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So... you volunteered for Denver Dumb Friends League (DDFL), and now want to volunteer at MaxFund?
At MaxFund, you aren't required to work 3 hour shifts at inconvenient times. You can come in when it works for you (as long as its from 8am-5pm, 365 days a year). If it works out that you can stay 4 or more hours in a day, that's great! If you can only volunteer half hour or an hour at a time, that's cool too! We'll take whatever time you have to offer.
According to what I've been told, and according to their website, volunteers primary role is cleaning kennels. After a certain amount of time, DDFL volunteers may be "promoted" to working directly with the animals. At MaxFund, cleaning kennels is the staffs job, MaxFund Volunteers are not only able, but encouraged, to work directly with the animals starting directly after the orientation. We'd rather you find something to do that you truly enjoy, not just volunteer because you are helping out the organization.
The volunteering atmosphere at MaxFund is pretty relaxed and self-driven. You don't have a "boss" or supervisor necessarily, you don't have performance reviews, and you are allowed to do pretty much anything you want at the shelter with whatever time you have available.
We don't have assigend duties or "home departments". If you feel like walking dogs one day and playing cats the next day, or doing office work, laundry, and walking dogs all in one day, that is your perogative!
We don't euthanize animals unless they are suffering and no other solutions are available. We wouldn't dream of having you witness a euthanasia as part of the orientation (as has been required by DDFL in the past), and wouldn't dream of having volunteers (or anyone for that matter) "hand-pick" the animals to be euthanized. Whenever an animal does need to be euthanized for humane reasons (and no other reason) it is done so in a setting of love and respect for all the animal offered. It is typically done with someone who loved the animal nearby holding and comforting the animal as they prepare to pass over the bridge. Anything less is not suitable for MaxFund.
We don't sort animals into adoptable, potentially adoptable, or unadoptable, and wouldn't ask volunteers to assist with this either. To MaxFund, every animal is adoptable - some just take longer than others.
I had one volunteer tell me a story about volunteering at DDFL. He told me that a dachshund was brought in - 12 years old. He was interested in the dog and knew others were as well. Within two or three days, the animal had been put down because it was too old and therefore "unadoptable". We adopt out senior dogs all the time, they are just as adoptable and deserve the same respect and love other dogs do!
Because we are a no-kill, if you become attached to a particular animal at the shelter (which we not only suggest but recommend!) and the animal is suddenly not in it's cage, chances are the animal has either been adopted, been placed into a foster home, or is undergoing medical care. The fear of knowing an animal you're attached ot will be put down because they weren't adopted by a certain date, etc. is just unrealistic and doesn't happen at our shelter.
At MaxFund, most of our money is spent on our animals, rather then the building itself, or on publicitiy for ourselves. We don't have a multi-million dollar facility, but our building has heart and soul rather then prestige and high technology.
For more information on getting started as a volunteer, please visit the New Volunteer Page.