Animal rescue groups are having to “dig deep” to find new ways to fund their over-capacity shelters and foster homes. Fundraising has been raised to a whole new level due to inflation and product shortages, not to mention worker shortages and pets not being spayed and neutered or abandoned.
One such rescue group, Gracie’s Project, has come up with a creative way to not only help fund their facility, but also to provide a place for pet owners to donate outgrown or no longer used dog crates and gently used items such as bowls and harnesses to sell at a discounted price for struggling dog owners.
A few years ago, volunteer for Gracie’s, Vanissa Brown, had the idea of having a thrift store to help fund a shelter and also provide good products for pet owners. “So many people just throw away good things,” Brown said. While she was doing garage and estate sales, she began to accumulate dog items and dreaming of a place to make them useful to other people. Doing research, she found other cities using thrift stores as a way to help.