Volunteer

TAILS is an all volunteer organization with no paid staff - so we survive solely on the generosity of individuals to make our organization function - whether they are "regulars" or even if they put in just an hour every other week - our Volunteers are the reason we exist. The events we put on, the dogs and cats we have spayed or neutered and the day to day activities we perform are all a function of our Volunteers and have resulted in saving thousands of animals lives since we began with our first spay in 2001. Our needs are those of any for-profit business when it comes to running our organization but the payment our ìworkersî receive is not monetary but in the Good Will that is received knowing youíre making a real difference. Specifically, we need help with the list below (which is by no means an exhaustive list). We discuss all of our volunteering activities at our monthly volunteer meetings, which are held at a date and place to be announced. (If you cannot make it but still would like to help - please email us at info@tailsct.org and let us know - we can still use your help!). We also try to update our volunteer needs as frequently as possible.

TAILS Volunteering Needs:

• Transporting dogs or cats to or from veterinary appointments
• Allowing a feral (wild) cat to recover overnight (or 2 nights) in a safe, quiet location after having been spayed or neutered. (This can be done in an unused or quiet bathroom, heated garage (if fall/winter), heated basement, etc.)
• Help to coordinate store visits which involve attending and/or contacting the Store Manager to have an information table for a few hours on a weekend
• Organize an eBay donation program or coordinate a donation day for helping TAILS solicit items of value for sale through our “SpayToSave” eBay program.  All proceeds go directly to spaying and neutering.
• Interested in writing?  Help is definitely needed with our quarterly volunteer updates and our annual newsletters.
• Do you have graphic abilities?  We desperately need help designing fliers, posters, pamphlets, etc. 
• During the holiday season we have need for book wrappers at local bookstores
• Help us with our TNR (Trap Neuter Return) Program.  We humanely catch, spay or neuter, give shots and a brief exam to and then release to their “home” feral (wild) cats through our TNR program.  We have all the training and humane traps you’ll need and you’ll be volunteering with someone, not alone, when you set out to catch unspayed/unneutered cats with us.  This is where you really see the impact: stopping uncontrolled breeding of cats living on the streets through TNR.
• Participate or help organize our TEAM TAILS Walk/Run Team events.  We would love to expand this program if we only had the manpower!
• Help monitor our emails and phone calls
• Contributing to the needs of volunteer coordination (updating volunteer listings, contacting new volunteers, posting fliers, etc)
• Coordinate feral cat colonies (groups of feral cats living together under the watchful eye of a caretaker); involves being the TAILS point person for the site’s caretaker and coordinating TAILS’ trapping supplies or volunteers to get to this caretaker
• Posting our fliers and distributing our newsletters to local businesses
• Writing solicitation letters
• Contacting local businesses for in-kind donations (versus flat out monetary donations)