Voices of Change Animal League
A positive approach to our community's pet population
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Vocal is focused on solving the homeless pet problem in our community. Until the summer of 2018, the euthanasia rate for community cats was as high as 80%, and for dogs 50%. Thousands of animals were dying each year simply because there were no options for feral cats except death and not enough landlords who allow large dogs. Now the county has embraced a no-kill initiative and taken death off of the table as an option. The problem of homeless animals remains, however, and is exacerbated by a lack of shelter capacity. Thus, our focus is now not only on prevention but also on shelter diversion and helping keep pets with their owners.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Tammy Green Daniels Fix the Future Fund
The Fix the Future Fund is used to help people in our community who need financial help to fix their pets. It is also used to help feral cat colony caregivers who cannot afford to sterilize or vet the cats. We subsidize the cost through 1. applicant participation 2. our non-profit clinic 3. Fix the Future Fund. Since the opening of our clinic, we have also expanded the program to cover urgent, life-saving surgeries as well as basic veterinary care that would otherwise not happen due to financial barriers.
Project Feed- Individuals
This focuses on feeding the pets of low-income people or people in crisis through our Vocal Pet Food Bank. Through this program, approximately 4000 disadvantaged pets are fed each month.
Trap, Neuter and Return
This program focuses on trapping feral and community non-owned cats that have no payor source, sterilizing them, vaccinating them, and returning them to their outdoor homes. We also take care of health issues that need attention.
Shelter and Foster Care
Our shelter houses 30 plus dogs at any given time. Total animals in care including foster programs are usually 65-75 dogs and cats. We also offer shelter when space permits to pet parents who are needing temporary housing for their pets while contending with homelessness, or domestic violence.
Vocal Youth Council
This program reaches youth, our next generation of advocates. It is a hands-on experience for the kids who participate. They have puppy kindergarten days, shelter work days, art projects and fund raisers.
Project Feed- Rescue Groups
This program is made possible by donations from Chewy.com. More than 2 million pounds of food and items are donated each year to Vocal. We distribute to 104 animal welfare groups, and cat colony caregivers. On any given day 7800 animals are dependent on this program for food.
Vocal Clinic and Community Resource Center
Our veterinary clinic offers basic veterinary care to our community at reduced prices to make it affordable for every pet parent. We offer drive-thru vaccine clinics with no exam fees, wellness services, radiographs, diagnostics, specialty surgeries, spay-neuter surgeries, heartworm treatment, preventative treatment, and dental services.
We also offer low-cost services to our rescue partners and community cat caregivers.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Best Friends Network Parner 2015
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 receiving subsidized or free spay/neuter services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Caregivers, Families
Related Program
Tammy Green Daniels Fix the Future Fund
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
We believe that prevention is the first step in solving the homeless pet problem. This outreach activity has been in existence almost since our inception in 2015 and has steadily expanded.
Pounds of pet food distributed to animal rescues/shelters
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Project Feed- Individuals
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
When Chewy.com chose VOCAL as their non-profit distribution partner we knew we had an opportunity to make an impact in central Florida and beyond. This program feeds 10,000 animals in need daily.
Number of animal adoptions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Shelter and Foster Care
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Intaking and adopting out homeless animals is an important piece of solving the homeless pet problem.
Number of animals rescued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Adults, Families
Related Program
Shelter and Foster Care
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Our intake numbers decreased as we focused on solutions to overpopulation beyond sheltering. We will continue to intake animals on a limited basis as we focus on our Community Clinic.
Number of animals with freedom from pain
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Caregivers, Families, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Vocal Clinic and Community Resource Center
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of dogs spayed or neutered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Caregivers, Families, Economically disadvantaged people, Adults
Related Program
Vocal Clinic and Community Resource Center
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
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?
We want to ensure that low-cost spay-neuter is available to all cats and dogs regardless of payor source, or lack thereof. Our immediate focus is to be a resource for other animal welfare organizations that need access to basic low-cost veterinary services including spay-neuter and to assist low-income pet owners with basic veterinary needs. We also seek to be a resource to owners who need assistance with feeding their pets.
Our vision is that all cats and dogs will have homes or communities that value and care for them. Our ultimate goal is to solve the homeless pet problem through prevention, community outreach, adoption, and collaboration.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We built a Community Clinic and Resource Center that opened in November 2019. This clinic focuses on spay-neuter for animals that have no payor source such as feral or community cats and low-income pet parents. Urgent surgeries such as amputations and mass removals are also performed. Our target client is other animal welfare organizations who need affordable services for the animals in their care and people who love their pets, but cannot afford expensive surgery or treatment at retail prices.
We offer the Tammy Green Daniels Fix the Future Fund to people who need help paying for sterilizations of their pets, and specialty surgeries that they would otherwise have to forgo life-saving procedures due to financial constraints and caregivers who are maintaining feral cat colonies.
We operate a shelter on a 22-acre campus and have a foster-care program for animals in need. We typically house and foster 60-75 animals at a time. We also have an adoption program that seeks to match the animal with the right home.
We partnered with Chewy as the non-profit recipient of their food and supply donations and distribute more than 1.5 million pounds of pet food and supplies annually to other organizations, low-income pet owners, and caregivers of cat colonies.
We are educating future generations through our VOCAL YOUTH COUNCIL. This is open to youth in middle and high school who want to make a difference to animals.
We collaborate with other animal welfare organizations that want to work with us toward the same goal. Our food distribution program has brought together many like-minded groups and is a resource for the placement of animals.
We have a trap, neuter, vaccinate and return program for feral and community cats. Our team does the trapping and our clinic performs the surgery and veterinary care.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have aligned our budget and resources toward accomplishing our goal. We are debt-free and have always operated without debt. The founders of VOCAL are committed to the principles of responsible financial stewardship.
The staff is dedicated to our mission and delivers extraordinary service to our rescue partners and to the public. We also rely on volunteers which is very cost-effective. Our volunteers are dedicated and reliable.
Our clinic is on track to become self-sustaining.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The growth of our clinic services has been rapid since we opened in 2019. We have added specialty surgeries, dental services, heartworm treatments, drive-thru vaccine clinics, and radiographs. We now have 5 veterinarians that contract with us and we now have added a staff of 15 in various supportive roles. In 2022 we serviced a total of 5933 patients.
Our shelter houses 50 dogs and 20 cats on any given day. We strive to provide an environment in which the animals can express normal behavior, have access to the outside, have the freedom to run and play all day long, and feel the loving touch of a human who cares about them.
We have built a network of 70 collaborating groups through our pet food distribution center. 10,000 animals are fed each day through the program.
We formed our Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) team to assist overwhelmed caregivers who are trying to help feral cats. In 2022 the TNR team trapped 701 cats, brought them to be sterilized, vetted, and returned to their colonies when recovered.
Our Project Feed program helps people with owned animals who need assistance with food and flea preventatives. There are more than 2000 pets enrolled in Project Feed. Enrolled pets are required to be sterilized; spay-neuter is offered at no charge to recipients.
Our Youth Council has 100 plus junior and senior high school students. They advocate for animals, run events, socialize puppies, participate in fundraisers, and participate in learning basic veterinary assistant techniques in our clinic.
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?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
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
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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.
Voices of Change Animal League
Board of directorsas of 07/05/2023
Mrs. Linda Norman
VOCAL
Term: 2015 - 2023
Mrs. Lauren Carpenter
VOCAL
Term: 2015 - 2023
Rob Carney
retired business owner
Bill Findlay
Pac Arches
Patti Hitchcock
City of Ocala
Rick Hughes
Lauren Carpenter
VOCAL
Kate Rengel
VOCAL
Linda Norman
VOCAL
Michele Eller
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? Yes