The 2021 Friends of Oakland Animal Services Year in Review is now available!
It’s our biggest matching gift challenge ever for Oakland’s animals!
Friends of Oakland Animal Services wants to send Oakland’s homeless animals Home for the Holidays! All year long, FOAS donors help to make homeless animals’ dreams come true. Now, an anonymous donor has challenged us to raise $25,000 before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve–and we’ll get an additional $25,000 for Oakland’s animals! It’s our largest matching gift challenge to date–and it means that the value of your year-end gift made by 11:59 pm on December 31st will be doubled.
Donate now!
2022 Happy Tails Calendar! Available now!
Get a unique portrait of your pet and raise funds for the shelter
(Talent Not Guaranteed)
Oakland Animal Services is proud to announce the kickoff of our second annual Bad Art Fundraiser! Details below.
After spending a pandemic year at home with our pets in Zoom meetings, we decided a second annual Bad Art fundraiser was necessary — some of us may even give our pets crayons and paper to make the art! Seriously, we are not guaranteeing good or even mediocre art, but we are guaranteeing that your donation will help FOAS help the animals and people of Oakland.
We know a lot of folks adopted quarantine companions, so let’s get them portraitized (if that’s a word). We know that your new pet has helped you make it through these challenging times, providing unconditional love and bringing you joy. Now you can celebrate that pet with some lovely – or not so lovely – art.
There are some incredible artists among the amazing volunteers who make the day-to-day operations of OAS possible. And there are many more who, let’s face it, should probably keep their day jobs. This erratic team has joined forces for a fabulous new fundraiser for the Friends of Oakland Animal Services.
For a donation of just $25, you’ll get an original portrait of your pet by a possibly-talented OAS volunteer. So set your bar nice and low, and support FOAS with a gift of $25 or more today! If you’re feeling more generous, or just prefer paper to digital, you can donate $50 to receive a hard copy of the portrait in the mail. There is no limit to the number you can purchase.
To get your, ah, unique pet portrait:
Submissions are now closed.
Make an online gift of $25 or $50 (or more). Your gift must be made between Monday, March 8 and Monday, March 15, 2021.Forward your donation receipt to [email redacted], along with a photo of your pet (one photo per donation).By mid-April, you will receive your one-of-a-kind pet portrait — and prepare to tell your friends that they just don’t understand modern art. Art will be delivered electronically; for a gift of $50 or more, we’ll mail you a hard copy of your pet portrait (please provide your mailing address).
Our marginally-talented OAS artists are standing by! Make your gift to FOAS today!
Help animals go home for the holidays with our biggest gift match ever
Unleash your generosity this holiday season
Spend quality time with your dog and raise money for OAS!
Rescue Run Club’s 3030 Challenge is a virtual event taking place during months with 30 days. Participate in the month of September to benefit FOAS!
Run or walk 30 miles in 30 days with a dog. Take your dog. Take your own dog, borrow a friend’s or neighbor’s dog, volunteer to walk a shelter dog… any combination can be used to complete the 3030 Challenge! Complete the mileage on your own schedule, at your own pace, with the dog – or dogs – of your choice.
Register here: https://www.rescuerunclub.com/3030
Is your cat Ms. March? Is your dog Mr. May?
We want to hear about YOUR very special “Happy Tails!” The Friends of Oakland Animal Services (FOAS) 2021 calendar will feature the pictures of adopted animals, along with a story about what makes them happy.
Enter your favorite photo of your pet to win one of 12 coveted spots in the 2021 Calendar. The top vote earner will be on the cover of the calendar and will also be featured on one month, with the remaining eleven featured one per month.
We invite you to join the fun by participating in this special fundraiser. All proceeds will go toward our mission: Providing homes, health, and happiness to Oakland’s homeless animals. The contest winners will be determined by public online voting.
Upload your photos today
- Submit your photo here: https://www.gogophotocontest.com/friendsofoas
- Once a pet photo is submitted, it will appear in the online gallery, and be open to voting by the general public.
- $1 per vote. All votes are donations to Friends of Oakland Animal Services.
- Those who donate $25 or more of votes will receive a calendar (be sure to include your mailing address).
- Winning photos will be included in our 2021 Calendar. At least the top 4 dogs and top 4 cats will earn spots in the calendar, and 2 spots are reserved for “other” animals.
Make your holiday wishes come true!
The Petco Foundation, together with BOBS from Skechers, want to know all the ways, big and small, that your adopted pet has changed your life for the better. Winning stories will receive up to a $100,000 Holiday Wishes grant award for their adoption organization PLUS winning adopters will receive a Petco shopping spree and BOBS from Skechers shoes!
Two Puppies Unite a Transplant Patient and Her Donor
Submit your Holiday Wishes story by Sept. 23!
Here’s how to submit:
- If you’ve adopted a pet from Oakland Animal Services, share how your pet changes your life for the better each and every day. Write your story in 500 words or less.
- Upload at least four photos to support your story: one photo of your pet by him/herself, one photo of you or your family with your pet and two additional photos. You can add video too to help illustrate the bond between you and your pet. Visit petcofoundation.org/holidaywishes to read prior year’s winning entries and get some inspiration. Remember, good stories will show how your pet changed YOUR life.
- Include our organization’s contact information so that we can be eligible for a grant award:
- Organization Name: Oakland Animal Services
- Executive Director Name: Lisa Franzetta, FOAS Program and Fundraising Director
- Organization Email Address: info@oaklandsanimals.org
- Organization Phone Number: (510) 535-5602
- Organization Tax ID Number: 20-4053711
- Submit your story and photos to petcofoundation.org/holidaywishes by Sept. 23, noon CST. But hurry because only the first 10,000 stories are guaranteed to be reviewed.
Winners will be announced during the holiday season. Finalists will receive a Petco shopping spree up to $1,000 and BOBS from Skechers shoes, and the organization they adopted from will receive a grant award ranging from $5,000 up to $100,000! For more information, visit petcofoundation.org/holidaywishes and join the conversation on social media using #HolidayWishes.
Support Jessie’s Virtual Kitten Shower and make a wish come true!!!
We’d like to introduce you to Jessie, a very special OAS volunteer and kitten whisperer.
You can support Jessie here.
Though Jessie is “just” a teenager, she has already changed countless lives through her foster and volunteer work for OAS. Since May 2019, with support from her family, Jessie has been fostering homeless OAS kittens. As a young shelter volunteer, she started out doing non-animal handling chores like laundry while working around her school schedule. When our volunteer team saw her level of commitment, Jessie became a rabbit volunteer, providing care for the bunnies–cuddling, but also cleaning cages and feeding greens. On the first day of shelter-in-place, Jessie was one of the first in line to bring home both a foster rabbit and a foster cat! All of this on its own is heartwarming. But there is more to know about this amazing young woman.
Jessie has a lung disease that makes her eligible for a wish from Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area. Most Make-A-Wish children, who are all facing life-threatening medical conditions, make wishes like taking a trip to Disneyland, or meeting one of their sports idols. Amazingly, Jessie’s one special wish is a philanthropic one–to help kittens at OAS by hosting a “virtual kitten shower.” As part of her wish, Friends of Oakland Animal Services will also receive a $5,000 donation in Jessie’s honor from Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area!
Jessie’s generous wish will enable OAS to purchase much-needed items on our “kitten registry,” providing for all of the foster and medical care needs for our kittens as they get big and strong enough for adoption. We at FOAS are overwhelmed and inspired by Jessie’s incredible dedication and generosity–so much so, that we have committed to raising a matching $5,000 for Oakland’s kittens. Now, we need your help to meet this match for our dozens of kittens currently in foster care–and to make Jessie’s wish have double the impact for Oakland’s neediest animals.
The typical kitten arriving at OAS as a baby requires supplies like formula, bottles, kitten food, litter, a scale, and a carrier. They also need routine medical care including vaccines, flea prevention, medication for diarrhea and upper respiratory infections, and spay/neuter surgery. All told, each kitten in foster costs the shelter over $200, assuming they have no additional medical expenses.
Right now, OAS has 60 kittens in foster care, as this year’s unusually long “kitten season,” which began in the spring, is still in full force. Because shelter-in-place has impacted spay/neuter programs across the nation, the 2020 kitten season has no end in sight.
Jessie’s $5,000 wish come true, plus $5,000 from our FOAS community, means that we can continue to provide care for our city’s tiniest cats as these litters of bottle babies continue to arrive at our shelter doors.
Please help us continue to provide the love and care that every kitten deserves during this year of unprecedented need–and to celebrate Jessie’s dedication by meeting our challenge match goal of $5000. Your gift, no matter how small, will help make Jessie’s “virtual kitten shower” a truly life-changing event.
And on August 23, we’ll be celebrating live with a special baby shower broadcast from one of our shelter’s bi-weekly kitten adoption events! Jessie, FOAS, and Make-A-Wish representatives will join remotely as we livestream from the shelter, where our foster kittens who are ready for adoption will show off their cat-stuff and meet the families waiting to adopt a new best feline friend. Stay tuned to the OAS Facebook and Instagram feeds for details on how to join the party!
Support Jessie here: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/jessies-kitten-shower