Animals For Armed Forces Foundation

Animals for Armed Forces Foundation provides Free Pet Adoption events, usually twice a year, that help our shelter animals find loving homes with the Heroes of our Armed Forces.

We partner with local animal shelters to host these special adoption events where current/former military members and their immediate families can adopt an animal for free or at a substantially discounted rate. The discount applies to members of the Army, Navy, Air Forces, Marines, Coast Guard, and National Guard.

The shelters will waive the adoption fees, and our Foundation will reimburse the shelters for these fees. Our organization started from an idea that was hatched while our President was driving by the local animal shelter that he volunteered for, over Veterans Day Weekend back in 2010. He approached the shelter staff about the idea of providing adoption discounts for military members and their families, and they loved it!

So in 2011, our first "Animals for Armed Forces" adoption event was born. The President's business donated the money to cover the adoption fees that first year, and in February 2012, the Animals for Armed Forces Foundation was officially incorporated.

Since that first event in May 2011, 4,102 animals have been adopted at our events, with 1,323 of those being adopted by military families. And we have donated close to $187,000 to local animal shelters.

Our biggest needs center around funding for our programs and marketing/promoting our organization and events:

1. Funding & Fundraising - Since our organization does not foster or house any animals, our funding is used to pay the adoption fees for animals adopted at our special events. The average cost of an adoption is ~$150, and our ultimate goal is to be able to sponsor our event at every shelter in Southern CA. But we can only commit to working with shelters once we know we have the money to do so. So the more money we are able to raise and collect, the more shelters we can work with and more adoptions we can sponsor.

2. Marketing/Promoting - We need help from volunteers to market & promote our organization and our events. This could include outreach to military related organizations, creating flyers/marketing materials, distributing flyers, etc.