In 2019, Friends of Front Street Shelter continued its lifesaving mission to support Sacramento’s municipal animal shelter, Front Street.
Friends also supports regional efforts to improve the lives of animals, helping to raise the tide that lifts all boats for area shelters, rescue organizations, foster volunteers, and pet owners.
Friends’ largest annual expense is always medical support, including additional help for Front Street’s medical team, payments to outside veterinarians for advanced or non-routine medical care, and for the purchase and maintenance of medical equipment.
Our largest, one-time expenditure in 2019 was for a modular building to provide badly needed space for shelter staff.
Friends paid for spaying and neutering thousands of abandoned and feral kittens that come through Front Street’s foster program every year.
We donated to rescues and other nonprofit organizations devoted to animal welfare to improve conditions for all pets in our greater community.
We paid for training Front Street’s staff and volunteers to provide enrichment to homeless pets and, in many cases, to help animals with behavioral issues become adoptable.
Numerous additional expenditures helped to improve the welfare of animals in Front Street’s care and in the community, from buying specialized food for kittens in foster care to supporting the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Animal Cruelty Task Force.
We are off to a strong start for 2020. Though the COVID-19 crisis has caused us to cancel Brewfest, our largest annual fundraiser, and imperils our second largest fundraiser, Paws to Party, our community stepped up in a big way to support us on the Big Day of Giving. Donations to the online fundraiser on May 7 topped $158,000, more than twice the amount of donations in any prior year.
Thank you for all you made possible in 2019 and all you will make possible in 2020!
