Petco Love Matching COVID-19 Grants Spark $1.8M Community Support to Animal Welfare Organizations

San Antonio, TX – Saving animals is difficult work during the best of times, but COVID-19 presented a host of new challenges to animal care organizations nationwide. Petco Love issued special COVID-19 matching relief grants designed not only to provide direct funding but to spark additional community support for the “essential” animal welfare organizations during the pandemic.  The result was $1M in Petco Love support and an additional $807,000 of community support to continue the lifesaving work of 80 organizations across the country.

“We are thankful for every organization working to save lives. However, the local animal care organizations with legal requirements to serve the public were, and continue to be, disproportionately challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic. These essential employees often put themselves at risk to continue serving the animals and people in their communities,” said Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Love. “Consequently, we designed this special matching grant campaign to promote these hardworking organizations and create greater awareness of these front-line employees, and the work they do each and every day, especially during times of crisis. We are proud these grants served as a catalyst for added community support.”

Petco Love matching grants ranged from $10,000 to $25,000 in an effort to make twice the lifesaving impact while also mobilizing the public to take action to save animal lives. In addition to monetary support, organization leadership reported that the matching grants helped them reach new donors, raise visibility and bring in additional community support. In some cases, organizations more than tripled their goal, demonstrating all that could be achieved when we come together to save lives.

• “Thank you to Petco Love for this grant opportunity! As a municipal shelter, we’ve never done a large-scale fundraiser. We raised well beyond what we expected and had several large donations, including one at $10,000. This has given us an avenue to fundraise in the future to support our animal welfare programs.” — Heber Lefgren, Director of the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services in San Antonio, Texas; Raised 143% of their match.

• “Members of the public were very supportive of this challenge. Having Petco Love name and brand behind this effort and in our outreach increased the credibility of this fundraising effort from the community.” — Alessandra Medri, Interim Director of Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Raised 106% of their match.

• “We are so grateful to have been invited to participate in this special Petco Love matching grant. It is our first time doing a match grant campaign and the community really stepped up to support local animals. We believe this campaign has greatly increased community engagement and brought in new donors we hope to keep as ongoing supporters.” — Sena Fitzpatrick, President of McKinley County Humane Society in Gallup, N.M.; Raised 101% of their match.

• “Our community really came together. One donor in particular, asked for an update on June 29 as to how much we had raised up to that point. When we gave her the amount, she decided to donate the final amount needed to reach the goal of $25,000. We were left astonished.” — Adan Parra, Management Assistant of City of El Paso Animal Services in El Paso, Texas; Raised 100% of their match.

Organizations plan to put the funds raised back into the community supporting foster care and adoption programs or helping pet parents who are struggling financially keep their pets with food or medical care, including vaccinations and spay/neuter services.

“Although many have modified operations, these animal care and control organizations have remained open to the public through the pandemic and are often responsible for helping the greatest number of animals in their community. We encourage the public to continue to make a difference by adopting, fostering and donating to help pets in need,” said Kogut.

Grant investments are part of Petco Love’s Pledge to Save Pet Lives during the COVID-19 crisis by distributing $1M in product and cash donations and leading a national call encouraging animal lovers to take action to help save animal lives. This commitment follows Petco Love’s recent distribution of more than $13M to animal welfare ­organizations nationwide.

For more on Petco Love and ways you can help save animal lives, visit petcolove.org and follow along on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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About Petco Love At Petco Love, we believe that every animal deserves to live its best life. Since 1999, we’ve invested more than $280 million in lifesaving animal welfare work to make that happen. With our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners, we inspire and empower communities to make a difference by investing in adoption and medical care programs, spay and neuter services, pet cancer research, service and therapy animals, and numerous other lifesaving initiatives. Through our Think Adoption First program, we partner with Petco stores and animal welfare organizations across the country to increase pet adoptions. So far, we’ve helped more than 6.5 million pets find their new loving families, and we’re just getting started. Visit petcolove.org to learn more about how you can get involved.