Volunteer Opportunity Descriptions
Foster: This involves opening your home to a dog in need while it needs a home, and we seek out a permanent place. Some dogs need a safe place to live, some need some medical care or training, others may need “retirement care”. We would ensure the foster dog “fits” into your home, and the foster plays a vital role in placing the dog into the “forever home”. This entails allowing people to meet the dog, and often taking the dog to vet (GRRoM pays medical) for regular care, feeding walking, etc. Foster-to-adopt – Fosters generally get first choice to adopt their dog.
Adopt: Applicant desires to adopt a GRRoM Golden and not foster first.
Transport: involves picking up a dog from various locations (home, shelter, vet) and moving to a foster, vet, etc. This would need your vehicle and possibly a crate (We have crates) for some instances.
Babysit/Temporary Foster: Inviting a dog in urgent need for a short time to stay with you or to relieve a foster while they may have need of temporary care. These can be from a weekend or a few days to just a couple of weeks, as you indicate you are able.
Interviewer/Home Visitor: Each applicant to adopt a GRRoM dog is interviewed by phone and is visited at home to check out that the home environment is appropriate for a dog. An interviewer serves as a kind of “case worker” to his/her assigned applicants, seeing them through the process from application to adoption. (Training provided)
Check for “free to good home” advertisements, check shelters in your area for dogs in need: This can mean searching online posts, walking into, or calling shelters, watching the corkboard “free” signs in vet offices or pet stores. It can also be contacting the owner/possessor of the dog to offer information on our group and safe ways to rehome your pet.
Telephone calls: A list of calls to make provided by the group with information to be requested or followed up on via the phone, then reported back to group results of calls.
Photography at events, foster photos, digital camera/email transmission: We always need publicity and good pictures of the dogs to help spread the word and get the dogs new homes or funding to provide care. This can be simply taking photos and sending them to us electronically or even helping work on the calendar or newsletter, wherever your talent or interest is.
Annual Letter Mailings: - We keep track of dogs over the years and mail out a letter verifying correct contact information and their location in case we are ever needed by the owners.
Parades, walk-a-thons (walk with your Golden, or one of ours) Special Events, offering information to potential adopters at an informational table or booth. This can be a very fun, social way to help. Come to an event and give the public information on our group to spread the word and help more dogs. Also, help plan and execute the event if you are interested in that aspect.
Captain and help with events: GRRoM frequently gets invitations to have our booth/display at an event, which is great for PR and educating the public about rescue, but we need volunteers to man our table/booth at these events and we need a “captain” for each event to organize the volunteer schedule. This is an easy, one-time obligation.
Public Relations: If you know how to write press releases and/or have media contacts, we could use your help getting great PR for GRRoM!
Grooming experience/facility: Often, dogs need a good grooming, nail trim, etc., to appear their best or to improve their health (matted, too long nails, etc.), so anyone with these talents can help.
Fundraising Committee: While we do have an adoption fee, it is generally not even close to the costs involved with the medical care we provide for the dogs, so we heavily rely on funds raised and can always use help with that in any capacity.