- The Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League, Inc. - MAGDRL
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If you have a passion for Great Danes, volunteering can be so rewarding. MAGDRL is a large organization that is run entirely by volunteers. There are absolutely no paid positions within the group. Because we are so large, we can always use a helping hand. The list below shows some of the positions involved along with their responsibility. If you’re interested and don’t see the exact position you’re looking for, contact us anyway – we can always find something you can do to help!
If you can only do one thing as a volunteer for MAGDRL, this would be it. Getting out in our community to make our presence know and spreading the word about MAGDRL and what we do for our Danes is very important. We help to educate the public about the breed and dogs in general, we talk to potential adopters and help them decide if a Dane is right for them. We have Danes at the events wearing their donation coats to help us collect much needed funds for the Danes. The number of our Meet & Greets are dwindling for lack of volunteers, Just two or three hours a month is all the time we need to help fill this need.
Volunteers might visit, a pet shop, a pet food and equipment store, or similar. You will be provided with MAGDRL pamphlets and information designed to educate the community about who we are and what we do. This can be with or without a dog/Dane, you alone or several people, an hour or several. Overall, it’s just getting the word out with hopes of increasing the volunteer base in your area, while bringing in needed donations.
We need volunteers to handle adoption phone screens, reference checks and vet references. You’d be given questions to ask and a form to complete and submit online.
We need volunteers to visit the homes of applicants who wish to adopt from us, or foster for us. This would involve visiting the home, seeing where the Dane would live/sleep/exercise, etc., providing information about the care and feeding of Danes, and getting an overall feel for the type of dane that would fit well with the household. After a home visit the Volunteer develops and submits a written home evaluation, using a standardized form.
We often have needs for Volunteers to help us move a Dane from one area to another for one reason or another. Our Volunteers form a coordinated hand-off chain that does not require anybody to travel great distances but moves the dog a fairly long distance in a fairly short time. All that is required is time and an auto that is large enough for the dog to be comfortable. The trips are arranged by our Coordinator and connection points are easily located with grassy areas for the dog’s convenience.
As with Foster Homes, not everyone is suited to conduct dog evaluations. In fact, we require training for anyone interested in performing them. For this reason, no one will complete a dog evaluation without first being approved to do so. You would first observe several evaluations performed by authorized evaluators, once our evaluators are confident you can move to the next step, you complete a dog evaluation under their supervision and, after observing you once or several times, when they feel you are ready, you can team up with another approved evaluator. It may be that our approved evaluators feel you are not suited to this volunteer position…don’t be offended…as they make this decision with your safety in mind.
We are always in need of good foster homes for our orphans. Fostering is a gratifying way to help a Dane in need. Foster families provide a loving environment, a safe house, for dogs while they wait for their new families. Through foster families, we also get a better idea of the dog’s personality, manners and habits. When we can’t find a foster home for a Dane, we must board him/her in a kennel. This is not the ideal situation for any dog and also puts a strain on MAGDRL’s purse strings.
The number of foster homes we have directly relates to the number of Danes we can bring in. The good news/bad news is that we often lose foster homes to foster failing. It is wonderful for the Dane to find a forever home, but we then are faced with the task of replacing that foster home, so it’s an ongoing battle to keep up with the demand. At any given time, we have two to three (and at times more) Danes waiting to come in and can’t bring them in for lack of a foster home, so they wait, sometimes in not so good conditions.
Help spread awareness of MAGDRL and our mission to help homeless Danes fine Furever homes.
When people think of volunteering their initial thought is working with the Danes. MAGDRL has a need for volunteers who have an some technical skills to help support our various systems. Gone are the days of paper forms, an online presence is a must. If you have some technical skills and have a passion for Great Danes we would love to hear from you. Below is a sample of some of the areas we are looking for volunteers.
The Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League, Inc. (MAGDRL) was organized in 1979 to serve the seven states of the Mid-Atlantic region. The organization is a DC corporation and has a charitable tax-exemption under 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.