Many thanks to the roughly 70 readers who contributed to Feline Friends London, a no-kill and impecunious cat rescue organization that has become my pet charity (excuse the pun). I have asked readers to donate twice now (here and here), and will do so once more after this, but I don’t like to hector people. But cats can’t ask for money, so I have to.
I’m told that the total received is about £1000, which is certainly very helpful, but it’s far less than I expected. When I made my first appeal (here), I said that if every subscriber gave just one pound, we could raise 60,000 pounds for the shelter. Only about 1% of subscribers—and there are more readers than that—have kicked in, and I’m sort of sad. I’m thinking that if only 1% of the readers appreciate this site enough to give even a pound or so, I’m not doing a very good job—or that people will take but not give even a pittance in return.
But there is still a chance to give a few pounds and, if you say in the comments that you’re donating, you could win a free autographed book with a cat drawn in it. (Two will be given.) Just click on the screenshot below to make some rescue cats very happy. This is a plea—for the cats.
To donate using your credit card, click on the screenshot below:
Look at it this way: you don’t have Jerry Lewis annoyingly importuning you for 24 hours straight. You have only Jerry Coyne asking you politely to open up your wallet a bit.
Here are some more cats up for adoption (three are taken already!):
I’m in, and I just received my receipt from Feline Friends London. Publish the plea a couple more times. People get busy or go on vacation.
I hate hectoring people, but I’ll post at least once more. Surely a lot of people read the plea but didn’t donate, though.
If anybody has suggestions about how to raise more dosh, let me know.
Barbara, at Feline Friends, called me last night after I had left a message on her voicemail. She has been really touched by the donations “flooding in” as she put it. We were both amused that we, both in London about 3 miles apart, had been put in touch with each other through the appeal by Jerry in Chicago.
I shall be visiting her tomorrow with my donation cheque. She does worry every month over settling the vet’s bill so, c’mon folks, cough up. A few thousand cups of coffee foregone would make a big difference for Feline Friends.
Ross.
Yeah, I should point out that ten pounds is the equivalent of only two cups of Starbucks’s fancy coffee.
And you don’t have to speak some bastardized Italian to order, either.
HUMBLE SUGGESTIONS:
How about something like this appearing on every WEIT post?
https://flic.kr/p/T4gWkq
Also Barbara Read could…
** Set up more flexible donation options [If I may mention for a second time]
** Give her donate button a new home at the top of each page & make it Kitty shaped & bright coloured!
** Put pictures up of herself & her volunteers – make it more personal & engaged
** Have a bl*g tab or a diary tab with one story a week on the life of a kitty – successful re-homing etc.
** Formalise “Feline Friends” as a name & possibly think about adjusting the name somewhat – there is already another unrelated UK Feline Friends which is a trust & a charity [it doesn’t take donations]
** Set up Feline Friends [or whatever the name] as a limited VAT registered company & a registered charity
** Find a young, free, cat obsessed, Hackney-based media marketer & computer whiz to push their profile
** A quality merchandise store – cat tie pins & cuff links for example
** Set up a Hackney Cat Cafe – get a grant from Hackney & no business rates for a couple of years
These are great ideas. I’m still pretty disappointed that not more readers participated, but a Klick the Kitty button would be awesome. Now I have to find somebody to work on the website (I’m incompetent at that).
Thanks!
I originally thought of KLICK THE KITTY KITTY but I don’t think the 2nd meaning of KITTY travels today.
I ripped the image from Google & then colour matched it to your WordPress, but the shape needs to be ‘tweaked’ so as to not step on any copyright paws
It should MEOW when clicked & maybe PURR after a successful donation 🙂
Strongly advise some slight name change of “Feline Friends” because conflict when searching that phrase
Donated yesterday… I wonder also – if I may cordially suggest – that something along the lines of an autographed WEIT book for auction (for example) may assist the cause in some extra way? Just a thought!
Al
Well, I do have a multiply autographed copy of Faith Versus Fact signed by several dozen figures in the skeptical/atheist movement, including James Randi, Dawkins, Dennett, Pinker, Harris, Penn Jillette, and three Nobel Laureates, that Kelly Houle will illuminate and then we’ll put up for auction. The WEIT copy we did this to fetched $10K, and I could give part of the proceeds to FFL. But I’m not sure if this is what you’re suggesting.
Done. Thanks for everything you do.
Done and done. Asking more than once does work! I needed to get the request at a time when I wasn’t too busy and my credit card was close. There aren’t a lot of minutes in the day like that.
Done
Donated. Happy to be hectored for a good cause!
Donated
Donated.
Just unchained the wallet and coughed up a tenner .
After you donate they ask you if you would like to suggest a foster name .
I suggested Norman ,Norman Foster ,him what sticks up them strange buildings .
While we are the subject of people who care for cats ,there is a rehoming center in south Shropshire .
Thee lady there once spent £1000 to help bring a cat from Croatia ,i think .
It had been run over by a car and the vet wanted to amputate one of its back legs ,anyway it lives at her center full time .
Jerry, I am feeling guilty and probably will do it, just for you. I contribute to three places in the Berkeley Bay Area! They are constant with requests. So it’s hard where to draw the line.
Thank you. All I can do is point out that, unlike other charities, I do try to provide a service that will educate/amuse the prospective donor.
I’ll donate today.
We have a rescue cat that has been very expensive, over 10k so far into this cats health. Worth every cent.
So of course we wanted to help out this great place for cats.
We donated what we could, we wish it could have been more. We know there are other cats out there like our Beaker that require more help than others and they all deserve a chance to have human minions.
Donated! In memory of my beautiful Norwegian Forest cat, Ferrari. He died of cancer just yesterday. 🙁
Oh dear, I’m really sorry. I love those big furry cats.
Done.
All right. Donated. Cats are great, except for little birds.
Donated!
Just in case you don’t know about them, there is a similar organization in Chicago started by some University staff members: Hyde Park Cats (http://hydeparkcats.org/).
Two of my three feline family members come from there; the third comes from Anti-Cruelty Society.
Keep it going, Jerry!
But please don’t be too disappointed when you don’t get anywhere close to 60,000 subscribers to donate. A lot of people subscribe to something and then forget they did so, or just lose interest and don’t bother unsubscribing. Still, it should definitely be a lot more than £1,000, as most people who donate should and likely do donate significantly more than £1. I donated the default £10 and plan on donating more in the future.
You’re doing great work. I hope they’ll send you a thank you email (I, and I’m sure others, wrote in my message to them that I heard about their charity through your current fundraising drive) and I hope you’ll post it when they do, assuming they’re OK with that.
Thanks. I don’t need thank-yous, I need MONEY. Michael has suggested a click icon above, and that seems like a good idea.
Just try to think where else does a little money do so much good. We always know that cats are worth it. Getting those thanks messages is a good finish.
Done, in memory of my dear kitty, Tiggy. I miss that girl.
Donated — in remembrance of the five cats who would hang out during private English classes that I used to teach at one family apartment, meowing (but not in English)for attention (which they promptly received from both my student and me) during grammar and conversation practice and turning my backpack into a bed.
Donated, even though sterling is destroying my poor euros! 😉 And now off to feed my cat!
I have donated
Donated with pleasure, in memory of Tasha, Samantha, and Ursa.
I get asked for donations by emails or web sites every day, it seems. I think you have to be patient.
The goal thing seems to work for Act Blue and similar organizations. “Help us raise $5,000 for cats”, with a thermometer showing progress so far. People react to it with the hope that if they donate, you’ll stop asking, like I just did.
Five pounds donated. This looks like a very high-quality rescue organization.
Done and don…in honor of my [U.S.] shelter-fostered cats Mymble(Manx) and Molly (Siamese)
Hi jerry and everyone. I’m a devoted reader first time time commenting. I love this site and I love cats. We have 5. Not intentionally but because somehow over the years 4 of them have found their way to our house as kittens. One was simply sitting in a chair on the front porch when we came home from work. The last one arrived Christmas Eve two years ago when we saw Leo our oldest coming toward us with what looked to be a dead rodent. We were surprised when he dropped it in front of us and began licking it. It turned out to be a five week old kitten who when revived immediately ran under our porch thru the “kitty cut-out”. This is a notch that we cut in the base as a shelter for the outside cats should a dog somehow come unloosed from its owner. I spent all night trying to persuade him to come out. Finally at 7 am on xmas I captured him and that’s how we acquired Theo our 5th and last? Cat. I sometimes lag behind in reading your column so I’m embarrassed for responding late but you can count me in for a hundred pounds toward the London cats
What a great story about Theo! And thanks very much for your generous donation. I hear that a lot of the money is used to pay vets, so donations are well spent.
Wonderful story. I had a Theo too x
I would love to be able to contribute, but with my husband recently placed in a nursing home for old people with dementia, I’m in a dire financial situation right now and eat only once a day.
How about you set up a crowdfunding thing to raise money for that cat charity? It could have a wider reach than just your blog here and raise considerably more money than what has been raised so far.
Excerpts from https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/crowdfunding-sites/
2. Indiegogo
Indie is the short form of ‘independence’, so from the name you already know that this crowdfunding site is aimed to help you raise funds and make you personal project ‘go-go-go’ without any difficulty. The site’s layout is similar to Kickstarter so it’s easy to adapt to if you have tried Kickstarter. Unlike Kickstarter though, you can kick-start any project including donations for charity. Its “Backer Rewards” feaure is known as “Perks” here.
4. GoFundMe
If you’re looking to just raise money online, for a cause, or for yourself even, GoFundMe is the best fundraising option you can use. In here, you get supporters to donate for your personal campaign, and it could be everything from a personal traveling fee to your pet’s medication fee. It’s truly about donation.
______________
More at the above-mentioned link.
I’ve donated. It’s the least I can do for all the excellent content you take the time and effort to put out.
Fwiw, I generally don’t donate in these types of situations as it decreases online anonymity (just a thought in case other readers feel the same way, especially as your site is controversial in many circles). That said, as you are sad, I will make an exception. 🙂
I donated. Suggested name “Fluffernutter”. Belatedly though of Caesar, since it’s the ides of March.
Donation done. I never saw those first 2 appeals you made to readers as I only check out your site once a month or so now. This has nothing to do with the excellence of your work but with my changed life circumstances. (I have an 19 month old little boy who is addicted to all gadgets and I thus have to limit my internet time to almost zero now in order for him to break the spell. Life…) Don’t wirry about reminding people: the work is never done, there will always be doc bills to pay for the kitties, thus regular reminders are necessary and welcome. Of course it is more fun to do so if the appeals bear fruit. Good luck this time round, at least, judging from ehat people have given so far, I think you should be over the previous 1000 by now.
The least I can do for your site which is the only readable site on line due to the lack of advertisement is give to a most worthy cause…cats. Thank you for keeping WEIT add free.
10 pounds sent
50 pounds more b/c em with Jerry
50 additional
Redundant, ugh