The Seattle Animal Shelter has experienced turmoil in the last few years post-COVID. In addition to external forces such as increased surrenders and abandonments due to rising costs and housing instability, SAS has had internal strife resulting in lost volunteers, high animal care officer turnover, and the departure of a controversial shelter director.
SAS is currently in the process of hiring a new director by May. In the meantime, they are also in the process of implementing a Two-Year Roadmap to improve internal processes and morale.
We’ve published an overview of the roadmap and will now focus on specifics regarding the foster care program.
Shelters can be incredibly stressful places for everyone. Foster care programs are critical to the mental wellbeing of all of the animal species accepted at the Seattle Animal Shelter. The program alleviates overcrowding and lightens the workload of the small crew of care officers. The foster care program is a critical component of keeping SAS’s live release rate around 90 percent. A successful, productive, and collaborative partnership between staff and foster care volunteers is essential to maintain.
SAS has often had chaotic foster care management due to unclear expectations, inconsistent communications, poor tracking, and unequal work balances between volunteers and staff.
Here is their baseline progress as of November 2024. We’ve submitted a public disclosure request for updated information.
Question: How much of the Two-Year Roadmap addresses the foster care program?
Answer: The roadmap has 39 action items related to foster care. These action items comprise about 16 percent of the total roadmap. They fall under the following report categories:
Foster - General
Foster Onboarding
Foster Support
Foster Recruitment
Question: What are the “general” action items related to the SAS foster care program?
Answer: There are 15 items listed under “general” action items related to the SAS foster care program. A review of the action items implies that SAS was lacking clear roles for foster volunteers, a prioritization plan for those animals needing foster care, training plans,volunteer job descriptions, standard operating procedures, and data tracking, among other gaps in program management.
It is clear that SAS is trying to leverage technology more to manage its operations and programs. According to the action items, SAS has secured “WaitWhile” funding. WaitWhile is queue management software that appears to treat foster volunteers as customers. From the website:
Did you know 7 out of 10 customers won’t come back after a poor experience?
Long waits, scheduling chaos, and impersonal interactions aren't just frustrating; they’re lost opportunities. Discover how Waitwhile helps you increase conversion, transform your operations, and keep your customers coming back.
SAS is also in the process of creating a foster resource webpage or Trello board for volunteers. Trello is an organizational task management tool. Per its website, Trello is:
"Your productivity powerhouse. Stay organized and efficient with Inbox, Boards, and Planner. Every to-do, idea, or responsibility—no matter how small—finds its place, keeping you at the top of your game."
Question: What are the foster care “onboarding” action items related to the SAS foster care program?
Answer: There are 12 action items for “onboarding” foster volunteers. In this case,“onboarding” means the action or process of integrating a new foster care volunteer into SAS.
Note: Volgistics is the volunteer management tool used by SAS.
Question: What are the action items related to foster support?
Answer: There are 9 action items for Foster Care Support. It is unclear how many of these are initiatives that once were in place and were either never completed or fell into disuse.
Question: What are the action items related to foster recruiting?
Answer: There are 4 action items for Foster Care Recruiting. Many foster volunteers left the organization due to internal conflict and frustration. While it is important to recruit, it will be even more important to sustain foster levels.
