Message from the President - Maddie's Fund Grant Receives Mayoral Recognition - by Jane Hoffman, President, Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals - February/March 2005 - Out of the Cage!, the E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

Sponsored by Maddie's Fund, The Pet Rescue Foundation

Home > Out of the Cage! > February/March 2005 > Message from the President: Maddie's Fund Grant Receives Mayoral Recognition

Message from the President

Maddie's Fund Grant Receives Mayoral Recognition

by Jane Hoffman, President, Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

Wednesday, February 9, was an exciting day in New York City. First, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference to express his appreciation to The Pet Rescue Foundation and Maddie's Fund for its award of a $15.5 million seven-year grant to the Mayor's Alliance.

Maddie's Fund President Rich Avanzino was present at the historic event, and was quoted as saying, "New York is the most influential city in the world. As such, helping New York save all of its healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats has ramifications far beyond its borders. This project will be a beacon for the nation and the world."

ASPCA President Ed Sayres was also on hand as the Mayor acknowledged the ASPCA's $5 million, five-year grant to the Mayor's Alliance. This was the lead grant that qualified the Mayor's Alliance for the Maddie's Fund grant. "We are honored to help the animals we see everyday and honored to work with the Mayor's Alliance and with Maddie's Fund," he said.

That evening, representatives from the Alliance Participating Organizations met in a town-hall style meeting and heard Mr. Avanzino and members of the Alliance board explain some of the details of the grant award and how it will work.

Now that the Maddie's Fund grant is a reality, the Alliance is moving into high gear to meet the goals set forth in our ten-year plan to transform NYC into a no-kill community. Among these goals are (1) to end the euthanasia of all adoptable cats and dogs in NYC shelters within the first five years, and (2) to end the euthanasia of all treatable cats and dogs within the following five years.

It's important that everyone who will contribute to this ambitious effort understand these goals and also be clear on how the funds from the Maddie's Fund award will be spent. For example:

•	One-third of the first-year grant money will be used to subsidize low-cost spays and neuters for low-income New Yorkers' dogs and cats. (See this month's Alliance News article for a more in-depth description of how the spay/neuter program works.)
•	This year, and for the remaining six years of the grant payout period, a portion of the yearly payout will be set aside as "lockbox" funds to ensure that adequate monies are available from the seven-year grant to fund programs for the full ten years of the Alliance's ten-year plan.
•	A portion of the funds from the year's award will be paid out to Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) in the form of adoption subsidies — which can be viewed as incentive payments to APOs for adoptions over and above their baseline adoption numbers. Once an APO has reached its established baseline adoption quota, it will receive $30 for every additional dog and cat it adopts out… and $150 for each additional animal that came to the APO from AC&C.
•	The remaining Maddie's Fund monies will be used to fund specific initiatives, such as storefront adoption centers and an expanded Pet Ark program, as identified in the Alliance's 10-year plan. And a small percentage of the funds will be used to pay for promotional and administrative costs.

In order for the Alliance to fully achieve its objectives over the next ten years, it will be necessary to raise additional funds from a range of sources, including individual donors, corporate donations and sponsorships, and foundation grants. We will be exploring many new avenues of funding throughout the coming months to identify ways to generate the revenue needed to achieve 100 percent success in our important mission.

– Jane

For more information about the Mayor's Alliance and its Participating Organizations, please visit the Alliance website at www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org.

About Maddie's Fund

Maddie's Fund, The Pet Rescue Foundation (www.maddiesfund.org), is a family foundation funded by PeopleSoft Founder Dave Duffield, and his wife, Cheryl, to help create a no-kill nation. The first step is to help develop programs that guarantee loving homes for all healthy shelter dogs and cats throughout the country. The next step will be to save the sick and injured pets in animal shelters nationwide. Maddie's Fund is named after the family's beloved Miniature Schnauzer who passed away in 1997.