Tech NFP aims to improve animal adoption process

A tech leader is following her passion to create a free not for profit resource for the animal industry.

A new not for profit is taking a tech lens to the animal rescue journey to smooth it out for shelters, pet owners, adopters and foster carers.

Named after the founder’s fur family, Waldo’s Friends uses innovative technology to ease the adoption process for all parties, including ever-busy rescue and shelter operators.

Founder Sasha Gusain has a background in SEO, marketing and tech start-ups, and was inspired to create Waldo’s Friends after her own bumpy experience in rescuing puppy Waldo.

Gusain tells Pro Bono News that technology aims to connect people and solve problems.

During the adoption process for Waldo, she was struck by the notion that many prospective fur-parents face a steep learning curve when it comes to knowing how to look after their new pet.

She also felt while some online rescue platforms already exist, many were not quick to use or mobile friendly.

“It really all just came together and I really wanted to make sure that everything that I’ve learned in my career… that these skills contribute to that [animal rescue] ecosystem and make life easier for all the awesome people who actually put in the work and have committed their whole sort of lives and careers to it,” she explained.

Waldo’s Friends provides resources for pet owners covering the whole pet ownership and adoption journey. Potential pet parents will be able to use the platform to access a shelter finder, pet finder, pet library, how-to guides, inspirational rescue stories and an online shop dedicated to fundraising. 

But at its heart, the platform is for rescues and shelters to share the animals they have for adoption via a modern interface.

“Shelters or foster carers can list their rescues completely free of charge and from their phones in a matter of minutes. Anyone looking to adopt or foster can submit applications in a few clicks,” Gusain said.

“Perhaps our biggest feature is a shelter dashboard that lets shelters view animal listing updates, including applications submitted and anything else that needs quick updating.

“My goal is for shelters, owners and their pets to succeed together, so that animals can find their forever homes faster and I believe that technology can play an important role here.”

There is a vetting process to verify shelter owners and foster carers, to maintain the trustworthiness of the Waldo’s Friends system. Listings themselves are also vetted to avoid spam.

Once verified, foster carers and shelter owners can make quick updates to listings, something that Gusain said would come in handy for foster carers in particular as they learn more about the animals in their care.

In future, she has plans to open up the platform to wildlife rescues to use to educate people about wild animals, and to find new ways to help shelters and rescues fundraise for their cause. With a strong personal interest in sustainability, Gusain would like to ensure that all merchandise sold through the website is sourced from sustainable and ethical suppliers.

Gusain said it was important to her to establish Waldo’s Friends as a not for profit.

She is driven by a desire to give selflessly to the animal adoption sector in the best way she can.

“I just didn’t want to profit from it, and I wanted to make sure that it’s completely free. It’s definitely not something that I am interested in for money,” she explained.

“And luckily the people who’ve helped me with it, the committee members that I have on board, they’re all from different parts of the industry… [and] we’re all just doing it because we care, and that’s literally where it stops.”