Involving kids at the local animal shelter by using their computer skills can provide enormous help to the shelter and be a great way for kids to volunteer. Shelters can post these volunteer needs on their website. If you’re an animal lover with kids, encourage them to volunteer for the shelter on an ongoing basis.

Help the shelter find funding sources. Offer to research grants and foundations which could be potential grantors for the shelter. See Finding Grants for Animal Shelters and click on the “finding grants” category on this blog for ideas on finding grants.

Re-design the animal shelter’s website.

Register with adoption websites like Petfinder.com to reach more animal lovers who might adopt your pets.

Research and list the names of apartments and rental units which accept pets in your community. Post this list on the shelter website and provide flyers to real estate agents, lending institutions, and veterinarians to help foreclosed families. See Help Foreclosed Pets Find a Home for more information.

Photograph shelter pets and upload these digital photos to the animal shelter’s website using digital photography and Photoshop skills (or other photo editing software).

Set up a template with an email newsletter provider so the shelter can stay in touch with volunteers and donors. This allows the shelter to enter just the new content when they send out their newsletter since the same format/layout is used each time. I use Aweber for Animal Shelter Tips but there are many services available.

Design a logo for the animal shelter.

Shoot several videos of animal shelter pets for YouTube and embed these videos in the shelter’s website, local newspaper’s pet section, veterinarian’s sites, etc. Include videos of happy endings, abused animals’ recovery, adoption events, etc.

Kids who love animals and have good computer skills will find great satisfaction in volunteering on an ongoing basis.