Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Love spoken here
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We address two problems: first, the enormous need for rescue and sanctuary for farmed animals: CAS provides individualized, loving care and spacious grounds where animals’ needs for space, fresh air, companionship, and medical care are met, and though we've rescued thousands of animals since our founding and care for between 200 and 350 at any given time, we decline requests each day due to the overwhelming need for placement. The second problem we address is humanity’s consumption of animals and the imperative of a rapid switch to plant based living as the most impactful way of addressing animal cruelty, improving human health, and tackling climate change.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Animal Rescue & Care
Catskill Animal Sanctuary provides rescue, healing, and lifelong care for hundreds of farmed animals and equines. Our animals have been neglected, abandoned, or victimized by hoarders or the food industry, and are often broken--physically and psychologically--when they arrive. We care for them as individuals, offering customized diets and medical care, the choice of pasture mates, and an abundance of love to ensure that they heal and ultimately thrive. Some animals who are unable to thrive in a herd or flock join our "Underfoot Family” -- the cast of characters who roam our grounds freely all day and are securely sheltered at night.
CAS:Live
CAS:Live takes the Sanctuary animals and the lessons in plant-based living that they inspire to locations around the globe, allowing participants to get “nose-to-screen” on a virtual tour with snuggly sheep, mischievous goats, gentle turkeys, and so many other rescued farmed animals. Participants hear the animals’ stories and learn about their unique personalities and lives. Educators do their best to honor requests to visit specific residents, but can’t make guarantees since the animals set their own plans for the day! Groups of all kinds - classrooms, other youth groups, business meetings, social gatherings - are welcome to book virtual tours and meet our engaging animal friends. Participants also have the option to book a cook-along or cooking demonstration with our award-winning vegan Chef Linda, with a brief cameo from one or more animal friends. Content is tailored to the ages of the participants.
Youth Programs
Our Youth Programs nurture the affinity that children have for animals via connecting them with the animals either in person or virtually. Meeting the animals as individuals, rather than resources to be used, children expand their circle of compassion and are inspired to help animals in their own lives. Pre-pandemic, programs included Sanctuary tours for school groups and in-person presentations at schools and other venues. Post-pandemic, these programs moved online via CAS:Live (see above), which offers interactive virtual field trips for all ages and grade levels. Both programs align with state educational standards and present information about animal agriculture, the environment, and personal and public health. When available, the in-person tours allow participants the added benefit of the deep, often life-altering connection that comes from being eye-to-eye with a pig, chicken, or cow.
Compassionate Cuisine
Compassionate Cuisine is our vegan culinary program, designed to show how easy and delicious it is to cook without animal products. Prior to the pandemic, public cooking classes were offered on Sanctuary grounds year-round by a trained vegan chef. Since the pandemic, we shifted to an online format, allowing us to expand our calendar and reach a wider audience. Our cookbook, Compassionate Cuisine: 125 Plant-Based Recipes From Our Vegan Kitchen, presents recipes from our classes, events, and blog. Our food blog and social media channels share creative, budget-friendly, and approachable recipes and tips. We provide cooking demonstrations and/or samples for select events to present visitors with a variety of veganized versions of favorite dishes.
Tours
Tours introduce visitors to our rescued animals and their powerful stories, educate participants about the plight of animals exploited for food and other purposes, and share ways we can make the world a more compassionate place. Options include public, weekend tours from spring through fall, including family-friendly tours; year-round tours for groups of 10 or more, private tours for members, animal sponsors, and guests of The Homestead, our on-site bed-and-breakfast; and specialized tours such as “Horsin’ Around” (a focus on horses) and our founder’s “Break All the Rules” tours. When resources allow, tours include vegan cooking demos and/or samples to help participants make the connection between the animals they meet and the food on our plates.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of animals rescued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Animal Rescue & Care
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
While we're at capacity (with large animals being the vast majority of our residents), we help many others by working with law enforcement and offering placement support for those we can't accept.
Number of hooves cared for
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Animal Rescue & Care
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Many animals arrive with life-threatening hoof infections, so "hoof-by-hoof" individualized care is a critical component of our care, as the 41 sheep who arrived last winter with rotting hooves know!
Educational experiences (on-site + virtual): number of participants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Tours
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Educational experiences include intimate, in-person tours and live, virtual visits led by trained humane educators. The increase in 2020-21 was due to popularity of virtual visits during those years.
Social media followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok combined.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Catskill Animal Sanctuary rescues and provides a safe, peaceful refuge for ten species of farmed animals, delivers exceptional lifelong care for all rescued residents, helps people experience these animals as individual, feeling beings rather than as commodities, and inspires people to take action towards eliminating the use of foods and other products that contribute to animal suffering.
Our educational programs aim to inspire people to become vegan to end farmed animal exploitation and reduce the damage being done to our precious planet by animal agriculture--a vegan diet requires far less greenhouse emissions, water, energy, and land than our meat and dairy-centric diet. To that end, we offer numerous programs that both enhance people’s awareness of the impact of their daily choices and support them as they move toward plant-based living!
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We provide rescue and lifelong care to farmed animals and innovative programs that educate the public about their plight, the impact our food choices have on all life, and vegan living. Our educational programs include CAS:Live, Tours, Compassionate Cuisine, and Youth Programs. CAS:Live is the online platform through which all other programs are made available to a global audience. CAS:Live brings the animal encounters of our tours, the cooking classes and nutrition lessons from Compassionate Cuisine, and the educational lessons* of Youth Programs to audiences of all ages (*lessons are aligned with New York State educational standards in multiple subjects). Collectively, these programs introduce people to compassionate vegan living and empower them with tools to make positive changes in their lives. Additionally, our Founder, Kathy Stevens, reaches thousands of people each year through her books, contributions to numerous publications, and guest appearances on various media.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have a 150-acre sanctuary equipped to house and care for 10 species of animals. We have between 200 and 350 animals in our care at any given time, but for emergency rescues we can temporarily house more animals.
As our animal rescue and educational programs expand, we increase the number of staff, interns, and volunteers to keep pace with program needs.
With the use of modern technology and determination to persist amidst new challenges, we successfully pivoted during the shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and brought our educational programs online, as described above, to make them available to a global audience.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
"How do we do the greatest good for the greatest number?"
"How do we lead with love, inspiring change from within the individual?"
These are the questions that guide our work.
Since the sanctuary’s opening in 2001, we have rescued more than 5,000 animals, expanding our capacity over the years from 75 acres and one large barn to 150 acres with 9 large barns for horses and cows and 16 smaller ones for pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. This expansion allows us to accept and care for greater numbers of animals.
Our educational programs now reach tens of thousands of individuals globally, a number that will continue to grow as CAS:Live expands its virtual offerings. We look to both numeric benchmarks (e.g., participant numbers and ratings of their experience) as well as qualitative markers (e.g., participant comments) to determine our success and suggest any course corrections. We're always a work in progress, remaining nimble and responsive to changing needs.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Board of directorsas of 11/30/2023
James Shackelford
Kathy Stevens
Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Michelle Alvarez
Kate Keisel
Sanar Wellness Institute
Sam Moon
Institute for Ecological Civilization
James Shackelford
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
Julie Squires
Rekindle
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/05/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.