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Aug 15, 2023

Danaher Animal Shelter: How We Helped Raise £7,000!

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Ever thought of WeBuyBooks as a fundraising tool? Well, we helped Danaher Animal shelter quadruple their profits from donated books, raising £7,000 in 18 months!

Who are Danaher Animal Shelter?

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As you’ve no doubt guessed from their name, Danaher is an animal shelter based near Wethersfield in North Essex. They take in, house and care for over 500 dogs and cats, together with a variety of smaller animals, including rabbits, guinea pigs and the occasional bird, making every effort to find them permanent new homes with loving owners.

Why Do They Need Help?

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Although affiliated with the RSPCA, Danaher is an independent charity and entirely self-funding. Their average running costs for the shelter are £800,000, a figure that is achieved through a combination of fundraising activities and donations, as well as income from its six charity shops.

However, as with many other charities, Danaher was greatly affected by the pandemic and experienced a dramatic drop in income. Due to the enforced closure of its shops and the cancellation of events, they lost around £300,000!

Despite this decrease in funds, Danaher is busier than ever! They’re currently experiencing a major influx of animals, especially dogs, and have a long waiting list of animals due to be brought in when kennel space becomes available. Typically, its experts are seeing:

  • Dogs handed in because of behavioural issues, ie: families who took on a dog in lockdown but were unable to train or socialise it properly, now they are struggling to cope with pets which are not used to being left alone, developing separation anxiety and aggression issues.
  • Dogs no longer fitting into lifestyles as families return to going out more often/going to work for long periods etc.
  • Elderly pets having to be given up by older owners who have had to go into care and/or have died and families have been unable or unwilling to take the animal on.
  • Cost of living increases which means families are unable to afford pet food or rising vets bills and medication.

At the same time, the charity itself is struggling with increased costs, including energy bills, pet food bills and a rise in staff wages to meet the new minimum wage, as well as a fall-off in the number of volunteers.

All of this means that if Danaher doesn’t manage to increase their income, they’ll struggle to provide the care that hundreds of animals desperately need.

Webuybooks Quadrupled Funding!

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However, 18 months ago the head of retail for Danaher Animal Home, Julia Askham, began selling donated books to WeBuyBooks. Since then nearly £7,000 has been raised!

Samantha Garvey, general manager of the shelter, said: “With continually rising costs we are having to be more inventive in the way we raise funds – discovering that we could quadruple the amount of money raised by working with WeBuyBooks has been a real gamechanger. Previously, we would be selling books in our charity shops for around 50p a time. By contrast, for a little work with sorting and scanning the book donations, I can achieve an average of £2 per book and sometimes even more – which makes a significant difference.’

Using the WeBuyBooks app to scan barcodes for an instant valuation is so quick and efficient that it’s become the go-to way for Danaher to sell their donated books. Not only does it guarantee a stream of income for the charity, but it relieves space pressure in their shops too. The shelves are no longer crammed full of books, which means they can display other items that will tempt people through the doors to make other purchases.

As Julia became a regular seller with a high number of books, we were able to offer her some added benefits that helped to raise even more money for Danaher! Previously, Julia was only able to sell one copy of the same book at once. However, when we contacted her she told us that several of their shops often receive a lot of donations of the same ‘must have’ book around the same time - particularly after Christmas when people have been given them as presents. So, we arranged for Julia to be able to sell an unlimited amount of books with the same title, simultaneously!

She also now gains an extra percentage on each sale she makes, all adding to the fund for Danaher animal shelter.

This Extra Income Has Been a Huge Help to Danaher

​​The extra profits made over the past 18 months have been spent to kit out newly-built, larger kennels. With an increasing number of larger dogs being brought into the home, this was a vital project! The kennels have leather sofas (easy to wipe down), rugs, chairs and other essentials to make a home-from-home environment which both improves the dog’s kennel experience and ensures that when their time does come to go to a permanent home, they are more likely to settle into familiar surroundings.

All of us here at webuybooks just love to see our company being used to help such an amazing cause!

How Can You Help the Animal Shelter?

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With the larger kennel project now completed, the Danaher team has set up a specific JustGiving page with a £5,000 target to buy new, all-weather dog agility equipment and enrichment toys which will enable the dogs to have fun both indoors and outdoors whatever the weather. This includes ​​artificial grass, tunnels, climbing frames and ball pools, together with giant tractor tyres and slides to stimulate the dogs and make training as exciting as possible!

Not to be left out, the money will also be used to buy enrichment toys for the shelter's rescue cats, ensuring they feel safe and secure in their temporary homes.

To help them reach their goal, donate via https://danaheranimalhome.org.uk/.

New Feature: Donate to Charity Using WeBuyBooks!

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If you’re looking to raise money for a charitable cause, we can help! We’ll soon be offering a way for you to get rid of your unwanted books, and donate money to charity at the same time. We’re working on introducing a new feature to our website and mobile app, that allows you to donate the monetary value of your unwanted books to a charity of your choice! The process of selling your books to us will remain the same, but instead of entering your own payment details at checkout, you’ll select the option to donate to charity. Simply choose a charity from the dropdown list and we’ll send your money straight to them!

Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll notify you when this feature goes live… all you have to is create an account!

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