Quarterly Report February 2024

Official / General

Law firm, Foaley Hoag, has agreed to look at our Employee Handbook, expected to happen in March.

Lauren Swank was offered a position as Shelter Lead. She accepted and started Dec 11, 2023. Jessica Paxton was offered a position as Shelter Manager. She accepted and started Jan 22, 2024. Brooke Haley was offered a part-time position as Fundraising and Donor Relations Manager. She accepted and started Jan 2, 2024. Julie Langhill quit in the middle of her shift on Dec 11, 2023. She was sent a formal letter about her voluntary resignation.

We now have a TikTok account that is being run by Lauren

Financials

Suzanne & Kari met with the accountants Nov 30. We are going to try and get financials to them earlier in the year so our taxes can be completed quicker next year. Kari filed state form 3ABC for property tax exemption with the town on December 1. We have been approved for the exemption for the next tax year. We will need to refile every year by March 1. Suzanne filed ST-2 with electric and gas utilities so we won’t have to pay taxes on those bills. Documents were sent to the accountants the last week of January to get our review started early this year. 

Adoptions

55 adoptions as of Feb 27. This is on pace or slightly ahead of the last couple of years.

Fundraisers

Successfully Completed

  • Bingo fundraiser was completed on January 20th and raised $2,448
  • Valentine’s Dates fundraiser raised $3,820. Rachel is mailing out the date cards. 
  • Magic Buns brought in $4070.00 (as of 2/26)
  • Peanut Legacy raised $4781.50 (as of 2/26)  which includes hot sauce donation ($81.50). 
  • Poorly Drawn Pets raised $810 (28 single portraits @$20 and 10 2 pet @$25)
  • Giving Tuesday raised $7117 on facebook and then about $2200 with  paypal and checks

Upcoming & Current

  • Salut Wine Bar fundraiser Apr 30, 2024. We will be doing sweepstakes.
  • Art Auction until 2/28
  • Easter bunny photo shoot 3/9

Services (Spa Days, Bunsitting, Bonding)

Spa Day

Spa day continues to be a successful event selling out each time. We raised $3,140 in ticket and cash donations between the two spa days held in December and February. Brooke Haley, new Fundraising and Donor Relations Manager observed the event on February 10.

  • 12/9/2023 sold 48 tickets for $1,200.  
  • 2/10/2024 sold 62 tickets for $1,550. Valentine’s photo shoot available to attendees for $10 each generated an additional $290 in cash donations.  Crystal received $25 for a groom prior to the event and $75 as a donation toward the new babies she is fostering.  
  • Additional donations collected via the QR code generated about $100. 
  • The next event is scheduled for March 23, 2024.  The event is not yet open for registration.

Bunsitting

59 paid requests have been received since November 23, totaling $14,910. 27 requests are scheduled through August 9, 2024 with no open requests. We onboarded one new sitter and re-onboarded one volunteer who was previously a sitter. Two sitters that joined in November, left in December (one moved out of state and the other adopted a bonded pair and no longer had room to bunsit). Four sitters were given the bunsitter discount totalling 42 days between them.

Bonding

In-person bonding for this quarter totaled $2,500. We had two successfully completed bondings – one trio and one pair.  The trio remained with the bonder 44 days after bonding was completed and billing for those days are reflected in bunsitting (as the bunnies were coexisting in the same space, but they required extended care due to the owner’s surgery). A third pair went home on January 2; they were not fully bonded. There are two bondings currently in process – one pair is set to go home bonded the week of February 26th. The other began on February 15.

There are three bondings set to begin in March and April, one scheduled for July, and one is in the process of scheduling. 

There were 4 virtual bonding consultation requests totaling $140. Of the four, two consultations were requested as a result of board to bond requests.   

Grants

We received the Felicia Rose Cummings grant for $10k. The language is a little confusing- we thought the grant was for $20k, but it also seems like we might get a second disbursement.

MAC application was submitted in January requesting $15k

Donation Management & Development Committee

Zeffy has been set up as a donor management tool. Two campaigns have been run- Peanut’s Legacy and the Magic Buns. (Listed above under fundraising) The Zeffy campaigns have resulted in 11 new monthly donors for $180 per month. 

several people have signed up on the platform to be monthly donors

Wix & Zeffy Current subscriptions: 

Monthly  Bringing in $1170 each month

9 for $50 / month  

16 for  $25 / month

31 for $10 / month

2 for $5 / month 

Yearly

15 Mini Lop  $25 / year

3 New Zealand $50 / year

11 Flemish Giant $100 / year

Shelter

Julie quit abruptly during her shift on Dec 11. Lauren took over running the shelter without any formal training and while Suzanne was out of the country. As a result things were a little rough for a couple of weeks but we got through it. Jessica started Jan 22. It is working out well to have two employees and staff on site every day of the week.  They are continuing to onboard new volunteers.  It was noticed that volunteer logs were missing and not at the shelter. The volunteer logs only go back to November 2023. They are supposed to be retained. 

Clinic

Heather Lewis from Animal Arts was selected as the designer and has been continuing to support the design effort with the selected architect Normandin Design.  Heather’s equipment and material selections have been a significant contribution to the final design.  Our architect, Amanda, has various engineering firms designing and generating the engineered system plans for the plumbing, electrical and HVAC.  Initial plans for electrical and plumbing have been reviewed along with the architectural plan.  

The final plans are all waiting on the HVAC plans which are expected the first week of March.  The engineered plans are necessary to put the remodel out to bid.  We have identified 5 companies to invite for the pre-bid meeting.  The anticipated time for pre-bid is early March. 

In preparation for the remodel we listed the sliding glass doors for sale and all four have sold and three have already been removed.  We have also listed the conference table and the stainless steel utility sink for sale on 2/20/24.

Foster Homes

Foster Home manual – Committee is actively working on the foster home manual with expected completion by the end of May.

Foster home teams  – Committee has decided to organize the foster homes into “teams” where each foster committee member will lead their team of foster homes, acting as the central point of contact and checking in with team members on a regular basis. Foster home coordinator will also begin doing weekly check-ins with committee members. These efforts are expected to speed up the pace of project completion while building stronger community across our network of foster homes.

Foster Monthly Email Newsletter – Liz is in charge of this going out to our active/inactive foster list.  We are going to start with sending the HRN contact list (hopefully weekend of February 25) and create a monthly topic to send out.   ie.Did you know (Fill in the blank)? The goal is for the newsletter to go out mid-month. 

Hotline

Rosie officially took over as hotline coordinator on November 27, taking over from interim coordinator Nikki. Rosie has continued to make updates to the SOP manual as the team works through having more standardized procedures and seeing where updates or tweaks are needed. The manual will continue to be a work in progress.

The hotline had a few new members drop off due to time constraints, and as of February 24, there were 9 full-time hotline members (4 of whom share days and swap off applications/voicemails). Rosie trained a new team member, Jae, who will be starting on Monday February 26, and for the immediate future, will be sharing the day with Rosie until she is comfortable enough to take the day on her own. 

Nikki has been assisting Rosie in transitioning to coordinator, actively moderating the Discord, and working to make the adoption process easier for our applicants while continuing to maintain HRN’s standards of rabbit care.

Outreach, Volunteering & Events

We are beginning to coordinate spring outreach events – currently one in Boston, one in Reading.

Streamlined new volunteer application process so all prospective volunteers go through volunteer coordinator (except foster-only applicants). Now working on streamlining nail trim/grooming requests.

Nikki is working 1:1 with several volunteers to improve written communication skills, mediate interpersonal conflicts between volunteers regarding HRN activities/duties, and develop techniques to ensure timely responses to the public.

RHD

We are running vaccination clinics. The first one was Jan 14 and about 100 rabbits were vaccinated including 7 HRN rabbits. The second & third clinics were Feb 4 & 25 and each vaccinated about 130 rabbits.

Dr Kneeland and Exotic Mobile pet vet have donated $2000 to HRN for running the first two clinics. They also vaccinated several HRN rabbits for free.

We are holding two more clinics Mar 17 & Apr 7. April 7 we may start reducing the hours from 9-5 to 9-2.

Intra-Meeting Board Decisions

Dec 6- a decision was made to extend full time offers for two shelter employees.

Sick time policy was approved Dec 9 and added to the employee handbook.