How Animal Welfare Nonprofits Can Use Salesforce to Transform Their Operations

Summary

This blog explores how animal welfare organisations can use Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud to improve efficiency, reduce admin, and increase their impact. It covers practical use cases, including donor and adoption management, tracking in-kind gifts, running fundraising campaigns, and managing animals in care.

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud centralises donor, volunteer, adoption, and animal records in one place.

• Automations can send receipts, tax certificates, and thank-you messages instantly.

• Campaign tracking helps identify which fundraising efforts deliver the best ROI.

• Custom objects make it easy to track animals’ medical history, adoption status, and time in care.

• Reducing admin means more time to focus on animal welfare work."

Introduction

Animal welfare organisations do incredible work, finding loving homes for animals, running community programmes, and caring for the most vulnerable creatures. Over the years, I’ve spoken with many of these organisations about how Salesforce can make their operations more efficient, more organised, and ultimately more impactful.

Here are some of the most common ways I’ve seen Animal Welfare Nonprofits use Salesforce to manage their work.

Manage Donors and Stakeholders

Salesforce is, at its core, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. For nonprofits, that means the ability to track and understand donors, volunteers, partners, and other key stakeholders in one central hub.

For animal welfare organisations, this can go a step further:

• Link animals to donors – If someone has adopted from you before, you can see their adoption history, track repeat adoptions, and even record breed or animal type preferences for future matches.

• Streamline the adoption process – If a potential adopter has specific requirements, you can flag them so your team is ready to connect them with the right pet when it becomes available.

• Manage volunteers – Use Salesforce’s built-in volunteer management tools to track hours, skills, and availability.

When all this information is in one place, building stronger relationships becomes much easier.

Manage Donations

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud makes it simple to manage one-off and recurring donations from both individuals and organisations. By using standard objects like Lead, Opportunity, Gift Commitment, and Gift Transaction, you can:

• Track and nurture donor prospects.

• Record donations and link them to specific funds.

• Automatically send receipts or tax certificates—such as South Africa’s Section 18A—immediately after the donation is processed.

With the right setup, all donation records stay connected to the donor’s history, making reporting and stewardship a breeze.

Capture In-Kind Gifts Efficiently

Many animal welfare organisations receive in-kind donations, pet food, toys, and bedding, often in large volumes. I’ve seen creative solutions, like placing a tablet at reception with a guided Salesforce form to:

• Record whether the donor is new or returning.

• Capture details of the items being donated.

• Automatically send a personalised thank-you email.

This approach not only keeps accurate records but also strengthens donor relationships through immediate acknowledgement.

Run and Track Campaigns

Animal welfare organisations often run fundraising campaigns, golf days, gala dinners, adoption drives, holiday appeals. Salesforce’s built-in Campaign functionality allows you to:

• Add donors and contacts to each campaign.

• Track donations directly linked to that campaign.

• See at a glance which events bring in the most revenue each year.

This helps marketing and fundraising teams make data-driven decisions about where to focus their energy.

Track Animals in Care

By creating a custom object for animals, you can manage everything about an animal’s journey through your organisation, including:

• Adoption status and history.

• Care records and medical conditions.

• Microchip numbers and identification.

• Time in care and current location.

You can even integrate this with case management or care plan features for more complex tracking.

Manage the Adoption Process

With some tailored adjustments, Salesforce can support the full adoption process:

• Linking animals to potential owners through adoption records.

• Tracking home visits and inspection notes.

• Recording adoption fees and payments through Opportunities.

• Identifying repeat adopters.

• Recording reasons for adoption refusals (important for future matches).

When animals, adopters, and process steps are all in Salesforce, you eliminate the need for multiple spreadsheets and disconnected systems.

Beyond the Basics

These examples just scratch the surface. Animal welfare organisations can also use Salesforce for:

• Community outreach tracking.

• Educational programme management.

• Volunteer event coordination.

Ultimately, the goal is simple: keep all your information in one place so you can spend less time on admin and more time helping animals.

Final Thought if you work in an animal welfare organisation and want to explore how Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud could streamline your work, from donations to adoptions, I’d be happy to help you map it out. The right setup can save time, improve reporting, and give you a 360° view of every animal, donor, and volunteer you work with.