Ditching the deficit model: How WA2S uses Candid to fundraise

In San Antonio, Texas, we’re facing a municipal animal welfare crisis: Tens of thousands of dogs are freely roaming the streets—neglected, hungry, sick or injured, in danger, and dangerous. At the World Animal Awareness Society (WA2S), we use film, video, and science to help raise awareness and educate the public.

For years, we successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through our popular YouTube channel to support grassroots fieldwork and content creation. However, to address the mounting crisis holistically—and to raise the funds required—we needed a new strategy: First, we launched a comprehensive portfolio of technology and education initiatives, based on the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model, to address the problem as a municipal infrastructure challenge. Second, in order to fund the new portfolio, we pivoted from YouTube fundraising to sustainable funding from institutional grantmakers. Here’s how we did it.

Leveraging community assets and connecting people through technology

Traditional models for improving animal welfare often focus on a community’s deficits—stray populations, resource shortages, and shelter crowding. By contrast, the ABCD model identifies and mobilizes existing community strengths to address the problem, so interventions are locally empowered, not externally imposed.

A central component of this work for WA2S is a mobile asset-mapping application that we’ll launch in the next few months, called PetNetSA. The app connects residents, rescuers, volunteers, and advocates to local vets, behaviorists, street rescues, and fosters, as well as resources like spay/neuter service locations, pet supply exchanges, and transportation and logistics. The interactive real-time map also identifies “hot spots” and veterinary service deserts.

On the data side of our strategy to address the municipal crisis holistically, we’re also collecting data on stray dogs—data that our partner, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is developing into interactive story maps. Plus, we’re performing visual field audits of the crisis to give city officials data.

On the education side, we’re launching a bilingual PSA campaign for responsible pet ownership and a film festival aimed at fostering empathy through storytelling. In addition, we’re deploying a clinical mental health pilot to address burnout among frontline workers by providing dedicated therapy sessions.

Pivoting from YouTube donations to larger grants

Translating this vision of a technology-driven suite of solutions into a fundable reality required long-term, large-scale funding we couldn’t raise through YouTube. We needed to research potential funders, gain visibility and trust with grantmakers, and access resources to write compelling grant proposals.

Raising visibility and transparency: We learned that by earning a Seal of Transparency on our Candid profile, we instantly gained legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of potential funders. It shows we’re transparent, highly organized, and ready for investment, which is crucial when asking for targeted grants. It’s doubly crucial when you’re trying to get funding for an unconventional approach like ours.

An added bonus was that, as a small nonprofit with under $1 million in revenue and a Platinum Seal, we got free access to Candid Premium—which is how we were able to find and research grantmakers on Candid search.

Researching and connecting with grantmakers: Tracking free-roaming dog populations and building community asset maps is a non-traditional, highly specific approach most funders are unfamiliar with. So, we were unlikely to win any general “animal welfare” grants.

Instead, we used Candid search to filter out traditional animal rescue funders and zero in on family foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) that have a history of funding data collection, civic tech, and community-based initiatives. We dig deep into grantmaker profiles and giving history to tailor our letters of intent (LOIs) and proposals to their funding priorities.

Winning a seed grant: Our new fundraising strategy is yielding tangible results. For example, we recently secured a $10,000 seed grant from the Pepper Whiston Foundation for our PSA campaign to educate the community on responsible pet ownership. We were able to demonstrate how, by mobilizing existing community assets, we could dramatically reduce operational wheel spinning and friction and focus on our mission.

Navigating a new strategy

But we didn’t accomplish this alone. Pivoting to our new data and education initiatives and fundraising strategy required guidance. The director of the Leslie L. Alexander Foundation has served as a sort of mentor during this shift, providing indispensable advice on how to structure and seek foundation grants for our rapidly expanding, tech-integrated portfolio.

By shifting  from relying on YouTube donations to securing grants, we were able to integrate data tracking, leverage community assets, and offer mental health support to frontline rescuers. With grants from new funders, WA2S is advancing a data-driven model supported by the latest technology—a model with real potential for breakthroughs for animal welfare.

Photo courtesy of WA2SFilms

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