How You Can Help

The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund receives no public funding and is reliant upon the generous donations of its supporters. We are all volunteers and so draw no salaries or recompense for our time. The only common deductions from donations are the transaction fees from the platform, typically PayPal, and they charge a reduced percentage compared to their commercial terms.

All support is gratefully received and contributes to the well-being of the dogs in our care. Whether you adopt one of our dogs, make a donation, or volunteer your help directly - it all combines to allow us to continue our mission of rescuing vulnerable GSDs German Shepherd Dogs), providing their care and rehabilitation, and ultimately finding new homes for them, or if necessary providing a home for them ourselves. 

With over 100 dogs currently in our care, we are more in need of your support than ever before! On this page we list the various ways that you can help, and if you're aware of others then please let us know.

Adoption

The ultimate goal for any of the dogs we rescue is to set them up in a new, loving home and so enable them to live a life they deserve, and not the one they’ve suffered. We have an established process to ensure the best possible match between the dog and their new family. 

If the dog has complex medical needs then we can help with advice and financial support. If the dog has certain behaviours then appropriate restrictions will be required for the safety and comfort of you and the dog.

Taking in a dog and aiding them in rehabilitating into a new life is incredibly rewarding. If you’re interested sharing this journey then you can learn more about the adoption process here - http://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/

Fostering

As a rule, we do not use foster homes. We have done so in the past and encountered various issues. In the main we’ve found greater success to have the dogs in the selected kennels to be cared for. This gives the carers who are very experienced with German Shepherds, time to assess them. When we home a dog, we try to ensure we are matching it to the right home. We cannot do this if we have not spent time with the dog. Because our dogs are so well cared for in our selected kennels, they settle well and are very happy.

However, sometimes the odd dog just doesn’t settle very well in a kennel environment, but may thrive much better in a loving home. Occasionally dogs may have had veterinary treatment, so again would recuperate much better in the home.

Although we do not use them that often, it can be difficult to find a fosterer at short notice. If you think you could help, then please contact via gsdwelfarefund@gmail.com. Please write the subject as: German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund Fostering in your email. Veterinary bills will be paid for by the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund. All we ask you for is your love and compassion.

Volunteering

Apart from external services like kennels and vets, the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund is kept running thanks to the dedication of our volunteers. They come from all over the country and bring a mix of skills into the mix. 

It can be very rewarding to know that your personal efforts are directly helping the dogs in our care. If you have some spare time and would like to join the growing team then look here for more information: https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/p/volunteer-with-us.html

Become a Member

The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund relies solely on donations, memberships, merchandise, and fundraising activities to fund the work we do. We have to raise enough money to cover the costs of kennelling the German Shepherd dogs rescued by us and pay their often expensive veterinary fees and medication.

By becoming a member you will be helping the dogs rescued by The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund. As a member, you will receive a quarterly copy of our newsletter - Dogsbody. It keeps you updated with our news, the latest on the dogs, items of interest and other fun stuff. On top of that you will be helping us to continue to help those wonderful dogs of our beloved breed that are in need.



Sponsor a Dog

Some of the German Shepherd dogs rescued by us have very little chance of being re- homed. This may be because of illness, or because they are old, or simply because they do not get on with other dogs.

The older or sick dogs may be lucky enough to find a foster home but The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund continue to pay for their vet bills and medication. The other dogs that are not lucky enough to be fostered have to be housed in commercial kennels, presenting us with large kennel bills.

We operate a “Sponsor a German Shepherd” scheme where you can sponsor one of these dogs and receive quarterly newsletters from them. The money raised helps us to continue to care for them whether they be in a foster home or kennels. Sponsorship costs just £20 a year. It makes a perfect gift for your dog loving friends and gives you the satisfaction of knowing you are helping a German Shepherd Dog in need. Visit this link to register your interest in sponsoring one or more of our dogs:


Join the Friends of GSD Welfare

Becoming a Friend of GSD Welfare not only helps support us in our mission to rescue, care for, and rehome vulnerable German Shepherds - it also unlocks a wealth of exclusive content and access.

For only £3 per month you’ll receive the following perks*:

  • Exclusive access to the Facebook Friends of GSD Welfare group
  • Monthly Q&A session with Lisa Hird, our resident behavioural expert
  • Special monthly guest speakers
  • Monthly Hot Potato topics discussing GSD Welfare Fund and beyond
  • Opportunity to commission your own custom Friends of GSD Welfare badge 

Join now by setting up your £3 (more is always welcome!) monthly subscription via your bank or PayPal (use this link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L3XVV7ZC87XPC) – please include your Facebook alias so we can provide your new access.

* Supporters who already send a monthly donation equal, or greater than the subscription cost will automatically receive Friends of GSD Welfare membership for no additional cost


Donations

  • Bank Transfer
    If you’d like to donate via a bank transfer then please email gsdwelfarefund@gmail.com for details.

  • PayPal
    You can donate to us directly via PayPal using the donate button below. Gift Aid can be added if you’re a UK taxpayer, and if you’d like to set up a monthly donation then that option is available too. 

    PayPal donations can be sent as a one off donation, or you can set up a monthly donation. You can also add Gift Aid (UK tax payers only) to your donation.


  • PayPal (QR Code)
    PayPal QR codes are a simple and effective way to make a donation with your mobile device. Point your device’s camera at the QR code and the PayPal app will provide the relevant details to make a donation.

    Your device’s camera app will usually recognise and respond to a QR code. If it doesn’t then a dedicated QR code reader app will need to be installed. The PayPal app is also needed.

    You can also save the QR code to share with people you think would be interested in supporting us.

    QR code donations work in the same way as regular donations, so can be set up monthly as well.
  • PayPal Give at Checkout
    PayPal allows you to choose your favourite charity and it will then offer you the chance when you checkout of also donating £1 to us. It doesn’t sound a lot, but it soon mounts up! There are two ways to select your favourite charity:

    • Log in to PayPal and once your Dashboard loads, scroll down and you will see the option to select or change your favourite charity.

    • Log in to PayPal and then go to our charity profile page here - https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/190665 and then on our profile page click the ‘Set as favourite charity’ button.

  • Give as You Live Donate
    You can donate directly online through the Give as You Live Donate program. You do need to be member, but that means that you can also participate in their other charitable support programmes. These are listed later in this page. 

https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/charity/german-shepherd-dog-welfare-fund/107781/0

You can also set up your own fundraising pages there to support us.

  • By Direct Debit
    If you would like to set up a direct debit to support The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund, please email gsdwelfarefund@gmail.com

  • By Post
    We are also grateful to receive donations by cheque. Please make payable to The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund and send to:

    German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund
    334 Smeeth Road,
    Marshland St. James,
    Wisbech, Cambs. PE14 8EP

  • Payroll Giving Scheme
    Payroll Giving is a mechanism set up to allow donations from wages or pensions through PAYE and are deducted before tax is applied. Your employer needs to set up a suitable scheme.

    More information can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/payroll-giving

  • Leave a Legacy in your Will
    You can leave a gift for charity in your will, check here for more information visit https://www.futurelegalservices.co.uk/leaving-a-charity-legacy-in-your-will/

Online Shopping

More and more of us do at least some of our shopping online, and there's also a range of different programmes that generate donations while you shop online. Some are specific to a store, and others cover a range of popular online stores. In most cases it takes just a few minutes to set up, but they all come at no cost to the user and some have apps that prompt you while shopping so you don’t miss a chance to donate.

Individually the donations can be quite small (some schemes are more generous than others), but they quickly mount up and the more supporters that sign up for them, the more beneficial it is for us.

The various schemes we are enrolled with are listed below, and we're happy to hear about any new schemes we can get involved with.

  • GSD Welfare Fund Store
    We currently have a small range of German Shepherd related and GSD Welfare Fund merchandise available on our Facebook store. 
https://www.facebook.com/germanshepherddogwelfarefund/shop/?referral_code=page_shop_tab&preview=1
 
We will expand our offerings and also make the store items available on other platforms beyond Facebook. Look out for polls on our Facebook group to take part in helping to select new merchandise.

 

  • GSD Welfare Fund Auctions
    We currently have a small range of German Shepherd related and GSD Welfare Fund merchandise available on our Facebook store. 
https://www.facebook.com/germanshepherddogwelfarefund/shop/?referral_code=page_shop_tab&preview=1
 
We will expand our offerings and also make the store items available on other platforms beyond Facebook. Look out for polls on our Facebook group to take part in helping to select new merchandise.

 

  • Amazon Smile

If you shop from Amazon, you can raise funds for us at no extra cost to yourself. Instead of going to the normal Amazon page, log in to Amazon Smile and it will ask you to select your chosen charity. The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund will be listed there. 
 
  • Easy Fund Raising

www.easyfundraising.org.uk
You can help The German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund raise money to help our rescued German Shepherds every time you shop on the internet simply by signing up to Easy Fundraising. Without it costing you a penny! 
 
It is very simple. Just visit the website and register and choose “German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund” as your cause. Each time you are going to shop online, visit the easyfundraising website and select your retailer i.e. Amazon, Argos, Tesco, Asda, Debenhams, M&S (I was surprised at how many retailers there was to choose from). 
 
You will still be buying direct from the shop you select but because you go via easyfundraising, the retailer will make a donation to Welfare. It does not cost you an extra penny, in fact you can even save money with their special offers and voucher codes. If you use the referral link below we receive an additional £5 donation once you receive your first £5 donation. 
 
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/support-a-good-cause/step-1/?char=45963&invite=8ik9ub&referral-campaign=s2s&cid=45963&name=Michael

  • Give as You Live


Give as you Live Online to generate free donations for charity. You just choose a charity and sign up - it's free and we receive 100% of the donations raised! Then you just shop as normal. They have over 5,500 stores registered like John Lewis & Partners, eBay, Currys, Expedia, Booking.com, and Marks & Spencer.
 
If you sign up using my link, Give as you Live Online will donate an extra £5 to us when you raise your first £5!

https://www.giveasyoulive.com/refer/R9UoZA4yjntKlOrMZIfyog7ag0qzM9sKNA-3D-3D?utm_campaign=mgm&utm_source=Osharesocial&utm_medium=Oshare_email&utm_content=refer&utm_term=20220512

Our charity page can be found here, and as well as making donations, you can also set up your own fundraising page.


  • Humble Bundle

    If you’re a Humble member then you can select the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund as the charity you wish to support when buying games, books and bundles . Find out more details via the link below:
https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/2022/05/calling-all-humble-gamers.html




Out Shopping

  • Give as You Live Instore


Raise free funds for us when you do your grocery shop with @GiveasyouLive store cards https://instore.giveasyoulive.com/charity/gsdwelfarefund/groceries?utm_source=charitytoolkit&utm_content=585608&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=CTGroceryCardsCampaign


Online/Social Media

The Internet and Social Media provides us access to potentially wider and also more specialist and interested audiences than word of mouth, or traditional media - although both are still as important in their own right. However the fragmented nature of the platforms can make reaching the right people difficult and this is where our supporters can make a big difference with little effort needed. See the individual sections below for more information.

  • Bing Search
    Microsoft Rewards lets you support the GSD Welfare Fund through its Give with Bing program. After signing up and selecting our organisation, you can earn rewards points just for searching the web with Bing. Microsoft then turns those points into cash donations to us.

    The program is free--you just need to sign up with a Microsoft account. As of May 2021, Microsoft Rewards has donated more than [$6.5 million] to nonprofits around the world.

    Join the Bing Rewards here:
    https://bing.com/?publ=BINGIP&crea=MY01TS&form=MY01TS&ocid=MY01TS&programname=OrganicAcquisution-Toolkit&cid=826-274076

  • Blog
    Our Blog acts primarily as a repository for the ever expanding collection of articles providing valuable advice and information on a variety of topics such as behavioural, health, and general care for your adult or puppy German Shepherd. Most of the articles are relevant for other breeds as well. Visit our blog here - https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/

    You can help us by sharing any post or article that you find interesting, or useful - share buttons are at the bottom of each post or page.

    Also feel free to comment if you’d like to add to the post, ask a question, or even just to show your support.

Fundraising

Please note that we're currently working with Facebook to resolve not being able to create fundraisers on their platform.

If you want to host it on Facebook then you can set up a personal fundraiser - go to https://www.facebook.com/fundraisers/explore and then select the Raise money for yourself option (see the attached screenshot). Facebook would then pay you the money raised, and you then pay it to us.

Another option (and probably a better one if you're active on other social media besides Facebook) is to set up your own Fundraising page at Give as You Live - https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/charity/gsdwelfarefund and this can then be used across social media platforms, or in emails and so forth.

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