Many people want to help their local animal shelter but feel limited by time, emotional capacity, or the expectation that volunteering must involve animal handling. When those constraints don’t fit, it’s easy to assume there’s no meaningful way to contribute.
That assumption is wrong—and it has real consequences for shelters.
In this episode, I share what I heard after asking shelter staff across the country a simple question: What kind of help do you regularly need—other than animal handling? The responses were strikingly consistent and highlighted how much shelters rely on behind-the-scenes support to function day to day.
From administrative work that can be done remotely, to laundry and facility upkeep, food pantry support, creative and social media work, enrichment projects volunteers can complete at home, and community outreach, this episode reframes what it means to “help” a shelter—and why alignment matters more than enthusiasm alone.
I also talk candidly about a reality that’s often overlooked: even well-intended volunteer help can add strain when it doesn’t align with current needs. Supervision takes time. Fixing mistakes takes time. And most shelters operate with very little margin. Effective support starts with asking the right question.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why non-animal-handling roles are often critical to shelter operations
- The types of volunteer help shelters most frequently say they lack
- How flexible, remote, and short-term contributions can reduce staff pressure
- Why assuming what shelters need can backfire, even with good intentions
- How a simple upfront conversation can make volunteering genuinely useful
Key Takeaway
The most effective way to support a shelter is not by offering what you assume is needed, but by responding to what will reduce pressure right now.
Episode Highlights
00:00 The Volunteer Myth-Buster: Common worries and misconceptions about helping shelters
00:52 You Have More to Offer Than You Think: Introduction to thinking beyond traditional animal handling
01:53 Shelters’ Real Needs Revealed: Insights from shelter staff about non-animal handling volunteer opportunities and what they really need
03:07 The Power of Administrative and Computer Help: Why remote admin work is in high demand
03:53 Unending Laundry & Cleaning: How simple tasks like laundry and cleaning directly support animal care
04:29 Pet Food Programs & Supply Management: Making a difference by dividing food, running pantries, and donation management
05:51 Creative Work & Social Media: How photography, writing, and graphic design speed up adoptions
06:57 At-home Crafting & Enrichment Projects: Simple, fun DIY ways to improve animals’ lives from your kitchen table
08:13 Community Outreach & Events: Using networking and organizational skills for maximum shelter visibility
09:06 Reality Check: When “Helping” Isn’t Helpful: Why matching shelter needs is critical to being an effective volunteer
10:32 How Every Task Frees Up Staff for Animal Care: Connecting support roles to direct animal welfare
11:10 Direct Animal Contact Options: Flexible opportunities and honest conversations with volunteer coordinators
12:16 Your Be The Change Action: The one powerful question every would-be volunteer should ask shelters
Related Episode:
Getting Started as an Animal Shelter Volunteer – Learn how to get over your fears and take the first step. Your shelter can’t wait to meet you.
Transcript
Raise your hand if you’ve ever thought, I want to help my local shelter, but. ..And then filled in the blank with something like, I don’t have time for all that training. I can’t commit to every Tuesday at 3 o’ clock for the rest of my natural life or, and this is a big one, I know myself well enough to know I couldn’t handle it emotionally. And if you’ve ever assumed that that means there’s no meaningful way for you to help, hang around, because that assumption is wrong. Shelters absolutely value volunteers who can come on a regular schedule and walk the dogs and give attention to the cats. And if you can do that, thank you, thank you, thank you. If you foster, you’re an absolute hero. But they also need many other kinds of help.
And I think a lot of people don’t realize how much they have to offer.
Welcome to the Animal Advocate, where we arm animal lovers with the information and inspiration you need to become effective advocates. I’m your host, Penny Ellison, and I’ve taught animal law and advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. If you’ve ever thought someone should do something about that, I’m here to guide you on your journey to being that someone. You can find us on the web at animaladvocacyacademy.com and that’s where you’ll find show notes and resources, and you can send us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you’d like to hear on future shows. So on to today’s topic.
A past episode on volunteering turned out to be one of our most popular. And afterward, I heard from so many of you saying the same thing in different ways. I want to help, but I can’t do it the way shelters usually ask. I get it. Life is busy. Shelter work can be emotionally heavy, and not everyone is in a position to commit to weekly shifts or hours of orientation training. So today I want to walk you through the kinds of volunteer support shelters consistently say they need beyond animal handling and help you think more expansively about how you could contribute in ways that fit your skills, your schedule, and your capacity.
I figured the best way to get good answers on this was to ask. So I posted an informal survey to shelter staff around the country, asking one simple question: what kind of help do you regularly need – other than animal handling – that you wish you had more volunteers for? Lots of really thoughtful responses came in.
And guess what? Shelters need so much more help beyond the stuff they put in their volunteer recruitment flyers. So let’s break this down into categories so, so you can find your thing.
The first one is administrative and computer work. This was one of the most commonly mentioned needs and a lot of it can be done from home. One volunteer coordinator told me that administrative and computer work is always needed, but shelters often don’t know how to structure it for volunteers. Multiple shelter staff mentioned this as a constant need. One respondent put it simply, “we always need help cleaning at the kennel. No animal handling needed, just an affinity for hosing things down and doing laundry.”
This includes laundry, dishes, scooping poop, sweeping, raking around the grounds, sorting donations, organizing supply rooms, and taping up open bags of food. And let me tell you something about shelter laundry. It never ends. Never. It’s like that Greek myth where the guy pushes the boulder up the hill for eternity, except it’s blankets. And they smell like dog. If you can give even a couple of hours running loads of laundry, you’re freeing up staff time for direct animal care.
Next up is food programs and supply management. Several shelters mentioned their pet food pantry programs where they provide food to community members struggling to feed their pets. One coordinator described volunteers dividing 50 pound bags of food into smaller portions and logging inventory. Another said their foster department always needs help bagging food into smaller quantities. No training is required. This work directly connects to keeping animals out of shelters. When families can access pet food, they’re less likely to surrender animals they love because they can’t afford to feed them. And making fostering easier is always a top priority. You can also help organize donation drives.
But listen, talk to the shelter first. Find out what they actually need and what they have space to store. Well intentioned donations can create more work if they don’t align with current needs. Shelters usually need towels and blankets for bedding, which is great. But sometimes people treat donation bins like whatever they want to get rid of, just throw it in there. Shelter staff have told me they found old bras and underwear mixed in with the donations, so maybe, you know, sort through a little bit first.
Next up is creative work and social media. This category came up again and again. Shelters need help taking good quality photos and videos of animals outside their cages and kennels, writing adoption bios and sharing those stories online. Good photos and thoughtful write ups can make a real difference in how quickly an animal finds a home. Other needs include printing and laminating materials, updating kennel cards and creating simple flyers. So if you’re a writer, photographer, graphic designer, or comfortable with social media, or all of these, your skills are incredibly valuable. Shelters are competing for attention against cute puppy videos and your cousin’s terrible political opinions and whatever celebrity drama happened this week. A single strong post with a really good photo and a bio that doesn’t read like a police report can reach exactly the right person at exactly the right time and save a life.
Next up, enrichment projects you can do at home. For the crafty folks, this one’s for you. Shelters mentioned volunteers making catnip toys, fleece blankets, busy boxes, snuffle mats and other enrichment items at home. These projects are perfect for people who want to help but can’t commit to on site hours.
You can do this at your kitchen table, with your kids, with your friends, while binge watching reality tv. Nobody’s judging. Enrichment is so important and the shelters rarely have enough time to do as much of it as they would like. Think about a dog that gets out every day for a half an hour, which in some places that would make him a lucky dog. That still leaves 23 and a half hours in a kennel. Enrichment reduces stress and improves quality of life for all of the animals waiting for homes. If crafting isn’t your thing, some shelters also need help stuffing and freezing kongs with peanut butter and treats. It’s simple work. You can come in and do it and visit the animals at the same time and it has a big payoff.
Next are events and community outreach. When shelters have things like off site adoption events, they need help getting the word out. This can include hanging flyers or soliciting sponsorships if it’s a fundraising event, or helping staff tables at community events to raise awareness. If you’re comfortable talking to people, asking local businesses for support, or using your already existing network for good, these skills are really valuable. Fundraisers don’t organize themselves. Someone has to make those connections and do the legwork.
Finally, I want to do a quick reality check about volunteering. When I first started volunteering with Hand2Paw, I had this very naive assumption that shelters should love and appreciate any help. Like more volunteers automatically means less work for the staff and a better life for the animals, right? And then I started seeing people actually get fired as volunteers. Fired from volunteering. I remember thinking, wait, how does that even work? They’re doing this for free. What I learned was this. Some help, even well intentioned help, can actually create more work for shelters if it doesn’t align with what they need. Supervising volunteers takes time. Fixing mistakes takes time.Managing someone’s passion project that doesn’t fit the current priorities, that takes time too. And when staff already are running on fumes, even good intentions can add pressure instead of relieving it.
I don’t share this with you to scare anyone off. I share it because the most effective volunteers are the ones who ask “what do you actually need?” Instead of showing up with what they think you need. It’s like bringing in some thoughtful gift that you thought would be great versus giving someone the thing they actually asked for. Both are nice, but one is way more useful.
So every task I’ve mentioned frees up staff time for direct animal care. When volunteers handle laundry, staff can spend more time with scared new intakes. When someone manages data entry, adoption coordinators can focus on matching families with pets. When social media is handled and buttressed with volunteers, directors can work on grant applications that keep programs running. Shelters operate with small staffs and tight budgets. Behind the scenes support like this isn’t less important than animal handling. It’s what makes animal handling possible.
So here’s our question for this week and I hear this one a lot. What if I don’t have much time but I do want to work directly with animals? The honest answer is it depends on the shelter and it’s worth asking. Some shelters require extensive training and many visits to the shelter before you can independently walk a dog or anything like that.
Others are a lot more flexible. Cat socializing came up in my survey too. Lots of shelters need people to simply sit with cats, talk to them and help them feel comfortable around humans. You might also help with photo shoots or off-site adoption events where they have different requirements than volunteering in the shelter. The key is an honest conversation with a volunteer coordinator. Tell them that you’re interested and tell them what you can offer and ask what might work. They may have options you didn’t know existed or be willing to create something new.
And here’s your Be the Change action for this week.
Contact one shelter near you and ask what they need. Don’t assume, don’t guess. Don’t show up with donations before checking first. Say “I want to help. I have these skills and this much time. What do you need right now?” That one question does two powerful things. It respects the reality that shelters are operating in and it makes you a volunteer who truly helps.
Every shelter is held together by people doing unglamorous work. Folding laundry, updating spreadsheets, hanging flyers, stuffing kongs. None of it makes for cute social media posts, but all of it saves lives. And honestly, you can choose to stay home and make angry posts about how shelters should do better, or you can show up and help them do better. It’s your choice.
Remember the hand you raised at the beginning?. You can put it down now because you’ve got options. Find your thing, give what’s needed, and most of all, don’t underestimate your impact.
That’s it for today. The Animal Advocate Podcast is brought to you by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find episodes and show notes at animaladvocacyacademy.com along with a link to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages where we discuss our podcasts, and we’d love to discuss your thoughts and experiences there. If you’re interested in learning more about protecting animals, subscribe to the show so you get every episode when it comes out. If you have any questions on this or any other topic related to animal law, email them to podcast@animaladvocacyacademy.com and we’ll make sure to get them answered. We’ll either email you back or feature them in a future episode, or both. And remember, compassion is great, but compassionate action is infinitely better. Until next week, Live with compassion.
