William A Harrison Jr Foundation

Our primary goal is to help pets get to stay with their people, and people with their pets. We aim to create a reliable hub for the animal care community, connecting resources with needs.

Our founder and board of directors are all experienced in various aspects of creating and operating both non-profits and retail enterprises, and along with the small staff and excellent volunteers, are actively engaged in creating a vibrant hub for animal lovers at every level. Richmond is one of the few cities of its size that did not have an animal thrift charity. We are committed to the idea of creating new life cycles for both furnishings and pets. The community at large wants to help, and having a sustainable system of taking their donations, furbishing and selling them, and putting those profits to use in the animal welfare community gives everyone a chance to be involved.

Small, all volunteer animal welfare organizations typically don't have their own space, and manage animal rescue work, meet-and-greets and adoptions out of their homes. Our first act was to allocate square footage and build a multi-purpose room inside our store to be used by vetted local rescue groups for cat and dog adoption events. We host adoption events with agency partners during our highest traffic store hours, which has already yielded great adoption results. We provide indoor space to host free vet exam and vaccination clinics ~ recently, with volunteer vets, vet techs and administrative volunteers, serving more than 100 animals in just one day. We started an accessible, free pet food and supply pantry, funded by us, along with community donations, and we have plans to expand distribution out into underserved and senior communities. We have schedule numerous free rabies and flea and tick treatment clinics, also to take place in the store. Profits from donated merchandise sales will be invested in mission-related grants to nonprofits that do feral colony management, animal rescue, free and low-cost spay/neuter clinics, vet and vet tech scholarship funds, and many, many other efforts.