Be an AdvoCat
See some of our AdvoCats in action and add your photo!
Put Your Claws into the Cause.
Several times a day people will contact us and say that they don't have money to donate and they don't live close enough, or have enough time to join our volunteer program...but they want to help; they want to make a difference.
If that sounds like you, this page is how you can help.
We have a whole page of easy ways you can help for free, so I won't repeat them here, but here is the link if you haven't checked them out yet:
For the truly passionate
The following ways that you can be an AdvoCat are for those who want to take off-site volunteering up to the next level. Only self motivated individuals needed. A big part of what makes Big Cat Rescue so successful is that we spend less than 10% of donations on fundraising and administrative costs, because we have so many awesome volunteers who do the "lion's share" of the work. Most organizations complain that their volunteers are more bother than they are worth, but that isn't true here because we quickly separate the truly devoted from those who just want bragging rights to say they are part of the Big Cat Pride.
How you handle yourself from here will let us know which group you belong to. If you can take the ideas below and put them into action for the cats, we want to hear about your successes. We just don't have time to tailor make a volunteer project for you, only to have you decide it is too much work. The ideas below come from the AdvoCat superstars who did these things on their own. Because they have consistently produced such great results, they have become part of the inner circle of highly prized volunteers. You could become one of them. It is all up to you.
Print out a two sided flier that you can save and share with all the ways to help save big cats. Page 1 Page 2
Click on the image to get a larger size you can print out as a poster or illustration.
Print out a bobcat brochure to help save bobcats where you live.
See how you can investigate and expose abusers. Be a Saber Tooth Sleuth
Big Cat Credit Card
You can give more without spending more by turning your everyday spending into meaningful donations with a customized Big Cat Rescue Capital One credit card. Share your passion and donate to Big Cat Rescue with your everyday purchases. We've partnered with Capital One® Card Lab Connect to bring you our newest fundraising program, which helps us earn money doing what you do every day! Just carry one of our custom credit cards (it comes with a competitive rate and no annual fee), and 1% of purchases made with the card will be donated to Big Cat Rescue.
Not only will you be donating to the cats with each purchase you make, you'll be helping to spread the word when people see your wildly unique card, designed specifically for Big Cat Rescue. Three custom cards are currently available featuring Cameron the lion, Cheetaro the leopard, and Shere Khan & China Doll the tigers! What a great way to share the cats' stories every time you pull out your credit card. Tell others too by downloading Credit Card Flyer
Sharing your passion and your support is easy and automatic. Apply today!
https://www.cardlabconnect.com/Big Cat Rescue
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You can help right from this page
If you play the video and can't get back to the app hit your browser's back button
Affiliates and Sales
In our first 15 years we accommodated people who wanted to be "affiliates" ie: sell something and give us part of the proceeds. The return on the investment of our time is well below 1% but we realize that the next super sales person could be just right around the corner, so here is what we will do. If you want to sell stuff and tell people you are sending us a cut of the profit, it is up to you to keep your word. We aren't going to advertise your products to our supporters and we aren't going to provide you with materials that validate your claim unless you are consistently sending the cats checks that make it worth while.
Logo Usage
If you want to use our logo on something the way we make sure the cats get their cut is that we require you to user our vendor, Aspire Attire. Bruce Walling can make anything you need to order with our logo on it and will make sure Big Cat Rescue gets 10% of your order price at the time that you pay him. If you want to sell the stuff and give the cats more, that is great, but this way we know where our logos are being used and we are able to make sure that the cats get at least 10%.
http://www.buyaspireattire.com or email Bruce Wallin at bwallin2 @ tampabay.rr.com
Online
Our website is more than 27,500 pages of information about big cats in the wild and in captivity. The search page is very useful in finding information. There is one whole section that is just articles that we have written. Feel free to share the information on this site in blog posts and in online comments, but be sure to link back to the site so that people can find out more. In some forums that won't allow a web address, you may have to type: BigCatRescue dot org.
As the news world goes digital, this is a great way to influence the change in attitude toward animals. Set up a google alert to contact you whenever key words like tiger, lion, exotic cat, etc. are in the news. Most news stories now have a comment section, but you have to register separately at each place. You can do the same thing at all of the video sites, like YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, etc. so that any time anyone is talking about exotic cats, you can be educating them with the information from this site.
Media outlets need content. You can write a column or make sure you are listed as an expert. Even though you may not think you are an expert, you probably know more than just about anyone else reading the story will know and best of all, you can find the answers online here. Just remember that the cats are counting on you to behave much, much better than the opposition. Using spell check will give you more credibility.
In Person
There is no substitute for face to face sharing. Find out who your lawmakers are and ask when they are having a town hall meeting, or ask to come speak to them. You elect them and they want to know what matters to you. If big cats are being exploited in your area, let the lawmaker know that it is time for change.
Meet with your school's principal, or better yet, the head of the school board and let them know that you don't want wild animals brought into the schools. It is dangerous for the kids and the people who do that can only use the animals while they are babies and then they are discarded.
Have a bake sale. One conservation organization suggested that their supporters have a bake sale and donate the proceeds. Imagine their shock when $350,000.00 rolled in from that one idea! A dog wash, car wash, yard sale or any number of little sales activities can raise big bucks if enough people do them. It is a great way to meet people and let them know what matters to you.
Tabling and leafleting get the information out to people who care. If you check the social calendars in your area you will probably be amazed how many events there are for dog walks, pet adoptions, single's clubs, MeetUp.com groups, etc. Many times you can get permission to set up a booth for free or for a very small fee. We have resources online that you can print and hand out and we can send you brochures and newsletters to hand out as well. Contact Jessica at 813.850.7052 about mailing these to you, but you will be responsible for the postage so be prepared to have a credit card ready. It is our intention to post a lot more downloads here so that you don't have any cost other than printing. You can order photos of our cats online that you can download and print to decorate your table.
There are no limits to the creative ways you can help save big cats. Try your ideas out and if they work, send the money to the cats and send us the results in the way of a little story that we can share with others about your great work. Email it to Info @ BigCatRescue.org If I had a dime for every time someone told be they were going to do something for the cats, we wouldn't need to be raising money any more. What counts are results and if you are capable of doing something with your life, the cats and I will be most grateful.
Can we count on you to be an AdvoCat?
Sign up in the box below, if you aren't already on our e-mail list, and we'll send you a brief bulletin once or twice a month to keep you up to date on what is happening at the sanctuary and how you can help.
We truly appreciate when one of our supporters goes the extra mile to think of ways that they can promote our sanctuary. We hear countless stories of people of all ages and how they’ve spread the word. Read below for a story of one of our own volunteers and how he turned a little bit of his time into a wonderful benefit to Big Cat Rescue. What might you be able to do with a little bit of your time? Contact me at Shiloh@BigCatRescue.org
“I was sitting at the computer one night surfing the web. I 
typed "Big Cat Rescue" into Google to see if anything interesting came up. The first two results were from our website. The one directly below those piqued my curiosity. The Google result showed a little quote from a site in which someone was asking about the night tours at big cat rescue.
When I clicked on the link to the site, I discovered that I would have to register to gain access. After registering, the link brought me to a website called www.thedibb.co.uk . This site was created for people who live in the UK to discuss all things Disney. As I am sure you know, Walt Disney is immensely popular with the British and many come to the US on a yearly basis. And after doing the Disney thing to death, many are looking for something new. The post that pulled me into the site was under the heading "Beyond the Parks" which talks about non-Disney and Universal things to do while in Florida .
Fortunately, the girl that had posted had done so recently, so I was able to give her a response. In answering her question, I wrote that I was a volunteer at the sanctuary and if anyone else had question to feel free to ask. There was a huge response by people that love animals. Most never knew we existed and were excited about visiting. Several said that they were going to change their plans so they could stop by BCR and said it was a "must see". Many of the readers went to our website, which really got them excited. One lady said: "I've just seen the web-site for the very first time!! I'm a big cat lover & will change my itinerary to make sure we visit in August!! Some touching stories in the slide show - will make a point of adopting a cat whilst there!!"
These are some of the responses I got recently:
- " Now this definitely sounds like a place to put on the 'must visit list' for next year."
- "we have definitely put it on our list for next march, my eldest is well into big cats, especially tigers. It will make his day."
- "I haven't been yet, but will definitely be going next year."
- "I've just seen the web-site for the very first time!! I'm a big cat lover & will change my itinerary to make sure we visit in August!! Some touching stories in the slide show - will make a point of adopting a cat whilst there!!
- Think this could be the best bit of the holiday and it's fantastic the money all goes back to the cats.
- "The sanctuary looks a great place and if we are in Tampa we will be sure to visit”
Every time I responded, I made sure to include info that they could use. Since most of these posters have families, I posted all the different age restrictions for our tours. In another post, I talked up the Expedition. Although most gave relatively short responses, I took the opportunity to write as much as I could without sounding like an advertisement. The people on the board were very friendly and welcoming. For them it was nice to be able to hear from someone who actually works at the sanctuary. One of the forum's monitors started a second thread welcoming me as a new member of the board. This exposed me to people that missed the first thread.
So, I quickly found myself checking both threads on a daily basis. For the first few days, the response was incredible. But after a few days, there wasn't much going on. I have continued to monitor the boards so I can answer questions about BCR and Florida in general. Quite a few of the posters are going to be visiting BCR over the next 6 months. I told them to get in touch with me via the board so I can hopefully be their tour guide. If people keep writing to me on the forum, the BCR topic will stay towards the top of the list and will get noticed more. It only takes a few minutes each day to check. I look over the listing of the various threads and look for something interesting.
It really takes so little time to monitor a site once you have found a good one. Again, the key is not to blatantly advertise or SPAM these sites. If you do, you will be unwelcome. All I did is answer some questions for people and mention our sanctuary, and I received a tremendous response. I am looking forward to meeting those from the forum who plan on visiting the sanctuary. Hopefully, they will have a great time and will tell all the others on the board when they return home. This could snowball and really get the word out.
Matt says, Our website is a huge tool in getting people motivated to visit us. I constantly refer people to the site for more information. This should be a great resource for spreading the word about our sanctuary.”
What might you be able to do by poking around the internet or mentioning our site to your friends ?
To read past issues of The AdvoCat go to: The AdvoCat News
To read past issues of The Big Cat Times go to: The Big Cat Times
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In addition to joining our Ezine mail list you can also sign up below to get daily email alerts about anything and everything that happens in the world of big cats by joining our Big Cat Rescue Volunteer's Yahoo Group.