Maddie's
Fund Grant Recipient
The
Maddie's Fund® mission is to revolutionize the status
and wellbeing of companion animals.
Maddie's
Fund and Northern California Animal Rescue Friends
Northern
California Animal Rescue Friends (NCARF) is a proud
recipient of a Maddie's Fund Grant. NCARF is using this
grant to pay for medical costs incurred for animals
(including spaying and neutering) coming into its rescue.
Maddie's
Fund
Maddie's
Fund®, the Pet Rescue Foundation (www.maddiesfund.org),
is a family foundation established in 1999 to help fund
the creation of a no-kill nation. The first step is
to help create programs that guarantee loving homes
for all healthy shelter dogs and cats throughout the
country. The next step is to save the sick, injured
and poorly behaved pets in animal shelters nationwide.
PeopleSoft
and Workday Founder, Dave Duffield and his wife, Cheryl,
created Maddie's Fund. The Foundation makes good on
a promise the Duffields made to their beloved Miniature
Schnauzer, Maddie, to give back to her kind in dollars
that which Maddie gave to them in companionship and
love. Maddie passed away in 1997, but thanks to this
one little dog, abandoned shelter animals have new opportunities
to find loving homes in which they, too, may share in
the joy and love that Dave and Cheryl enjoyed with Maddie.
Maddie's
Fund Mission
Maddie's
Fund supports collaborative efforts in which entire
cities and counties pool their talents and resources
to build a safety net of care for the community's dogs
and cats. The foundation awards millions of dollars
through multi-year grants to animal welfare coalitions
to end the killing of healthy and treatable shelter
dogs and cats community-wide. Funded projects must produce
an immediate and measurable increase in adoptions and
reduction in shelter deaths to demonstrate progress
towards the goal. Starter Grants for gathering shelter
statistics and writing business plans are available
as precursors to community collaborative grants.
Maddie's
Fund also looks to the veterinary community to help
achieve the no-kill nation goal. Private practice veterinarians
are encouraged to participate in Maddie-supported low-income
spay/neuter programs to help reduce the numbers of unwanted
pets entering animal shelters.
In
addition, Maddie's Fund offers grants to colleges of
veterinary medicine to establish Shelter Medicine Programs
so that the specialized knowledge and skills of these
institutions' faculty and students can be incorporated
into the effort to save all healthy and treatable shelter
pets nationwide.
Maddie's
Fund provides special grants to selected leaders who
have demonstrated the ability to create change and to
save lives; to pilot programs that promise new lifesaving
methods; to spay/neuter programs that target problem
populations; to organizations and communities that are
leading the way in achieving lifesaving goals; and to
adoption guarantee shelters that are interested in obtaining
new medical equipment.
Grantmaking
efforts will continue to focus on organizations that
honor the foundation's core values of honesty, integrity
and mutual respect.
Thanks
to Maddie
Maddie
was a beloved Miniature Schnauzer whose unconditional
love, devotion, loyalty and spirit inspired her caregivers
to start a charitable foundation, Maddie's Fund ®,
in her name. The Maddie's Fund mission and purpose is
to help the nation's most needy dogs and cats: Dogs
and cats who, for one reason or another, have ended
up in our animal shelters-homeless, desperate, hoping
for a new loving home--and running out of time...
Dave
and Cheryl Duffield fell in love with Maddie when she
was only ten days old. "We held her in our arms,
and loved her immediately," says Dave. "Maddie
melted our hearts from the first second we saw her,"
adds Cheryl. "We loved her sweet ways, her stubbornness,
her independence, her intelligence, her spirit, and
her devotion."
Dave,
Cheryl and Maddie shared ten memorable and happy years
together, years filled with walks in the woods, trips
to the beach, and good times at home. Dave remembers
one particularly good day during the formation of his
company, PeopleSoft. Playing with Maddie, he picked
her up and made the following promise: "If we ever
make some money, I promise we will give it back to you
and your kind so others can be as happy as we are today."
Dave
and Cheryl are fulfilling their promise to Maddie. They
have spent $54 million so far to save dog and cat lives,
and have personally given more of their personal wealth
to the animal welfare cause than any other individuals--ever.
Dave and Cheryl don't want to make a big fuss about
their unprecedented personal contribution. But, they
do want to honor their beloved dog and the special bond
they shared with her.
Animal
lovers can understand this sentiment. More and more
of us view our companion animals as family, giving them
the same care and love we provide our two-legged family
members. Our pets enrich our lives with their unconditional
devotion to us. They enhance our lives by being a source
of stability, love and companionship. The rewards of
animal companionship are immeasurable.
The
love Dave and Cheryl shared with Maddie inspired them
to give generously to help save homeless, abandoned
shelter pets in desperate need of love and care. Thanks
to Maddie, the dog with the indomitable spirit, these
special animals are afforded new opportunities to find
loving homes in which they, too, may share in the joy,
love and companionship that Dave and Cheryl enjoyed
with Maddie.
On
behalf of all sheltered dogs and cats, we give thanks
to Maddie, whose spirit lives on through the lives her
memorable gift has touched.
|