Quarterly Report November 2023

Official / General:

SEC annual report filed Sep 5, 2023
Nikki has been given admin privileges in g-suite as my backup
Bonnie now has a spare set of keys for the shelter (including mail key)
Updated the Employee Handbook to include sections on email and HRN accounts

Financials:

990 form has been filed with the IRS and our Form PC filed with the state for Nov 15. We have draft copies, should be receiving non-draft copies Nov 29. Accountant financial statement has been emailed to the board.

Financials as of Oct 31 have been mailed to the board. Bunsitting is not being entered correctly and is being looked into.

Adoptions:

260 Adoptions so far this year. We will most likely surpass the 267 we did last year.

Fundraisers:

Bob Barker Fundraiser raised $600
Paint Bowls – raised $692.55
28 attendees at $45 each, plus 4 extra pieces $80 total
Minus expenses for $647.45

Notes for the future

Offer only a small amount of designs, not the entire wall of pieces
Only do (1) date; food costs and energy not worth it for multiple days
3 hours was a good amount of time, most people stayed between 2.5-3. Some stayed 4 hours
Do NOT use Eventbrite – utilize the website for ticket sales
Online Auction – raised $4,788.52
Rachel’s last auction
Rachel has created a best practices doc for next organizer
Nikki L. aware that we need new organizer
Baby Bunny Cuddle Auction – raised $255
Giving Tuesday scheduled for Nov. 28+ We have a matching donor for $10k
Calendars still for sale; about 60 still in stock
Poorly Drawn Pets run by Lauren Swank will take place Dec. 5-12
Bingo is scheduled for Jan. 20. Tickets are now on sale.
Valentine’s Dinner Dates scheduled for Feb. 8-14
Yoga Sep 30 in Wellesley raised $1000

Services (Spa Days, Bunsitting, Bonding):

Spa Days

9/16/2023 sold 50 spaces for a total of $1,250. We have 5 grooming stations in total. Four of the stations focused on the spa day participants and one did the grooming for the current shelter bunnies. Noted that we needed some additional supplies and relayed this information to Suzanne for the Amazon wish list.
10/28/2023 sold 53 spaces for a total of $1,325. We ran four grooming stations from 11:45 until 4 PM. A separate station was set up for the shelter buns to be groomed. Cara set up a station for post-spa relaxation of buns (~ 5 mins/bun) in a quiet room with gentle massage/pets. Overall a successful event that still needs a bit of coordination with the adoption team to avoid overlap.
12/9/2023 is the next spa day and we currently have 38 people signed up for the spa services. We are planning four grooming teams, two runners, and two cool-down volunteers.

Bunsitting

There were 65 paid requests since the last update on 8/22 totaling $11,315
We have 26 requests scheduled all the way up to 5/2/24 with 1 open request currently.
I was able to onboard 8 new sitters, however, after the summer rush I checked in with some of the nonresponsive sitters and 6 of them asked to be removed from the list.
4 sitters were given the new 40% bunsitter discount totalling 21 days between them.

Bonding

The in-person bonding total for this quarter is $2,455 (this total includes a $100 refund for two unused days for a bonding that was completed last quarter).

We have had two successfully completed bondings – one pair and one group of 4
A 3rd pair went home on 11/21. They were not fully bonded, but coexisting in the same space when they left the bonder’s house
A 4th pair is currently in process (started 11/18) and the bonder sees “promise and no aggression in their interactions”
There are 3 others set to begin between the end of November and the beginning of January.
People have used the virtual bonding consultation service totaling $185.
Of the 5, 3 consultations were requested as a result of the in-person program (one bond of which is complete, one is in process, and one is scheduled for next month)

Grants:

Oxbow awarded us $5000 of products from the grant that Melody submitted. Suzanne made the first purchase and will have pellets shipped to the shelter.

Received the cages we purchased using the Graham Grant money. Sent in a quarterly report. We still need to submit one further report with pictures and stories about how the cages are used.

Spent all our funds from the MAC grant as of Oct 25. Final report submitted 11/23. We spayed 33 girls and neutered 38 boys for a total of 71 rabbits.

Melody submitted the Cummings Foundation Grant. Kevin Cummings reached out and visited us at the shelter. He said there were 7 applicants for 3 $20k grants. We received word that we are receiving the grant but don’t have more specifics yet.

Donation Management – Development Director:

We have posted for a development director and have three applicants so far. We will likely interview a couple of these candidates this week.

Subscriptions – Monthly

6 Epic Hero $50 / month
13 Super Hero $25 / month
15 Hero $10 / month

Subscriptions – Yearly

13 Mini Lop $25 / year
3 New Zealand $50 / year
9 Flemish Giant $100 / year

Shelter:

Things are running well at the shelter. We did have a minor glitch in that we now need to figure out transport compost to composting sites. We have found a couple of people to assist. With time we hope we will have a good system going.

We are looking to hire a shelter manager or possibly a part-time animal caretaker. Job postings have been listed and we have several Shelter Manager applicants, and 1 for the animal caretaker.

Clinic:

We have worked with Heather of Animal Arts to come up with a design for the shelter. We reached out to several architects and only 1 got back to us. She submitted a proposal today.

Looking for an OPM didn’t work out as they all thought we were too small of a project to be worth their time. We also petitioned the condo board to see if we could add a new external door and were turned down.

Foster Homes:

We have had a lot of surgery spots which means we have been able to help most urgent cases on the waiting list, plus strays and ACO requests.

Adoptions have been up which is helpful, hoping that continues

Our foster home email group has been updated and the goal is to send out monthly newsletters and now we can include folks not on Facebook (and those who miss posts) with announcements etc.

Rich will be doing regular check-ins with current foster homes to make sure they don’t have any questions, or concerns or need help with anything. We had a foster home abandon their foster bun with roommates when she left town. Thankfully the roommate contacted the hotline and we were able to get the bun back.

Priority project for 2024 will be the Foster Home Manual.

Hotline:

Alice Carson stepped down from the hotline effective 10/26. Nikki LaRoche functioning as interim coordinator from 10/26 to 11/27.

Nikki wrote and distributed SOP manual for hotline to standardize procedures, protocols, templates, guides, etc.

Hotline team member Rosie Malsberger has been named successor hotline coordinator by Nikki and Rosie accepted on 11/22. Official announcement to hotline team to come 11/27. Nikki will stay on as assistant hotline coordinator while transitioning leadership. Primary contact for hotline as of 11/27 is Rosie. (rosie@rabbitnetwork.org)

Between now and EOY Nikki will be conducting 1:1 training sessions for volunteers who joined in August that did not receive proper training.

Outreach, Volunteering & Events:

Attended Boston Veg Food Fest 10/14 & 10/15. Event recruited some new volunteers and raised $548 over the weekend.

Prospective outreach event with a Montessori school. Looking into new Spring 2024 outreach events.

Poop Porter position was created to bring compost from the shelter to composting sites. Task added to Deputy schedule. Filled by Nora and Michelle. Nikki reached out to several places (dumps, farms) to secure other free compost drop-off locations. Unable to locate additional free places accepting compost in large quantities.

Recruited and placed several new volunteers, mostly recent HRN adopters. Nikki is searching for a new auction organizer.

RHD:

The vaccine has finally been approved in Massachusetts.

Intra-Meeting Board Decisions:

None