The Pet Adoption Center of Orange County needs your help to fund continuing operation of our Lake Forest, CA adoption center! We opened on July 1, 2017. We are now operating on a month-to-month lease and are in danger of closing without the ongoing support of our caring community!
For our first five years, the PAC-OC had principal funding from a nonprofit foundation. At the end of June 2022, the foundation that provided the funding to operate our facility decided that dog adoptions were too expensive, and chose to move their funding of $150,000 per year to other types of causes.
For the past year—which has been the most difficult year in animal welfare in decades—like The Little Engine that Could, we have managed to keep going and even expanded some of our services. Additionally, we were once again the nonprofit sponsor for the recently successful 6th annual South County Pet Expo!
Thanks to our village of volunteers, adopters, and donors (with special thanks to the family and memory of Faith Resnick, our beloved volunteer), and a small grant from the City of Lake Forest, we have become an invaluable community resource, even without a major funder...until now.
With your crucial support to help us keep the center open, we will be able to assist with even more community animal welfare needs—especially to bypass the shelter—at a time when the County shelter has disavowed many of their responsibilities, leaving rescue groups and the community-at-large to increasingly bear the burden of assistance for OC animals and their families.
Your support means everything to us! Our efforts have aided thousands of animals and families locally through dog rescue and adoptions; assistance with other animal adoptions; direct owner assistance with low-cost pet services and supplies for families in need; referral services and advice; community education; events; volunteer opportunities; and prevention services.
As we head back into pre-pandemic levels of pets needing rescue, ever-increasing veterinary costs, and more broad-based community assistance requests due to the economy and lack of support from the county, the PAC-OC is in dire need of your help to keep our center open.
We have a wealth of community support, volunteer assistance, and many in-kind contributions. What we are lacking is $100,000 per year cash to pay the rent and other related expenses. We initially set a goal of matching the amount previously received from the foundation. In this economy, we realized that was difficult to achieve. Thus, we have revised our fundraising goal and are working closely with our rescue partners to manage intake and medical costs for the dogs we bring into our center.
Please help us keep our center open! We are the only independent nonprofit in the area operating a facility to assist OC pets and families. We can continue and grow our efforts with your donation today!
To kick this fundraiser off properly, we had a donor with a donation match of up to $10,000, for all donations received through Friday, May 26, 2023. We are happy to report that we reached that immediate milestone, but must increase our efforts to reach our goal of expense coverage each month.
You can donate through this GoFundMe or use any of our other donation methods.
Venmo: @adoptocpets
PayPal & Credit/Debit cards: adoptocpets.org website
Checks: PO Box 80400, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688
We can't express how much your support means to the animals and residents of Orange County. It takes a village!
Thank you for your support for our efforts. Please share our story, and make your donation today!
Sincerely,
April Josephson, Esq.
a LA Times OC 2022 Orange County Visionary
The Pet Adoption Center of Orange County connects adoptable pets with loving people and the resources they need to be a family for life.
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