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BCHS Cat Shelter Building Campaign

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To continue to meet our ambitious yet attainable mission, it is CRITICAL that we improve and expand our shelter home!!


Bond County Humane Society (BCHS) plans to move out of the location we’ve called home for our cats and office for eight years by constructing an additional building on donated land currently owned by BCHS at 2510 South Elm Street in Greenville, Illinois. The new purpose-built structure will be located adjacent to an existing building at the same address that houses the BCHS Dog Shelter.

A new and more efficient facility will help us cut costs associated with managing two separate facilities and maximize donations toward the highest quality animal care including proper feline housing, medical care, and socialization for cats and kittens. Locating all BCHS activities and programs at one site will result in a more efficient operation, and more effective use of resources and volunteers. A new facility can save our cat rescue!

Our goal is to raise $140,000 to build a state-of-the-art facility to provide the highest quality feline care and placement of homeless animals into permanent adoptive homes. And your tax-deductible* gifts to the Building Campaign are the only way we can achieve our goal.

We need your help! Every dollar counts! Please donate today, share, tag, tweet, and spread the word about our new cat shelter. 

* As online donations charge a fee, eating into your donation amount for us, AND donations made through this GoFundMe campaign cannot be guaranteed tax-deductible, for larger donations a direct donation by check is preferable. Please find our address at the bottom of our story! Thanks!!

Current Cat Facility Challenges



Our business office and cat rescue, rehabilitation, shelter, and adoption activities are currently located in an increasingly inadequate, small office building originally built 60 years ago. BCHS has occupied the facility since 2007 after completing badly needed renovations that improved and modified the space making it suitable, but nowhere near ideal, for our purposes. The building is too small, too outdated, very inefficient, and in constant need of repair. In truth, it is a non-fixable building, at least not within a reasonable cost.

Operating two separate shelters at two different locations results in less effective use of our volunteer staff, difficulty in coordinating activities, and unnecessary costs in utilities and business operations.

Unfortunately we continue to experience an ever increasing number of unwanted and stray cats in our community and in the region that need our help. We are their only hope for survival in most cases. Because of the size and condition of our existing facility we are very limited as to the number of cats we can rescue – there is space for only 30 cats housed individually. We urgently need to move the operation into a new building that will be safer, larger, more efficient, and will provide a healthier environment for the cats.

While the needs of the pets that come into our care have always been paramount, it’s time to address our heartbreaking reality. If we are unable to replace our obsolete facility, the continuation of our operations, especially cat rescue, are in real danger.

Our staff’s perseverance in making use of our inadequate facility has nonetheless resulted in good numbers served for our community, but we could do better. By the figures: 

-Adopted in 2016: 208 pets –
94 dogs/puppies, 114 cats/kittens.
- Adopted in 2015: 162 pets – 76 dogs/puppies, 86 cats/kittens.
- Adopted in 2014: 119 pets –
42 dogs/puppies, 74 cats/kittens.
-In 2016 BCHS took in a total of 217 cats and dogs. The breakdown of animals is: 96 Kittens, 13 cats, 58 puppies and 53 dogs. Of those numbers, 26% of the kittens/cats and 72% of the puppies/dogs were rescued from kill facilities.
- Rescued from Animal Control facilities in 2015: 32 dogs/puppies, 5 cats/kittens.
- Rescued from Bond Co Animal Control in 2014: 36 dogs/puppies.
- Fixed in 2016: 160 feral/free-roaming cats, 25 companion cats, 8 companion dogs.
- Fixed in 2015: 232 feral/free-roaming cats, 24 companion cats, 23 companion dogs.
- Fixed in 2014: 200 feral/free-roaming cats, 25 companion cats, 65 companion dogs.

New Cat Shelter & Business Office Facility Features

We are confident the vital new building will reduce our operating costs, attract a larger volunteer staff, increase community support, and most importantly enable us to significantly increase the number of animals we will be able to rescue, care for, and prepare for adoptions. 

- Designed with present and future needs in mind
- Projected 2700 square foot unit more than doubles our S Elm Street site footprint
- Can house 50+ cats comfortably
- Separate animal isolation rooms
- Cage-Free play areas for cats and kittens
- State of the art HVAC air-flow system to promote animal health and prevent the spread of airborne diseases
- Adoption center, business office, training center
- Larger reception/waiting area
- Larger, more secure office records storage space
- Area where potential pet adopters can get acquainted with their pets
- Conference room for meetings, education, community events

Negative Consequences are Foreseeable if the Capital Campaign Fails

- Present building disintegrates to point of being condemned leaving BCHS with no facility to house, rehabilitate, or socialize cats and kittens.
- Cat rescue operation ceases.
- Unwanted, abandoned, and neglected cats and kittens have no where to go and roam streets, in danger of being caught and taken to a high-kill facility.
- Nowhere to conduct on-site adoptions, administer community benefit programs or receive clients, applicants, visitors, or donors.
- Companion animal low/cost spay neuter financial assistance and feral & free-roaming Trap-Neuter-- Return programs reduced in scope or cease altogether.
- Increased overpopulation of pets with no where to go roam streets as strays.
- Volunteer, employment, and internship opportunities for community vanish.

Financing Plan

Preliminary work has been done and is still proceeding with limited finances available. Architectural drawings, plans, and specifications have all been completed and approved for a building permit by local zoning officials. An artist rendering of the proposed building and site was commissioned and completed. But before the project can proceed to the construction phase funding goals must be met.      

Through a combination of private contributions, grants and pledged donations, we have so far accumulated approximately $40,000 towards completion of the new building. Construction costs are estimated to require $150,000 at completion. We are now turning to animal lovers everywhere to step up in order to make this much needed facility a reality and help us to reach our goal of an additional $140,000. [Our current Summer 2017 goal is updated to finding another $45,000 through online and offline donations!)

Make our Essential New Cat Shelter & Business Office a Reality

Be a part of Bond County Humane Society's exciting future. There are numerous ways to give to our Cat Shelter & Business Office Capital Campaign. Your monetary donation, no matter how small, is a HUGE help towards our goal. Please give as generously as you can and help us consolidate and expand our exceptional cat care, pet adoption, low-cost spay/neuter and community education programs.

Naming opportunities are available for those who wish to make contributions of $500 or more. Donors can sponsor a special area or item in the new building and have it inscribed in a unique way to honor your business, a member of your family, a friend, or a beloved pet. If you’d like to take advantage of one of these opportunities, please call 618/664-4068 or email [email redacted]

You can give securely online with an outright gift of cash, which is the simplest way for you to give.* 

To give by mail send to: 

Bond County Humane Society
Attn: Building Campaign
1403 S. Fourth St.
Greenville, IL 62246

Please make checks payable to Bond County Humane Society noting BCHS Building Campaign in the memo line.

* As online donations charge a fee, eating into your donation amount for us, AND donations made through this GoFundMe campaign cannot be guaranteed tax-deductible, for larger donations a direct donation by check is preferable. Please find our address above. Thanks!!

Make a gift to our brokerage account. Transfer a Stock, Bond or Mutual Fund from your Portfolio or 401K direct to BCHS. Contact our Edward Jones Financial Advisor, David Tabor: 618/664-9080, 204 S 3rd St, Greenville, Illinois.

Many companies will match charitable contributions* made by their employees, giving your support an even greater impact. Ask your Human Resources office at your place of work for more information.

BCHS is an IRS approved 501(c)3 charitable organization so all OFFLINE donations are tax deductible* in accordance with IRS guidelines.

Please donate, share, tweet, tag, and spread the word about our new cat shelter. We can't wait to get started building our new Cat Shelter & Business Office!

More About BCHS

Bond County Humane Society (BCHS) in Greenville, Illinois is a no-kill pet shelter and adoption center, founded in 2003. BCHS continually raises private funds to help place stray-abandoned and owner-surrendered dogs and cats into forever homes. In conjunction with matching shelter pets with compatible loving families, BCHS is committed to promote animal welfare through community education and to actively encourage pet population reduction, providing low-cost spay/neuter assistance and a Trap-Neuter-Return program for feral & free-roaming cats.

Programs are managed by unpaid volunteers and BCHS receives NO financial support from any national or local humane organization. BCHS is a 501(c3) organization and programs are supported solely by individual donations, honorariums, memorials, grants, bequests, endowments, adoption fees, fundraisers, and memberships.

Our dogs and cats are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, micro-chipped and treated for known medical problems prior to adoption. Our pets are adopted to thoroughly screened homes which includes a comprehensive application, veterinary references, and interview. BCHS places no time limits on how long an animal can remain at the shelter before being adopted. BCHS saved 119 cats and dogs in 2014 alone. Over our thirteen years, more than 1,250 animals have been rescued and been placed in permanent adoptive homes.

Our board and supporters persistently recruit responsible, dedicated, and dependable volunteers for leadership and animal care roles. Many of our favorite volunteers are students and retirees whose enthusiasm cannot be beat but their seasonal availability varies. Want to volunteer? 

Call  618-664-4068
Email  [email redacted]
Visit  http://www.bondcohs.petfinder.com
Follow  http://www.facebook.com/bondcohs
Follow  @bchs4pets on Twitter
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $20 
    • 5 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $20,000 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $10,000 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $1,250 (Offline)
    • 7 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $2,000 (Offline)
    • 7 yrs
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Organiser and beneficiary

Becky Clausen
Organiser
Greenville, IL
Bond County Humane Society
Beneficiary

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