Flockwork (use techy skills to help animals worldwide!)
Flockwork is an amazing global organisation that pairs those working in animal rescue with skilled volunteers, to help with office-based duties you can do from home, while helping fellow creatures anywhere in the world!
By lending your skills, the rescue organisations free up funds, and can focus on helping animals. They presently need volunteers to help with:
- Web development & IT
- Design & Multimedia
- Communications & Marketing
- Fundraising & Events
- Outreach & Advocacy
- Leadership & Operations
- Data & Research
Its sister project Violet Studios offers free graphic design services, for charities helping animals. FarmKind is one beneficiary, which helps farmed animals, with admin costs covered by philanthropists.
Vegan Hacktivists is another organisation that offers skilled professional services for free, to help animal welfare causes. This includes anything from technical to legal advice. It can also connect you with funders, to offer grants up to several hundred pounds.
Other Techy Ideas to Help Animals Worldwide!
If you don’t have green building skills to create a new sanctuary, there are many ways to help animals worldwide, if you’re a geeky computer or engineer type person, who prefers to sit behind a desk.
You can ‘rule the world’ like a Bond villain, but in this case as one of the good guys to all furry and feathered friends! Here are some ideas:
Animal Web Action is a site where you simply click (and donations are made by sponsors) or donate yourself to fund ongoing campaigns. No techy skills needed! As an example:
Paws in Our Hearts (Bosnia) does wonderful work helping dogs who come there with nowhere else to go, on very limited funds. Just click (for free) to raise money to buy dry kibble for their shelter.
- Design wildlife crossings to help creatures safely cross the road.
- Develop GPS technology to reduce human/animal conflicts (like lions on African farms) and to stop rhinos being poached. You can also program drones to map habitats and monitor deforestation.
- Create artificial reefs to support endangered fish and marine life, who have lost natural reefs.
- Use AI technology to find lost pets (like facial mapping and nose print images).
- Use gene sequencing to save endangered species like Tasmanian devils. The last two northern white rhinos are both female (under 24-hour armed guard). So techy people are trying to work with frozen sperm to create a ‘male’ to stop them going extinct.
- Teach veterinary skills online to volunteer vets and welfare workers in countries abroad.
- Create free website themes for animal charities.
Work From Home Volunteering for Animals
You don’t even have to step outside your door, to help animals in many other ways, using techy skills!
- Grant writing and fundraising (help rescues apply for grants or run online virtual fundraisers).
- Marketing and social media (manage an organisation’s pages, to increase awareness)
- Adoption counselling (review applications for potential adopters or foster families, identifying suitable candidates)
- Data entry & administration (assist with record management, updating databases and co-ordinating logistics like vet visits for foster animals).
- Graphic design/video editing (create promotional materials or catchy videos, to increase adoption rates.
- Sign and share petitions (support legislation to end animal cruelty, like banning puppy mills or strengthen animal welfare laws).
- Advocate for policies (contact local representatives to support animal-friendly laws and oppose harmful practices like factory farming).
- Take part in local virtual campaigns to find lost pets.
- Search Rescue Wishlists (many shelters and rescues have Wishlists, make a list and then email people and businesses in your community to try to get everything they want).
