in the past, the board and I felt that I had something to offer the small-medium organization that was struggling from the revolving door of leaders at the time.
I Relied on Great Mentors
I knew that I had the leadership part of the job down. I just needed help with understanding the animal welfare part of the job better. So I learned from every possible opportunity I could get. And I learned from the best:
I had an incredible team of senior managers on staff who had the animal care, behavioral, healthcare, and animal control experience I was lacking. I watched and listened and asked questions of them in order to make the best decisions for the animals in our shelter and for the safety of the community at-large. I truly learned what compassion meant from them.
I was also incredibly fortunate to have one of the premier Shelter Medicine programs in the country not too far from us. About once a month, a team of resident veterinarians and their supervisor would come and provide lunch-and-learn training for our staff on a variety of health and behavioral topics and do medical rounds with the animals. I continued to watch and listen and ask questions of them as well to get a better understanding of the pros and cons behind specific treatment plans and procedures in order to make the best decisions for our shelter’s herd health. Their guidance and support were always invaluable to me, but especially when we had major outbreaks of parvo or panleukopenia and had to shut our shelter down to so that no more animals would become infected. They taught us how to trace the viruses back to patient zero, isolate the outbreak, and get our doors open again to stray and owner-surrendered animals needing our help.
My education didn’t stop there. I sought out networking and training opportunities provided through conferences and memberships in professional associations in the field on my own dime. I was hooked on working with animals, seeing their excitement when they were reunited with their families or their joy in going with their new found family to a new, forever home and knew that investing in myself to be a better leader in animal welfare was a priority.
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures
My first year at the shelter marked the beginning of an economic downturn. Soon it became the headline of every news media outlet. And everyone was hit hard by it.
At the time, the shelter was having to dip into its investment account to make payroll and pay its vendors each month. Some months we were able to make it up in donations, while other months we weren’t. We were operating at a deficit and the economy wasn’t getting better any time soon.
As our donors watched nervously as their own investments went down in value, they cut back on their donations. Our investments were quickly losing value, too. We weren’t seeing a rosy future for the organization.
My board of directors got very nervous and ended up calling a press conference with our local media to announce that we may have to close our doors without the support of our community. Fortunately, the community responded and saved us that year. But we couldn’t continue like this and expect to survive. After all, how many times could we expect the community to bail us out and come to our rescue?
We Needed to Make a Change
I looked around at and spoke directly with successful organizations locally and nationally to find out what they were doing that was working to attract and retain donors and be able to grow their programs regardless of how the economy was doing. With this knowledge, I was able to pivot our focus when it came to public and media relations, how we communicated with donors and built relationships with them, and what events we held over the next year. Even though the economy wasn’t improving, our bottom line was.
I successfully steered our organization from the brink of disaster to a thriving, growing shelter that achieved national recognition, helping more animals in the long run.
At the end of my first year, it became apparent that the former ED was not going to be able to return to his job. I had proven myself and had gained the trust of the board members who offered me a permanent position. In accepting the position, the only thing I negotiated for was the support to continue my professional development in the field, to attend national and regional conferences, and to study for the Certified Animal Welfare Administrator exam. It was important for me to go for this accreditation as I hadn’t come from an animal welfare background.

I received my CAWA designation the following year and joined a small group of certified animal welfare leaders in the nation who had demonstrated through knowledge and experience that we had what it takes to successfully run an animal welfare organization when it comes to animal care, fund development and donor stewardship, staff management, board leadership, marketing, and finance.
But at What Price?
I had been able to turn things around at the shelter and was making sure that the organization continued to stay afloat each year but at great cost to my family, my health and my personal life.
My husband and I had two young sons at the time and even though he was the primary breadwinner in our home, he was having to act as a single father raising our boys while I worked long hours, evenings and weekends. And even when I was physically at home, I was mentally checked out, always thinking about the shelter and how to solve the next challenge facing us.
I wasn’t sleeping well, had frequent migraines, and was in pain most of the time from a then-undiagnosed digestive disorder. The added stress from my job was making my condition worse. It finally got to the point where I would be doubled up in pain, unable to focus on any task at hand. The thought of having to attend a networking or fundraising event where I would be surrounded by food stressed me out even more. I was miserable and unhappy and so were my loved ones seeing me this way.

As my condition progressively got worse, it became obvious that continuing like this was not the answer. I wasn’t happy with who I had become and how I was living my life.
I Needed to Make a Change
In the back of my mind, I envisioned helping more animal shelters and having more of an impact while at the same time, taking the time to take care of my own health, the health of my family and my relationships. I just wanted to be around more for my boys growing up and live a pain-free life.
So after many years at the shelter, I took a step back and left the organization to focus on my health and family first and rediscover who I was and what made me happy. I went to many doctors and tried many forms of treatment to learn what was causing my pain and how to manage it through diet, exercise and creating more balance in my life.

When I finally felt like I had a handle on my condition and thought about going back to work, that’s when it hit me: I could achieve a balance between my passion for helping the animals and the people who care for them, and my leading a physically, mentally and emotionally healthy and fulfilling life with my family by returning to what I had been doing before working at the shelter – consulting.
My Mission
Today I consult with a variety of animal welfare organizations – non-profit and municipal shelters, animal rescue groups, sanctuaries, wildlife and nature centers – to grow their organizations through attracting and retaining more donors.
I love supporting my clients as they learn to communicate and build lasting relationships with their donors throughout the donor journey and find ways to increase their fundraising revenues that don’t steal more of their valuable time or resources.
It’s my goal to help as many animal welfare organizations as possible be sustainable and successful in fulfilling their missions.
It’s always rewarding to see when my clients have the peace of mind when their marketing and fund development efforts are working and they are able to grow their programs and services to respond to the needs of their communities.
I love teaching them the strategies and tools that will give them the best results, helping them free up their time to really focus on what matters in their organization.
I’d love to hear from you! To learn more about how I can help you increase your donor support, and lead through change, check out my Work With Me Page or send me an email.
