In the midst of 2020’s kitten and puppy season, already-strained animal shelters suddenly faced an unprecedented reality when hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most open-intake shelters’ greatest fear is having to close their doors to the public, and this fear was soon realized across the country—government-imposed shutdowns resulted in shelters immediately over capacity.
Without quick intervention, staffing shortages, decreased adoptions, and increased intake threatened to lead to increased euthanization if shelters could find no way to ease the strain.
Greater Good Charities quickly realized the solution was foster. Placing shelter animals in temporary homes would relieve overburdened shelters while providing a sense of purpose and companionship in homes as people struggled to adjust to the boredom and isolation of lockdown.
We acted fast—by mid-March 2020, the #StayHomeAndFoster movement was born, a national campaign to support pet foster created by Greater Good Charities in partnership with NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations’ Clear The Shelters™ campaign and sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc.
Said Greater Good Charities CEO Liz Baker, “The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented animal sheltering crisis in the United States and homeless pets are at risk of being euthanized. Fostering a pet is the solution, and StayHomeAndFoster.org makes it easy.”
Through #StayHomeAndFoster, we activated our network across the country to connect people with shelters in their area looking for fosters. Prospective foster parents filled out a universal form allowing them to easily register at any applicable shelter. Once connected with a shelter and foster pet, new foster parents were also provided with everything they would need for their animals’ care, free of charge, through our donations of food and supplies.
During lockdown, we also partnered with on-demand pet care and dog-walking company Wag! to make fostering even easier by using it to have pet supplies delivered to fosters’ homes. Throughout the pandemic, Greater Good Charities’ pet food deliveries to shelters and rescues, foster parents, and pet owners—thanks to partners like Hill’s Pet Nutrition—kept countless families together.
#StayHomeAndFoster swept the nation and by early April, over 30,000 potential foster parents had registered to give a shelter pet a temporary home. Many of these had never fostered before. Celebrities joined the movement to do their part, including Olivia Munn and Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, who fostered pup Stella.
In total, this national effort registered more than 92,000 pet volunteer fosters. The push toward fostering helped free up personnel and physical resources at animal shelters while providing shelter pets with nurturing environments as they awaited forever homes. In some cases, our shelter partners reported so much community support that their kennels were empty—such a rare occurrence in the sheltering world as to be practically unheard of. And many of the fostered pets never returned to the shelters, becoming “foster fails” as they were adopted into their foster families.
By late 2021, PetPoint data showed cat populations in shelters returning to pre-2020 levels and shelter dog populations surpassing 2019 levels. Driven by a decrease in adoptions, decrease in animal transfer, and an increase in length of stay, many shelters all over the country were again above capacity, with euthanasia up 72% since February of that year. Animal shelters continued to face economic hardships and staffing and veterinarian shortages, all causing restrictions in their ability to care for pets.
These factors and the success of the #StayHomeAndFoster movement birthed Good Home. This Greater Good Charities program, supported by Mars Petcare, carried SHAF forward by connecting qualified pet foster volunteers with over 1,400 animal shelters across the U.S. and provided these shelters with animal care supplies. In addition, the program provided training and resources for shelter partners on recruitment and retention of foster volunteers, how to manage foster lists, maintain a successful foster program, and best practices for pet care from foster through adoption.
Today, U.S. animal shelters continue to face a critical capacity crisis driven by high intake, stagnant adoption rates, and severe staffing and veterinary shortages. Fostering remains a key component of shelter and animal health, directly reducing overcrowding and making pets more adoptable, since fosters can provide valuable, detailed personality insights to help find the pets in their care the right forever homes.
When COVID-19 changed the sheltering landscape, Greater Good Charities anticipated the need and leapt to action, generating and amplifying a movement and leveraging it into a vast one-of-a-kind resource for shelters and potential fosters alike. #StayHomeAndFoster and Good Home are exemplary of our strategic adaptability to the landscape, addressing not just immediate need, but establishing infrastructure to provide long-term support and amplify the good for our neighbors and communities.
“Seriously, flipping amazing first time fosters from your initiative!!! You reached a whole new market we could never have found on our own.” — Kerryann May, Animal Outreach of Shelby County
Success Story: PJ, and the comfort of a home environment
When Casaundra heard about PJ from the Nashville Humane Association (NHA), she knew that she was meant to be a pet foster parent for the first time. Bright eyed with Yoda-like ears, PJ had been dropped off in a cage at NHA’s doorstep. Moved by a photo she saw of PJ, Casaundra welcomed her into her family’s home, hoping to provide a nurturing environment.
When she first arrived, PJ was timid and afraid to eat around them or go to the bathroom. She mostly kept to herself. However, she quickly blossomed into a playful companion. By day five, she had already started developing a regular routine, eating and cuddling with Casaundra’s two pugs and going outdoors with them. PJ also took a liking to the family’s cats, who loved her in return.
With Greater Good Charities’ support, foster pet volunteers like Casaundra have been able to transform the lives of animals in need. When pets are fostered, they get relief from the confined shelter setting and become more accustomed to a home environment. They often receive more one-on-one attention, helping them become more comfortable around people and other pets and making it easier for them to match with the right permanent home.
