u/GreaterGoodCharities

Vet Times ran a good piece on our organization's 20-Year Impact Report, and we wanted to share it here.

Some of the numbers the article highlighted: nearly 905 million animals helped over 20 years, including more than 895 million meals delivered to pets across the U.S. and Europe, 76,000+ surgeries through our spay/neuter programs, and vaccination efforts reaching refugee camps and vulnerable communities in Greece, Ukraine, and the U.S. The piece also covered five years of our "Save a Heart" partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, which has helped treat and rehome more than 20,000 heartworm-positive dogs.

Our CEO, Liz Baker, is quoted reflecting on what two decades of this work has taught the organization: "People, animals and the environment are inextricably linked – and complex challenges can't be solved by any one organization alone. By working with local leaders on the ground, as well as with manufacturers, distributors and retailers, we've redefined expectations for how quickly aid can move during a crisis."

Happy to answer questions about any of the programs mentioned if anyone's curious.

Wanted to share some good news. After the Knicks won the title, OG Anunoby (who's clearly a cat guy) teamed up with Royal Canin, VCA Animal Hospitals, and Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) to launch "OG's Starting Five" — he personally picked five adoptable cats from ACC (Penne, Sammy, Roxie, Damu, and Lil Leo) to spotlight for adoption.

It worked fast: three of the five were adopted within days. Anyone who adopted one gets a free year of Royal Canin food and a free year of wellness exams at VCA.

The part that involves us directly: Royal Canin committed to donate 50,000 pounds of pet food, valued at around $300,000, to shelters nationwide through Greater Good Charities, in Anunoby's name. That's real food going to real shelters, not just a one-week PR moment.

ACC's communications director made a point that stuck with us: athlete-driven adoption campaigns like this genuinely move the needle, especially with younger people, at a time when shelters nationwide are stretched thin. Sammy and Roxie are still up for adoption if anyone's in the NYC area and wants a good cat.

Billie is an endangered gray wolf living at Wolf Haven International in Tenino, WA. She recently lost her longtime companion, Guy, to old age, and wolves aren't meant to be alone.

On June 30, our animal transport team flew two wolf brothers, Nicky and Cerberus, about 1,800 miles from Minnesota to the Olympia Regional Airport, then they were driven to Wolf Haven. Nicky is now paired with Billie, and Cerberus is now paired with another resident wolfdog, Ellie.

Before the move, we helped build over 600 linear feet of specialized habitat fencing plus a new shelter pen and two platforms so the enclosures were ready. The wolves were introduced slowly, separated by a fence at first so staff could watch how they reacted to each other, and it went well! Nicky and Cerberus are settling in and enjoying their new space with their new companions.

A lot of people don't realize that food is one of the biggest recurring expenses for animal shelters. Last year alone, 5.8 million animals entered shelters, and roughly 1.6 million of them were still waiting for adoption—which means ongoing costs for their care. Pet food and supply costs are up 22% since 2019, and vet care costs have jumped over 60% since 2014, which puts a lot of strain on already-limited shelter budgets.

Greater Good Charities runs the only national pet food banking system in the U.S., shipping donated food directly to shelters so they can put more of their budget toward medical care, vaccines, and adoption programs instead of just keeping animals fed.

This year marks the campaign's 10th anniversary, with a goal of raising 3 million meals. Over the past nine years, the campaign has provided over 33.8 million meals total.

Fortune published a piece this week on 2025's giving numbers that we wanted to share here: Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy 'very hard,' Americans gave a record $617 billion anyway

The numbers, via Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy:

1. Total U.S. giving hit $617.2 billion in 2025
2. Individual giving: $394 billion (64% of the total), up 1.4% inflation-adjusted
3. Foundation giving: $117 billion, up ~3%
4. Bequests: up almost 17% inflation-adjusted — the fastest-growing category by far

The bequest jump is the part we keep coming back to. The article ties it to the early stages of the "Great Wealth Transfer" — roughly $124 trillion expected to pass to Millennials and Gen X by 2048 per UBS. If that holds, a lot of organizations are going to see a shift from smaller recurring gifts toward larger, less predictable estate gifts.

Our CEO, Liz Baker, is quoted in the piece on how hard it actually is to deploy large gifts responsibly: "there's a really big responsibility that goes with that... you don't want to create dependencies in communities — what is the right avenue, and what are the things that are really needed?" A lot of the public conversation right now is about how much money is moving, and not enough about whether it's moving well.

Genuinely curious what this community thinks: is the nonprofit sector ready for a wave of bequest-driven mega-gifts, or will this expose how few organizations can actually absorb and deploy money like that responsibly?

Hill Country Texas is being pummeled by flash floods — potentially more devastating than last year's Camp Mystic and Guadalupe River flooding. To make matters worse, the same area is being hit one year after dozens of people lost their lives, forcing families to evacuate for a second time.

Over 75 rescues have already taken place, with 1,300+ state personnel activated across 59 declared counties. The flooding is so bad in areas that people aren't able to get in or out. More storms are on the way.

Greater Good Charities is actively mobilizing aid for Texas now. We're rushing emergency humanitarian packs and pet food to those affected and are in close contact with partners to assess additional needs.

This June our vet team completed our 80,000th free spay/neuter surgery. The cat who happened to be #80,000 was Gertrudis, spayed during our 8th round of free clinics in Maui, along with 887 other owned and community cats in that same round.

Some context on why this matters: Maui's free-roaming cat population is a real ecological and community health issue, so Trap-Neuter-Return work makes a big long-term difference. On Maui alone we've now sterilized close to 4,670 animals, through five years of partnership with local groups like Maui Humane Society. That work has also supported communities like Lahaina since the 2023 wildfires (transport flights, disaster relief, etc., alongside the spay/neuter clinics).

Many emergency and community shelters don't accept pets, which means people experiencing homelessness are often forced to choose between safe housing and their animals.

At Gateway West Shelter, we worked to change that by building dedicated pet play yards where guests can spend time with their pets during their stay. The yards include agility equipment for enrichment, shaded seating, and gravel ground cover that's easy on paws and simple to maintain.

The goal is straightforward: keeping people and their pets together during one of the hardest times in their lives.

We're Greater Good Charities, and we've been working with Wolf Haven International on enclosure renovations to support their Mexican gray wolf and their red wolf SAFE breeding programs.

We wrote an article about where both species stand right now; the threats (vehicle strikes, hybridization with coyotes, habitat loss, predator control policies) and the conservation efforts showing real progress, including 10 consecutive years of Mexican gray wolf population growth.

Would love to hear from anyone in this community who follows either program closely.