Three Grant Sources for Spay Neuter at Your Animal Shelter or Rescue

Animal shelters and rescues can find many grants online to help fund spay-neuter clinics. Here are three of them:

The DJ & T Foundation awards two types of grants:

Clinic Grant: Granted to 501 (c) 3 organizations that operate low-cost spay/neuter clinics or are planning to open one. Funds are also granted to 501 (c) 3 organizations that operate a low-cost mobile spay/neuter clinic or are planning to start one.

Spay / Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) Grant: Granted to 501 (c) 3 organizations with established public outreach programs for socialized companion animals with homes or that are planning to establish such a program. SNAP grants cannot be used to spay/neuter foster animals, ferals, strays, animals held by adoption/rescue organizations, shelters or sanctuaries.

Humane Alliance in Asheville North Carolina has developed a successful model for setting up spay-neuter clinics. This site shows you step by step how to participate in this program and obtain funding for setting up a clinic. You can also find resources concerning veterinarian training. The program is explained in this press release:

PetSmart Charities® and the ASPCA® have announced that they each will pledge 2.6 million to Humane Alliance in 2011 as part of a five-year commitment totaling $5.2 million to increase affordable spay/neuter services across the United States and prevent the births of millions of pets for whom there are no homes.

This funding will help 80 low-cost, high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter clinics to open across the U.S. Combined with the nearly 70 Humane Alliance clinics already open, the clinics will provide up to 800,000 sustainable spay/neuter surgical slots, preventing an estimated 11 million births through 2013.

The ASPCA also offers grants directly to shelters and rescues for spay-neuter programs. Read the criteria, which include a letter of inquiry. This grant is limited to no more than $3,000 and the website says: Due to budgetary constraints, we are no longer accepting grant requests for the above purposes from the following states: Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

To find local or regional grant sources, do a search on “spay-neuter grant sources your area” or “spay-neuter grants your area” etc. Many community foundations offer funding in their own region.