Amazing public support via online fundraising after fire destroys dogs’ home in England

We saw another remarkable example of the power of viral nonprofit fundraising emerge last week from the UK from an unlikely quarter. Although not as global or planned as the recent successes of The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that I had written about, the overnight outpouring of support for a dog shelter in Manchester, England was amazing to watch in real time.

A little background information first, Manchester Dogs Home has been finding homes for and caring for homeless canines for over 120 years. On the night of September 11^th last week a fire began at the centre which rapidly spread to one of the wings housing dogs at the home. In all more than sixty dogs unfortunately perished in the fire and more than one hundred were saved by local residents and firemen in the horrific blaze that went on to consume the entire premises.

Within hours and throughout that night and the next day hundreds of local residents began showing up at the location donating  food for the now displaced animals along with toys and blankets, so many arrived that they had to turn away dozens of kind donors. During the small hours of the night the local, then national news fueled by social media caught the story and fundraising efforts had begun even before the fire had been fully put out.

Before sunrise the local newspaper The Manchester Evening news had launched a fundraising page at JustGiving.com and a twitter hashtag for the cause had been launched #dogselfie. It encouraged dog owners throughout the country to post pictures of their hounds plus donatr to the cause and it snowballed remarkably the following day. With the shelter destroyed and such sad images being spread via social media (most notably Facebook and Twitter) fundraising quickly spread and more than £800,000 ($1.4 million) had been raised by Friday evening.

As I write this on Sunday that total has now almost reached £ 1.4 million ($2.5 million) and continues to rise. You can visit the donation page here and I think beyond the obviously very unfortunate elements of this tale worth noting is the ease with which one can donate and leave a message, it also allows the individual to donate any amount that they would like no matter how small via the site or text. Earlier today in England they’ve set up a telephone number for donations in addition to partnering with the local paper to try and find homes for the dogs left homeless. A pet crematorium in Cambridge has also stepped up to offer free services so that the sadly deceased dogs can be dealt with properly and with dignity.

Police are also reporting that the two nearest highways to the site of the fire were gridlocked on Sunday as so many well-wishers were heading to the location to donate supplies, funds or try and help in any other way – so much so that the shelter asked supporters to please try again next week.

It was also announced today that the funds will go towards building a brand new shelter nearby in addition to helping the centre with their overheads which reach about 100k per month.

Such a sad tale but another encouraging example of how online fundraising and social media helped a cause so dramatically and rapidly. You can learn more about the fundraising campaign or support it via this link.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.