2025 Annual Letter to Friends of The Binky Foundation

EXCITING CHANGES COMING IN 2026!

December 2025

2025 has been an eye-opener for us. On the one hand we received so many applications for our First Steps Grant Program – providing $1000 grants to newly formed animal welfare groups meeting our education, training and planning criteria – that we closed our application window a month and a half early to address the workload. Even with this shorter application window, we received 60% more applications this year than in all of 2024. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the number of applications meeting our expectations for a grant fell from 36% to less than 25%. Our analysis of the volume of applications and the drop in their overall quality has led to our making some serious decisions for the future of our First Steps Grant Program and for The Binky Foundation itself.

One of our primary concerns with the response to our criteria was the quality of our requirement for a purposeful action/business plan. We perceived that applicants were not understanding our expectations for a purposeful plan, or were using stilted, impersonal business plan templates found online. In response, we expanded and updated our website explanation of our criteria, including an update to our online memorandum, Understanding our First Steps Grant Criteria. Unfortunately, our efforts did not improve the quality of the submissions by applicants.

On the bright side, however, we received many exemplary First Steps submissions, as well as wonderful responses from prior grantees under our Forward Steps program relating their experiences in the year after receiving a grant from us: confirming to us that, if done right, our First Steps program works and can be an important factor in helping new organizations achieve their goals. (See excerpts on reverse).

As a result of our experiences this past year, both negative and positive, we are in the process of developing two sea changes: one regarding the future of our First Steps program, and the other addressing the tools available to newly formed animal welfare groups in planning to achieve a sustainable future. We look forward to announcing these new, exciting developments in the New Year.  

With appreciation from the Board for all of you who have supported us over the years,

 

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Excerpts from the submissions from 2025 Forward Steps Grant recipients:

The First Steps Grant really helped us start in the right direction and get things going! It also helped us to focus on the most important goals in our Business Plan. Starting a business has proven to be a challenging undertaking, but the First Steps Grant certainly gave us some much-needed tools and ideas.

Little J Ranch Farm Sanctuary, Cloudcroft, NM

 

Thanks to First Steps funding we had the space to really think through the funding problem for TnR and learned that recurring donations are typically what sustains rescue programs like this. . . . 

 I don’t think we would have formalized our business plan if it hadn’t been required by Binky Foundation to do so and the formalization of our business plan really allowed us to make our vision for a TnR program a reality.

Lucky Penny Rescue Network, Laredo, TX

 

I posted about the Binky Foundation First Steps award on Meta & LinkedIn. It seems to have opened the door for other donors and grants. Establishing regular donations helps Lupa Legacy become more sustainable long term. . . .

One reason we struggle with social media fundraising is because we have a policy against showing images of animals (or people) in pain and stress. Many of our clients have hoarding tendencies. Building trust takes time. This relationship could be destroyed by a picture on social media. The animals would suffer more as a result. [We at The Binky Foundation Agree with this policy!}

Lupa Legacy Animal Rescue, Noble, OK

 

That said, you mentioned in your letter that running an animal welfare organization is more than simply caring for animals. We seem to learn that piece of wisdom over and over! After two-plus years “on the ground,” so to speak, we have discovered many pitfalls and a generous handful of ways to succeed as well.  That structured education started when you encouraged us to take significant time and effort to produce a thorough business plan.  I’m not sure we did all we should — and we are about to revise it — but that one task was pivotal in setting us on a path with purpose. We continue to learn more with each step and often look to some of our peer organizations (who are much more established) for examples and guidance.  In turn, we are still pretty proud to share our business plan with others.

Robin’s Nest Rescue, Ramona, CA

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