12 Days Of Charitable Giving (2015): Red Paw Emergency Relief Team

It’s the ninth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. Readers have suggested deserving charities over the past few weeks and I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way). Today’s charity is Red Paw Emergency Relief Team (Red Paw).

Red Paw works in conjunction with the American Red Cross, Philadelphia Fire Department, Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, and other public and private disaster relief organizations to provide emergency assistance including search & rescue, emergency transport, shelter, and veterinary care to animals involved in fires and other residential disasters.

Red Paw was founded by Jennifer Leary’s (Philadelphia Fire Fighter and Red Cross Emergency Responder). While responding to a two-alarm fire, Leary watched pet owners carry two dogs and a cat out of a burning building but no one was able to help them. Leary used her personal vehicle to rush the pets to Penn Veterinary Hospital where they later died. In 2011, at a three-alarm fire at an apartment complex, Leary watched cats being taken out of the building without crates or emergency vet care; additionally, dozens of cats were trapped in the building.

Leary, who was nominated as a CNN Hero in 2014, proposed working with American Red Cross to provide emergency response when there are pets at the scene of a disaster. In 2013, Red Paw was added to the City of Philadelphia’s Emergency Response Plan. Today, Red Paw also provides assistance in other areas, including Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, and Berks counties, as well as South Jersey. To see the work they do by the numbers, click here.

Why does this organization mean so much to its volunteers? Like you, they can relate to pet owners: 63% (69,000,000) of American families have pets. Where there is no mechanism to rescue animals in residential disaster situations, animals are often left homeless or perish – those could be the pets of your friends and neighbors.

So how can you help?

To make a one-time donation via credit card, you can click over to the website. You can also opt to donate on a recurring basis.

Your employer may match your donation, too. You can check Double The Donation to see if your employer participates in this program.

Red Paw also accepts in-kind donations. If you have pet food or supplies you’d like to donate or want to set up a collection site in your school, community group, business, or workplace, click here for more information.

Supplies that are needed include cat food (dry only); kitten and puppy food; cat litter; litter boxes and scoops; Kongs for dogs; and PetCo/PetSmart cards. To see Red Paw’s Amazon wish list, click here.

Volunteers are always needed. Remember that you can’t deduct the cost of your time or services as a volunteer, but you can deduct the cost of related out-of-pocket expenses.

Volunteers are also needed to foster animals. The animals that you will foster are other people’s pets: they are owned and loved and need a temporary foster home until their owners can recover from their home disaster. Red Paw’s goal is to reunite people and their pets within a 30-60 day timeframe. If you are interested in fostering for Red Paw, check out the Foster Frequently Asked Questions page.

Occasionally, pets are displaced from their homes permanently due to fire. Those pets need forever homes. If you’d like to adopt a pet, check out Red Paw’s adoptable pets.

You can also spend your dollars in the Red Paw store. While you can’t deduct the cost of merchandise you buy from Red Paw (you’re getting something of equal value for your money so it’s not a charitable donation), you can show your support for the organization and help them raise money.

As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. A search using the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Select Check reveals that Red Paw is on the list.

To find out more about Red Paw, check out their website, like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter. You can also subscribe to their YouTube channel or follow them on Instagram, Flickr, or Storify.

Remember: submissions to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving are made by readers and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be generous. But be smart. Do your homework.

For more on making charitable donations, check out this post.

For other charities in the series: