Flockwork (using techy skills to help animals worldwide)
Flockwork is an amazing global organisation that pairs those working in animal rescue with skilled volunteers, to help with office-based duties you can do from home, while helping fellow creatures anywhere in the world!
By lending your skills, the rescue organisations free up funds, and can focus on helping animals. They presently need volunteers to help with:
- Web development & IT
- Design & Multimedia
- Communications & Marketing
- Fundraising & Events
- Outreach & Advocacy
- Leadership & Operations
- Data & Research
Its sister project Violet Studios offers free graphic design services, for charities helping animals. FarmKind is one beneficiary, which helps farmed animals, with admin costs covered by philanthropists.
Vegan Hacktivists is another organisation that offers skilled professional services for free, to help animal welfare causes. This includes anything from technical to legal advice. It can also connect you with funders, to offer grants up to several hundred pounds.
More techy ideas to help animals worldwide
If you don’t have green building skills to create a new sanctuary, there are many ways to help animals worldwide, if you’re a geeky computer or engineer type person, who prefers to sit behind a desk.
You can ‘rule the world’ like a Bond villain, but in this case as one of the good guys to all furry and feathered friends! Here are some ideas:
- Design wildlife crossings to help creatures safely cross the road.
- Develop GPS technology to reduce human/animal conflicts (like lions on African farms) and to stop rhinos being poached. You could program drones to map habitats and monitor deforestation.
- Create artificial reefs to support endangered fish and marine life.
- Use AI to find lost pets (facial mapping, nose print images).
- Use gene sequencing to save endangered species like Tasmanian devils. The last two northern white rhinos are both female (under 24-hour armed guard). So techy people are trying to work with frozen sperm to create a ‘male’ to stop them going extinct.
- Teach veterinary skills online to volunteer vets and welfare workers in countries abroad.
- Create websites using free themes for animal charities.
Volunteer from home (to help animals)
- Grant writing and fundraising (help rescues apply for grants or run online virtual fundraisers).
- Marketing and social media (help to increase campaign awareness)
- Adoption counselling (review applications for potential adopters).
- Data entry & administration (like vet visits for foster animals).
- Graphic design/video editing (create promotional materials).
- Sign/share petitions (ban puppy mills, better welfare laws).
- Contact MPs and councillors to help your animal welfare campaigns.
- Take part in virtual campaigns to find lost pets.
- Email businesses to find items on shelter wishlists.
Online campaigns to help street dogs
Animal Web Action is a site where you simply click (and donations are made by sponsors) or donate yourself to fund ongoing campaigns.
Many of these shelters need fundraising buttons and free websites to raise funds. Learn more on how to help shelters in Eastern Europe.
You could also use online campaigns to help street dogs further away too:
- Animal People Alliance helps street dogs in India and Thailand, employing people to care for an vaccinate animals (this charity was co-founded by 80s pop singer Belinda Carlisle).
- Soi Dog has flight volunteers (regular travellers to Thailand) who donate their baggage allowance to pay for flights for animals to their new homes. Although it’s better to adopt locally, in this case often it’s the only chance of a loving forever home.
