If you received $20,000, what would you do with it? Pay down your mortgage? Take a vacation? Invest it? Maybe buy enough lasagna to kill a man?
All viable options, but the Great Canadian Giving Challenge is here, and MEOW has the opportunity to win $20,000, which would go a long way to support cats in our care! Here’s a look at how we would spend that money, and how you can help us score $20,000 in funding!
‘Tis the (Other) Giving Season!
The summer months can see lower donations, which can be a challenge for charities that need funds year-round. Canada Helps’ Great Canadian Giving Challenge is a fantastic opportunity to fundraise during these slower months with some extra potential benefit!
How does it work? For every $1 donated to MEOW Foundation (with a minimum donation of $3) through Canada Helps between June 1 and 30, we’re entered into a draw to win $20,000! Every penny matters to MEOW, so $20,000 would go an incredibly long way.
What Could $20,000 do for MEOW?
With calls for help with stray and abandoned cats ever-increasing and the cost of goods on the rise, there is no shortage of things we could use $20,000 for! However, our biggest cost by far is veterinary care for our cats.
Vet care is of course required for all cats who come through our doors. However, with our mandate being stray and abandoned cats, we often take in cats who have lived on the street for years. These cats often have dental disease or other conditions that have gone untreated, which drastically increases the cost of their care. In fact, veterinary expenses totaled over $320,000 in our last fiscal year!
So what does $20,000 get us? Here are some detailed examples of how we could use those funds:
- Nearly half of the annual cost of our Spay Neuter Assistance (SNAP) Program. Our SNAP program assists Calgarians in need with the cost of spaying or neutering their cat, increasing their quality of life and curbing pet overpopulation Or, these funds could extend our reach by being able to subsidize spay and neuter surgeries for even more cats.
- We could run our Trap Neuter Return (TNR) Program for over a year. Our TNR program humanely traps, sterilizes and returns feral Calgary cats to their community home. We helped over 60 cats through this program in our last fiscal year!
- Eight months’ worth of cat food. If you’re a cat person (or even if you’re not!), you probably know that cats can be very picky eaters. From wet to dry to prescription in all flavours and formulations, we go through a lot of food at our Adoption Centre and in our foster homes!
- A three-year supply of microchips. Microchips are permanent ID that we put on all our cats to make sure they can make it home if they ever get lost. Unlike tattoos, which are specific to certain regions and fade over time, microchips can be scanned across regional and national borders. (Just be sure to keep your contact information on the chip up to date. It made the difference for this lost cat!)
- Vaccines for about 150 cats or kittens. Vaccines are an essential part of medical care for our cats, but they’re not cheap! Upon intake, each cat receives a FVRCPC vaccine which protects against feline viral rhinotracheitis, feline calicivirus and feline panleukopenia (commonly known as feline parvo). If a cat has spent his or her entire life outdoors, then we also vaccinate against feline leukemia. Both of these vaccines need a booster shot several weeks later. With each dose of vaccine costing up to $45, the price of vaccinating our cats quickly adds up!
It’s important to note that these numbers only reflect our current intake numbers. If our intake number increase, our costs do too!
MEOW Wins no Matter What
The Great Canadian Giving Challenge is a fun contest (and we sure do hope we win the $20K!), but it’s also a way to spur donations for worthy charities during the slowest donation month of the year. So whether or not we win the $20,000 prize for this challenge, we’re still winning thanks to the incredible help and gracious donations from all of our supporters! So you can help us out little by little with each dollar donated, whether it’s getting us closer to a big prize or just getting some extra funds.
Click here to donate! Remember, this challenge is a win-win. Even if we don’t win the grand prize, all the funds we receive are still going to a good cause, meaning that everybody comes first here, especially our cats in need!