2017 Sitting for a Cause Donation Tally
We wanted to give everyone an update on our donations for 2017! This year was a record breaking year for Sitting for a Cause. We are happy to report that our user base and booking totals exceeded our 2016 numbers, so things are heading in the right direction!
As you all know, we make a commitment to giving 50% of our profits from our website service fees to animal rescues and shelters. After running the numbers, we had no profits for 2017, in fact we were in the hole. None of our founders took a salary (in fact, I put all my pet sitting earnings that weren’t deducted as site fees/super giver donations towards our company expenses for the year which included everything from website development to advertising to marketing to insurance and more). We are still very much a startup company, so this didn’t come as a surprise to us. It was 100% expected.
Our CFO and I didn’t want this to deter us from being able to give back to a few of the countless animal rescues and shelters in the U.S. who work tirelessly to reduce euthanasia rates each day so:
We made the decision to donate ALL OF OUR REVENUE from our service fees to animal shelters and rescues.
It’s important to us as a company for all our users to know we take our mission to give back seriously.
How did we determine where the donations went?
While we typically make donations to the shelters and rescues we have worked with directly, we decided to look at our sitters that generated the most revenue as well as super giver donations in 2017 then take the top 5, allowing them to tell us where they would like the donations from their service fees and super giver donations to go. For the remaining sitters, we tallied up their revenues and super giver donations, then evenly distributed the remaining funds across the top 5 to give those donations a bump.
How much was donated and where did it go?
3 of the kittens from KAWS that will be flying to Kitsap (photo courtesy of Dinah Chao and Kim Foster)
Our top sitter for the year was myself, our CEO. With a total of $576.75 in site fee revenue and super giver donations, my total donations for 2017 was $645 after factoring in the additional funds from sitters outside the top 5.
I directed my donations to go to Kauai Animal Welfare Society (KAWS) and am thrilled to be able to tell you where the majority of those funds are being spent! Our donation funded flights for 7 rescue kittens to fly to Kitsap Humane Society and one rescue dog to fly to a foster family in the Pacific Northwest in anticipation of hopefully being adopted soon!
The flyer that will be on our sponsored kennel
Here were the additional donation breakdowns:
- $505 to Animal Ark in Minnesota, as requested by Chuck (aka the Puppy Grandpa)
- $330 to A Purposeful Rescue in Los Angeles, as requested by Alicia (aka Walking with Leesh)
- $200 to the Pet Project Foundation to sponsor a kennel for 6 months at the San Clemente Dana Point Animal Shelter, as requested by Dina (aka A Fun and Loving Place to Be)
- $195 to NKLA/Best Friends in Los Angeles, as requested by Madeline (aka Dog Sitting by the Sea)
We also had a donation to Kitsap Humane Society in Washington earlier this year for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser they were doing that totaled $51.
Total of All Donations for 2017: Over $1900
We want to thank all the pet parents and pet sitters who used our site this past year and helped make these donations possible. We are hopeful that 2018 will be profitable so that we can give back even more. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding a new referral network we are launching in 2018. Happy New Year everyone!