Adoption Innovation Grant
How would you use $25,000 to increase adoption?
The Right Horse Initiative strives to inspire and empower groups who are working to help horses in transition. As horse owners, we understand the significance of finding the right horse. Every adoption helps a horse find a new home with a loving family and opens a space for the rescue organization to help another equine. The 2019 Adoption Innovation Grant offers up to $25,000 to two organizations that demonstrate the most innovative plans for boosting equine adoption. Our goal is to fund smarter thinking and better ways of doing things in order to help your organization grow its capacity for adoption in a big way.
Eligibility
Eligible applications must meet the following criteria:
1Your organization must be a U.S. based 501 (c)(3) public charity and have an operating budget of at least 150% of the requested grant amount. Minimum grant request is $10,000.
2Your organization must be current with all applicable federal and state financial filings or reports.
3Your organization must be willing and able to provide financial statements to The Right Horse Initiative.
4Your organization must be willing and able to provide animal statistics, including intake and adoption numbers, to the Equine Welfare Data Collective.
5If you have received funding from The Right Horse Initiative or The WaterShed Animal Fund, you must be up-to-date on current or previous funding reports.
6You must agree to complete grant follow up reports 6 months, 12 months and 18 months from the payment date which will include expense accounting and measurable outcome updates.
Winners have been announced
Drifter’s Hearts of Hope, Love this Horse Equine Rescue and the West Virginia Rescue Network have been selected to receive Innovation Grants. From a pool of over 40 applications, five finalists submitted their most innovative ideas for increasing their adoptions and helping horses in transition. The winning ideas had to be focused around increasing adoption; each horse adopted into a loving family of their own allows for another at-risk horse to come into the care of the adoption organization.
The Winners
The West Virginia Horse Network
The West Virginia Horse Network aims to formalize and expand an existing program designed to engage and educate first-time horse owners interested in adopting. The expanded program would contain a ten-month course with formal lectures and demonstrations on veterinary care, training, farrier work and other basic horse knowledge. Graduates of the program would receive a $500 voucher to adopt a horse through The West Virginia Horse Network.
Love This Horse Equine Rescue
Misperceptions about rescue horses often prevent horse owners from considering adoption to get their next competitive mount. To dispel these myths, Love This Horse Equine Rescue looks to increase visibility for their adoptable horses by getting their adoptable horses to local competitions and events. They will increase the frequency of hunter/jumper and endurance that they attend and expand their attendance to Western events. The grant would also support riding lessons offered to adopters to match the right adopter to the right horse.
Drifter’s Hearts of Hope
Drifter’s Hearts of Hope brought a well-broke, sweet mare into their care after finding her falling at-risk at a local auction. “Annie” wore a brand that connected the organization to a local dude ranch and helped forge a relationship between the two groups that led to 35 retiring dude ranch horses safely transitioning into new homes through Drifter’s program. Drifter’s Hearts of Hope looks to expand the program, called The Annie Project, to encompass all 55 Colorado based dude ranches and is laying the groundwork to expand the program nationally.
