 Welcome to another episode of the non-profit show. I am delighted that you're here and today we have a really interesting guest, Cindy Kenville, that is one of the leaders in animal welfare across this great country of ours and so we're going to be talking to her about leading an animal welfare nonprofit and what that looks like especially in these changing times of our non-profit sector. It's going to be really interesting to learn what Cindy is experiencing with her organization and we'll kind of tie that in to what a lot of other organizations are doing. I think a lot of times we think animal welfare is on its own but it links to so many other nonprofit sectors and so this is going to be a lot of fun. Again, if you don't know who I am, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, Jared Ransom, my trusted sidekick, the non-profit nerd herself and CEO of the Raven Group is not with us today but she'll be back with us tomorrow. We want to make sure that we thank all of our presenting sponsors who are with us day in and day out, Blumerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, Be Generous, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, non-profit thought leader and non-profit nerd. These are the folks that have been with us for most of them that you see or have just listened to. They've been with us from day one and we're now in year three so it's quite amazing. Again, if you want to find any of our more than 600 episodes, you'll find them in our very extensive library archive and you can find them on Roku, YouTube, Vimeo and Amazon Fire TV and if you'd like to consume your content via podcast, we just started taking all these shows into podcast form so we have several months, I think we're probably close to six months of podcast episodes so you can join in on that. Okay, Cindy, back to you my friend. How are you? I'm doing great. Okay, Cindy Canville, you're the CEO of Heidi's Village. Yes. Talk to us about Heidi's Village. Sure, great. Well first, thanks for having me on. This is a lot of fun. Well, Heidi's Village is actually a fairly new animal welfare organization. We opened up in the midst of the pandemic in April of 2020. So the best made, you know what they say, the best made plans, right? But that's okay because animal needs, you know, they're always there and there's always a need. So we were very grateful that we could get open and start helping out animals right away. So Heidi's Village is really designed to work with other rescue partners. So the founder, Jenny Jantas, her vision really was to be able to provide a safe place that dogs and or cats could come while they are transitioning either into foster care or into their forever home. So there's huge needs for animals in care right now. And oftentimes it just isn't a space for them. So it's not that people don't want to help them. They just had nowhere to take them and make sure they were safe. So the we work with about 80 different partnering rescue organizations and provide boarding services for up to 250 dogs and over 200 cats. So it's quite quite the facility. We have five acres here. So it's a beautiful state of the art. We have a full vet clinic here so we can provide everything at affordable prices. So really our goal is to provide the rescue organizations a safe place to put their animals for a very reasonable cost like $15 a night. And then we have the full vet services available so they can get them prepared. Wow. So I gotta back up and ask you how long were you in process to get this this nonprofit launched and then to launch it during this amazing crisis? What was that like? Well, I wasn't actually the CEO at the time, but I can talk to from the from, you know, the lessons I've learned from from Jenny and the previous. They actually bought the property back in 2017 at 40th Street and Bamburin. And it took several years of going through City of Phoenix and development and getting that all done and then getting the building up and operational was about another year and a half to two years construction. So 2020 just, you know, the goal was March of 2020. We had our grand opening all planned and all the wine and beer and food order and unfortunately it didn't happen. But we did open when we still opened and we still started working with the rescues and taking in animals here. So but we have seen at that time we had probably 25 employees were now up to over 75 employees. So it's it's a lot to keep the organization up and running. Oh my goodness. Well, you know, how brave of you, the leaders and certainly your founder to, you know, press forward and keep going because that's one of the things that we saw so much with the nonprofit show is that folks that just like hit that pause button because they said, oh, this will be over. This isn't gonna last forever. And then they really ended up shooting themselves in the foot per se because they just they lost time in momentum. So really cool that you you were able to move forward on a new concept and get it going. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I commend everyone that was there making it happen. And I've been here almost two years now. So it's yeah, it's a lot of work by a lot of fun. Oh my gosh. Well, let's talk about this. We alluded to this briefly when we were introducing you and we also were talking about it a little bit in the green room chatter. And that is animal welfare being tied to human service. And I think a lot of times we think of animal welfare as its own standalone sector. And it's over here. But talk to us about this link that we don't always understand about animals and human services. Yeah, sure. No, thank you. I I think I think the the failure for us to recognize is to not recognize that over 80% of Americans have some kind of animal on the whole. That's wow. So whether it be a cat or dog, it could be a fish or gerbil or rabbit. But over 80% of Americans have some other creature that they love in their home that they think of as family. So when we are when humans are facing different situations, whether it be domestic violence, which is really a big and it's domestic violence awareness month. So I think it's a great opportunity to talk about that, you know, 45 to 60%. There's sort of a little bit all over of individuals actually will not leave their home because of their animals. So having shelter available for animals and for the human is really, really important. And that's one thing I'm very proud of Heidi's village is that we can do that temporary care kind of boarding to for those people and and provide that service. We are working in partnership with some different homeless programs and helping homeless individuals transition from the streets to a home. And through that transitioning time, they have the opportunity to put their dogs or cats in boarding here, which then gives them the strength and the courage to go out find that job, get their apartment, get things going again. So I love love love when somebody comes after 90 days or whatever and comes back up their animals. It just it just always brings tears to my eyes. I'm just like, Oh, my gosh, this worked. So yeah, it's very important. It's really interesting. I mean, do you find that this is a link that you have to educate other folks in the nonprofit sector? Or does everybody kind of get this? No, it's definitely an education that I have been providing. I've really gotten involved with the Arizona Department of Housing and and some of the different homeless communities, you know, the St. Vincent, the Paul's, the cast, the others, and they are all doing some pretty amazing things to start thinking about pets. And sheltering of humans. So I think it's, we're starting to understand that bridge that needs to come together. And I am very excited about that because as we look at our whole economics and what's going on here, I mean, our population is exploding. And you can't find rents for, you know, under over under $1,000, you know, minimum wage is 1280, but livable wage is almost $21. So it's right, there are a lot of things happening in our community, putting people and animals and a lot of stress. So that you can be a part of that solution. I love that that that you are thinking about that and working with, you know, the community in your community alone, you're working with more than 80 other organizations. Yes. That's stunning. That's that's absolutely stunning. And is that statewide or is that more in the urban area? More Maricopa County, actually. We don't really have one or two partners out of Tucson, but otherwise, they're all pretty much here in the metro area of Phoenix. Well, let's move a little bit in a different direction. And let's have you talk to us about your donor demographics and how you're connecting to different demographics. We keep hearing more and more, you know, reporting on how younger donors are much more interested in animal welfare, environmental concerns than their parents or their grandparents. Are you seeing any of this? I think, you know, for us, honestly, at Hatties Village, it's because we are so new, we're still trying to attract the donor. So we have seen, definitely have seen a great volunteerism on the younger generation, which has been very, very helpful. You know, people can come volunteer to help with our cats or walk our dogs or and then we've seen the other spectrum, a lot of seniors that really want to come and be a part of what we're doing here. So I it's, it's been an interesting journey for us at Hatties Village and trying to raise the awareness and understanding of how animal welfare and the needs of the animals is so great and looking for those that have their time, you know, their treasures or whatever they can give back. So we have seen the whole spectrum. So it's one way to the other. So when you're looking at these different demographics, are you marketing to these different demographics in a variety of ways or are you, because you're so new, still kind of keeping it all the same? Um, we're doing a little bit of both. I mean, we've really upped our social media game and that seems to be attracting a lot of the, you know, younger generation. We done a lot of kind of asks out on social media, which has been great, great success. Sometimes it's just for goods, you know, in kind stuff, which is really, you know, very, very helpful to us. And then we've done the traditional kind of newsletters, mailings, direct mails, trying to attract all generations and really, again, just raising that awareness of that we're here and we're helping and we need the community support to do that. Now, this is kind of an off the wall question, which just made me, I'm still stuck on that number of 80 organizations that you're working with. Do you have a separate marketing campaign that or communication strategy just for those organizations like the, you know, the internal sector kind of communication? Yes and no. I mean, a rescue, I mean, most of our 80 partnerships are other rescue organizations. So that just demonstrates how great a need there was to find space for animals and how great a need there was to find affordable veterinary care so that they can take care of more animals and we can save more lives. So I think it's, you know, I have to say that was fairly, we really didn't have to work that hard on that. I don't know what the word is. It was very, it was a very natural progression of getting those partnerships in and involved with us. I would say we have 20 very strong core partners and several others that use us intermittently for different things. And then we have other partnerships that we work with with cities and lost our home. There's a pet project and other ones that are doing, doing animal care, but needed that, again, that place of affordability and that place of secure, safe quality care. Right. It's so interesting. I would imagine that word has gotten out quickly with the other organizations because it is so unique and it's such a bridge kind of service. And then obviously it sounds like you have the ability to meet these needs with such a large campus. We do. I think the, you know, the one thing that, that has taken us by surprise a little bit at Hades Village is not only is all the number of cats. So we also have a neon eight clinic here, meaning there are newborns for newborn kittens. So that's the only part of our organization that we have support 24 seven because those have to be fed every couple of hours. And currently we have about 150 kittens in our care. And it's a lot. So those actually all are Hades Village animals. So that's, you know, the, and we Hades Village is starting to see a lot of more people surrendering directly to us. So they're starting to see us as a resource of a place to surrender their animal. And of course, we're not going to let any animal go without help. But if we can't do it, we'll definitely try to find the resources that can. So that was, that wasn't quite the direction we thought as an organization we were going to go, but it's just kind of naturally happening. You know, a lot of nonprofits, you know, start one way and then their journey takes them somewhere else because you're compassionate and knowledgeable and you have an infrastructure. It's, it's hard to say no. It is hard to say no. Say no. And I show when you're looking in those little eyes. Yeah, I mean, you have 150 kittens. How many dogs are you currently sheltering? Right now we have about the same amount of dogs right now. That is a massive number of animals on your property. Yes. Yes, it is. Amazing. Well, talking about animals, I have to say this is, I have the sweetest little face coming up here on the screen. And for those of you listening to us on podcasts, I have no idea what this dog is, but he's just so dear looking. And I really want to know what have been your most successful fundraising campaigns? Like what have they looked like? How have they drawn, you know, new donors to you or kept, you know, retained existing donors? What are some of the things that stand out as being successful for you? You know, again, being so new, we've only, we haven't had huge, huge successes. But one thing I'm very proud of is one program we've started as our Hades Heroes. And that's really where someone can do a monthly giving to us. And, you know, whether it be $25, $100, $500, whatever somebody can do, that has been really very successful. I mean, again, we're, we're young, we're just getting started. So we only have probably 60 or 70 people doing that right now. But we started at zero. And we only started about nine months ago. So I think that's pretty good. I think that's phenomenal. And in an environment where you probably, I mean, you weren't able to conduct tours or you weren't able to do so many things that most people do in when they initiate giving societies. Oh my gosh. Yes. So we have a, we have a nice little t-shirt we give when they are Hades Heroes. So you can wear it proudly out in the community. And it's a dog. I meant to bring one with me, but a dog with a cape on it. It's just really super cute. So that's been very successful. And again, I think our social media, we've done a lot for, we go through dog beds quite quickly here. I can, so that's, so we did a big push out on social media, where to go buy the beds for us. And we probably received close to $4,500 worth of beds back to us. So that stuff is huge for us, you know. And again, we really pride ourselves in having high quality and keeping dogs comfortable and with lots of respect and dignity. So that's so important. Yeah, really, you know, it's one of those things that would have never thought about, but it's like, yeah, duh. So when you're doing campaigns, whether it be for goods or services or money, I would love to kind of tap into what your experience is looking like with services. So for example, people that have a passion for volunteerism versus people that actually are from the professional sector, vet techs, veterinarians. What is that looking like for you in this space? So on the volunteerism wise, we, we currently have about 100 volunteers that are very active with us. And we have several groups that come in weekly that will support us. Some are actually disabled individuals that are coming in and doing different activities for us, stuffing coms, making enrichment toys for for the dogs. And again, all that support is great. On our vet side of things, we've got a few of the different surgeons come in and provide some pretty high dollar surgeries. We had tea cup Annie last year with a very big heart murmur that was expected to maybe live a year. She was a puppy but came in, adopted open heart surgery on her, saved her life. And she's off, off living on a farm, living her best life now. So, so, you know, that kind of stuff is there, it's like, I don't even know how you value it because it's it's the dog's life. And but the gentleman giving his time and the surgeon giving his time was really, really helpful to us. So people give it a variety of different ways. And so does it just supplies in the veterinary clinic that have helped us to through other organizations that typically would supply us, but are also giving in a charitable way. Wow, amazing. It's such an interesting thing to think about your amalgamation of different needs and services that are going to be a little bit different than other animal welfare organizations. How do you communicate that? How do you share to the potential donor or the existing donor of why and how you're different? I will say, to be very honest Julia, it's a learning process because it is because we are unique. There's really no other shelter that provides services like we do across the United States because we did a lot of research when we started to open. So it's really it is challenging a time to get people to understand the gap. You know, what we're asking people to pay for boarding and what it actually cost us to run are two very different numbers. So we're working on that and trying to understand how you know how a dollar and what a dollar will do for us here. But to be very transparent, you haven't figured all that out yet. Well, and I got to believe that, you know, how this is structured and how it works in, you know, the pandemic that you opened in is going to shift in the next five years. Oh, I believe that to be very true. I mean, so it's such a fascinating thing to see you navigating this story. I mean, that's one of the reasons why we wanted to have you on it. It's it's so interesting to see the size of your organization that's gotten out of the gate so strongly in a cataclysm of time. I mean, I think it's fascinating. I really do. We have a viewer that's written in and this viewer writes, I commend you on this program back when I was an interim executive director of a largeish cat rescue organization about 2,500 per year. I was very sad to turn away people who would just needed an affordable place to care for their pets while they were in hospital or had to be away. Wish your organization type had been around. Yeah, very sweet. Yeah, cool. But it speaks to the issue of how, you know, you are a unique thing. Yes. I mean, it's again, I think to what you just said, Julia, but you know, over the next five years, we're going to, it'll be interesting to see where it all goes. Animals are definitely a part of our lives. And as the economics and dynamics change for us as humans, there's going to, it's going to be, it may be get harder and harder for people to hold on to their animals. And we want to just be that safety net for them and see how we can support. It's truly if we can find resources to help you hold your animal in your home, we are all ahead of the game. The counties, I mean, the county has grown tremendously. I mean, we're almost 4.5 million people here. It's like, that's a lot of animals. Yeah, it really is. Well, I'm fascinated with that 80%. If you'd asked me that, like, what percentage of Americans have, you know, a furry friend as a family member, I would have never gotten anywhere near near that. So that's pretty amazing. And I shouldn't just say furry, because, you know, to the point of fish and everything that could be around it. There's somebody in their house. But I mean, it's really an interesting thing to think about, because that is a part of American society and, you know, what what that looks like on the outside is pretty significant. So very, very interesting to to have your perspective. So when we when we don't have much time left, Cindy, but when you look at the future, what is it that you see your greatest need is going to be? Oh, gosh, greatest need is probably really truly going to be the funding. I mean, I will say the Virginia B Jauntas Foundation, Jenny Jauntas, our founder and her foundation have been really the backbone of how we operated. But we we get about half our revenue from her and the other half from anything that brings in. So finding creative ways to get the word out and having people understand the greatest, you know, there's such a big need here and it helps both the human and the poor legged. So I love it. Well, I'm really impressed with your 70 Heidi's heroes. And if you've done that in nine months, and what do you think the trajectory is moving forward? I mean, like, do you think you'll get that many next year? Or I mean, do you have a sense of that? I know it's hard when you're so new and it is hard. But I feel like we're great, we're gaining greater support and greater awareness of who we are out there. So really, I'd love by the end of 2023, I'd love to have 500. I mean, that's kind of my goal. Wow. Okay, well, a goal oriented. So so anyone can help, you know, jump on board. Oh, my gosh, well, I say that we book you for the end of 2023. And so we see what this trajectory looks like, because it's such an interesting path. I mean, if you could do that many in a giving society that quickly in a pandemic, I think that's a shocking, shockingly successful. I mean, really, Cindy, that's amazing. So good job. Thanks. Yeah, no, it's it's a lot of fun, a lot of work. But I'm enjoying it. Yeah. Well, here's Cindy Kenville's information CEO of Heidi's Village, Heidi's Village.org. Check them out. Their websites terrific, beautifully done, and it really communicates, I would say the spirit of how you operate and what you're doing and how unique it is. I love that it's a model for other organizations to partner with, especially when you brought up that number of working with almost 80 other nonprofits throughout your community. That is remarkable. And so that in itself is a whole nother kettle of fish. I mean, working in in cooperation with another nonprofit isn't always easy. True, true. But but we all have one thing in common. We have great passion for the animals we're caring for. Yeah, absolutely. They said today. Yeah, well, you have been just a delight to have on. We need to check back in with you and see how things are going so that we can kind of keep track of your successes and hear about your challenges and and how you've overcome them, because it sounds to me like you've got an amazing team that's really coming ahead in a time that's been incredibly challenging for most organizations, let alone startups. So I'm super, super impressed. Again, if we haven't met, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Here at ransom, the nonprofit nerd will be back with us tomorrow. Hey, again, thank you to all of our presenting sponsors, Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part time controller, be generous. Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader and the nonprofit nerd. These are the folks that are with us day in and day out. And because they're here, we've been able to have this conversation with Cindy Canville of Heidi's Village today. Cindy, thank you so much. Oh, thank you. It was my pleasure. It was a lot of fun. Keep up the good work. And as we like to end every episode, we want to remind ourselves, our viewers, our listeners and our guests to stay well. So you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone. Thanks, Cindy. Thank you. Bye.