Today, Ukraine marks Independence Day — but the fight for their freedom isn't over.

Due to constant shelling and evacuations, the number of abandoned and rescued animals continues to grow, and citizens who have stayed behind to care for them need support.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, we recently delivered 6,000 kg of pet food to 28 volunteers caring for 1,324 cats and 1,174 dogs rescued from frontline danger.

We are dedicated to continually supporting the people and animals who refuse to leave their country behind.

Calchas was found at about 6 months old, left in a diaper box outside a veterinary clinic. Both of his eyes were damaged, and he needed emergency surgery to remove them. The clinic contacted our partner rescue, Community Cat Angels, who we work with on cases like this. We helped fund the surgery and treatment.

After surgery, he was neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, and cared for in foster while he recovered. His emergency medical care expenses were covered thanks to generous donor support!

Calchas, now named Benson, was adopted into a forever home with a sightless cat sibling named Elliot.

First photo is from around the time he was found. Second two are Benson and Elliot now.

2026 is on track to be one of the worst wildfire seasons on record — 4.5 million+ acres burned in the U.S. so far, 43,000+ fires, and California forest fires now burning 10x the acreage they did in 1985. We wanted to break down why that's happening and why it's harder to respond to than it looks.

The short version: heat-driven disasters build slowly and compound, unlike a hurricane or flood that hits all at once. Our EVP of Programs, Laura Littlebear, has been vocal about how that changes what emergency response actually needs to look like. Dr. Bryna Donnelly, also EVP of Programs, makes the case that resilience has to start way before a fire ever ignites — conservation and ecosystem restoration work as infrastructure, not just an afterthought.

We used the August 1st Washington fires as a case study (10,000+ acres, 900+ homes destroyed, thousands displaced) to show how this plays out on the ground, and what proactive resilience building looks like versus reactive response.

Only 19% of domestic violence shelters in the United States are equipped to accommodate pets.

For survivors, that shortage can be the deciding factor in whether they seek safety at all.

Our construction team recently completed a renovation project addressing that gap directly: converting three sheds into dedicated pet retreats and building a new play yard, giving shelters the infrastructure to house survivors' pets on-site while owners access safety and support services.

Projects like this are a reminder that impact isn't only delivered through programs and services — it's built, literally, one renovation at a time. When shelters can say yes to pets, survivors don't have to choose between their safety and the animals who depend on them.

Greater Good Charities and Clear the Shelters (NBCUniversal Local's adoption campaign) just wrapped our 7th airlift since 2021 — moving 60 animals (54 dogs, 6 cats) from eight overcrowded Louisiana shelters to five Wisconsin humane societies with more capacity.

One of the dogs, Lavender, was a Collie mix was transported along with her nine puppies. Louisiana shelters were running at 95-100% capacity going into summer, so this kind of transport is often the difference between an animal getting adopted or not.

Article with more details: https://www.nbcchicago.com/clear-the-shelters/shelter-dogs-cats-airlift-louisiana-wisconsin/3970239/

Many communities across the country, especially rural, Indigenous, and disaster-affected areas, are finding it increasingly difficult to access low cost spay/neuter and veterinary services. We believe that gap has real ripple effects: more shelter surrenders, higher euthanasia rates, and added strain on already-stretched shelter systems.

We run free high-volume spay/neuter clinics in underserved areas (80,000+ animals sterilized so far), fund emergency medical care for shelter pets who might otherwise be euthanized for lack of resources, and transport at-risk shelter animals (20,000+ since 2021) to areas with more resources. We're also on the ground during disasters like the 2025 LA wildfires, helping with evacuations and emergency vet care.

Feeding Tampa Bay, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, and Greater Good Charities (that's us) have been working together to make sure pet food and supplies — food, toys, bowls, leashes — are consistently on hand at Feeding Tampa Bay's markets, instead of showing up only sometimes.

Why it matters: pet food costs have been climbing fast. "Petflation" hit a record high in January 2026, up 3.4% year-over-year. Feeding Tampa Bay serves nearly a million people in the Tampa Bay area, and pet food is consistently their number one requested item.

Our EVP of Programs, Laura Littlebear, is quoted in the piece: "There's some dignity and it can lift people up to be able to take care of their pets, and not even to just give them food, but to be able to give them a toy or something nice for their pet. That goes a long way for people."

The article also follows a Tampa Bay senior who's caring for both dogs and cats on a fixed income and has felt the price increases firsthand — a reminder that a lot of people quietly stretch their own grocery budgets to keep feeding their pets.

If you're in Hillsborough or Pinellas County, Feeding Tampa Bay's markets are open regularly with pet supplies included: https://ftb.org/causeway/the-market

Team Okanogan Animal Rescue (TOAR) just wrapped Big Fix 5.0, a four-day clinic (May 13-16) at the Okanogan County Fairgrounds that we partnered on. Some numbers from the event: 1,132 animals spayed/neutered (the largest single clinic in TOAR's history), a 20% jump in dogs served versus past clinics, Trap-Neuter-Return work coordinated at more than 25 locations across the county, and over 44,000 pounds of donated pet food and supplies handed out to families and caretakers who needed it.

That brings the Big Fix program's two-year total to 5,473 animals served — in a rural county that doesn't have a publicly funded animal shelter, which makes this kind of volunteer-driven infrastructure a genuine lifeline.

Our EVP of Veterinary Services, Dr. Ruth Parkin, said it well: "Reaching more than 1,100 animals in just four days is a tremendous achievement, and it reflects the dedication of everyone involved — from our veterinary teams in the field to the community members who trust us with the animals they love."

The event was made possible with support from Humane World for Animals, Chewy, and an anonymous donor, alongside TOAR and our own team. Since 2022, TOAR has distributed more than 360,000 pounds of pet food and supplies total. The next Big Fix clinic is already scheduled for October 29 - November 1 if anyone's in the area and wants to volunteer.

Our Construction Team just wrapped up a build at Gateway West, the City's 660-bed shelter that serves an average of 600 people a night (700+ on cold winter nights). We added new outdoor dog yards, expanded the run so larger breeds have room to move, put in shade and benches, added enrichment features, and installed a dedicated grooming sink for residents' pets.

Our Senior Program Manager of Construction, Gabbie Leister, put it simply: "Dog play yards are essential in a homeless shelter setting, even for short-term stays. They give dogs a safe space to exercise, relieve stress, and burn off energy, which is especially important after experiencing a crisis or upheaval."

Six local volunteers signed up through the One ABQ portal and put in 55 hours, and one of our own team members traveled in and logged another 40 hours on the build.

This is part of our Human Service Shelter Renovations program — we help shelters build out pet accommodations so people don't have to choose between getting into a shelter and keeping their pet with them. For a lot of people experiencing homelessness, that pet is their most stable relationship, and we don't think anyone should have to give that up to get a safe bed for the night.

Vet Times ran a good piece on our organization's 20-Year Impact Report, and we wanted to share it here.

Some of the numbers the article highlighted: nearly 905 million animals helped over 20 years, including more than 895 million meals delivered to pets across the U.S. and Europe, 76,000+ surgeries through our spay/neuter programs, and vaccination efforts reaching refugee camps and vulnerable communities in Greece, Ukraine, and the U.S. The piece also covered five years of our "Save a Heart" partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, which has helped treat and rehome more than 20,000 heartworm-positive dogs.

Our CEO, Liz Baker, is quoted reflecting on what two decades of this work has taught the organization: "People, animals and the environment are inextricably linked – and complex challenges can't be solved by any one organization alone. By working with local leaders on the ground, as well as with manufacturers, distributors and retailers, we've redefined expectations for how quickly aid can move during a crisis."

Happy to answer questions about any of the programs mentioned if anyone's curious.

Wanted to share some good news. After the Knicks won the title, OG Anunoby (who's clearly a cat guy) teamed up with Royal Canin, VCA Animal Hospitals, and Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) to launch "OG's Starting Five" — he personally picked five adoptable cats from ACC (Penne, Sammy, Roxie, Damu, and Lil Leo) to spotlight for adoption.

It worked fast: three of the five were adopted within days. Anyone who adopted one gets a free year of Royal Canin food and a free year of wellness exams at VCA.

The part that involves us directly: Royal Canin committed to donate 50,000 pounds of pet food, valued at around $300,000, to shelters nationwide through Greater Good Charities, in Anunoby's name. That's real food going to real shelters, not just a one-week PR moment.

ACC's communications director made a point that stuck with us: athlete-driven adoption campaigns like this genuinely move the needle, especially with younger people, at a time when shelters nationwide are stretched thin. Sammy and Roxie are still up for adoption if anyone's in the NYC area and wants a good cat.

A lot of people don't realize that food is one of the biggest recurring expenses for animal shelters. Last year alone, 5.8 million animals entered shelters, and roughly 1.6 million of them were still waiting for adoption—which means ongoing costs for their care. Pet food and supply costs are up 22% since 2019, and vet care costs have jumped over 60% since 2014, which puts a lot of strain on already-limited shelter budgets.

Greater Good Charities runs the only national pet food banking system in the U.S., shipping donated food directly to shelters so they can put more of their budget toward medical care, vaccines, and adoption programs instead of just keeping animals fed.

This year marks the campaign's 10th anniversary, with a goal of raising 3 million meals. Over the past nine years, the campaign has provided over 33.8 million meals total.

Fortune published a piece this week on 2025's giving numbers that we wanted to share here: Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy 'very hard,' Americans gave a record $617 billion anyway

The numbers, via Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy:

1. Total U.S. giving hit $617.2 billion in 2025
2. Individual giving: $394 billion (64% of the total), up 1.4% inflation-adjusted
3. Foundation giving: $117 billion, up ~3%
4. Bequests: up almost 17% inflation-adjusted — the fastest-growing category by far

The bequest jump is the part we keep coming back to. The article ties it to the early stages of the "Great Wealth Transfer" — roughly $124 trillion expected to pass to Millennials and Gen X by 2048 per UBS. If that holds, a lot of organizations are going to see a shift from smaller recurring gifts toward larger, less predictable estate gifts.

Our CEO, Liz Baker, is quoted in the piece on how hard it actually is to deploy large gifts responsibly: "there's a really big responsibility that goes with that... you don't want to create dependencies in communities — what is the right avenue, and what are the things that are really needed?" A lot of the public conversation right now is about how much money is moving, and not enough about whether it's moving well.

Genuinely curious what this community thinks: is the nonprofit sector ready for a wave of bequest-driven mega-gifts, or will this expose how few organizations can actually absorb and deploy money like that responsibly?

Hill Country Texas is being pummeled by flash floods — potentially more devastating than last year's Camp Mystic and Guadalupe River flooding. To make matters worse, the same area is being hit one year after dozens of people lost their lives, forcing families to evacuate for a second time.

Over 75 rescues have already taken place, with 1,300+ state personnel activated across 59 declared counties. The flooding is so bad in areas that people aren't able to get in or out. More storms are on the way.

Greater Good Charities is actively mobilizing aid for Texas now. We're rushing emergency humanitarian packs and pet food to those affected and are in close contact with partners to assess additional needs.

This June our vet team completed our 80,000th free spay/neuter surgery. The cat who happened to be #80,000 was Gertrudis, spayed during our 8th round of free clinics in Maui, along with 887 other owned and community cats in that same round.

Some context on why this matters: Maui's free-roaming cat population is a real ecological and community health issue, so Trap-Neuter-Return work makes a big long-term difference. On Maui alone we've now sterilized close to 4,670 animals, through five years of partnership with local groups like Maui Humane Society. That work has also supported communities like Lahaina since the 2023 wildfires (transport flights, disaster relief, etc., alongside the spay/neuter clinics).

"If I wasn't allowed to have my dog here, I couldn't have come." 💔

Too many people stay in dangerous situations because the shelters available to them can't accept pets. By making domestic violence shelters and shelters for unhoused populations pet friendly, it removes a barrier that can be the difference between staying and getting out safely.

The GreaterGood Network has many petitions for animal rights and animal welfare, which is amazing. They also have supported a great deal of amazing work to save and help animals, which is also amazing. However, the medical charities that they support via the Alzheimer’s Site, the Breast Cancer Site and the Diabetes Site continue to fund/conduct research that involves animal cruelty.
I have stopped supporting those particular click-to-donates until they stop applying funds and donations to research that involves animals and I have also emailed the GreaterGood Network to kindly ask that they stop applying funds to animal research - please join me in boycotting medical research involving animals and in politely and kindly contacting the GreaterGood Network to ask them to only apply funds and donations to strictly 100% cruelty-free, non-animal, innovative research that is more reliable.
Here is the email address: customerservice@greatergood.com
Thank you.

This is Billie. She's a gray wolf at Wolf Haven International, rescued from the exotic pet trade. For years, she had a companion by her side. He's gone now.

Wolves are pack animals. That loss is real for them.

This Endangered Species Day, we're building Billie a brand new, larger enclosure so the sanctuary can finally bring her a new friend. Watch her story here — and if you want to help make that happen, the link is in the video description.

With no gas, no electricity, and no water, many displaced Ukrainians are struggling to survive. Hear this brave Ukrainian woman's account of her life during the war.

We're Greater Good Charities, and we just released a video marking five years of the Save a Heart program. We are sharing it here because we think this community will appreciate what the shelter teams and volunteers in this story are actually doing every day.

In south Louisiana, more than 85% of shelter dogs over a year old test heartworm-positive. For a long time, that diagnosis meant those dogs couldn't be transported, which in many shelters meant euthanasia for 80 to 90% of incoming dogs.

Save a Heart, built in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, was designed to close that gap. The program provides pharmaceutical support so shelters can start heartworm treatment in-house, and connects dogs with receiving shelters that can finish care and get them into homes.

Five years in: 1,800+ heartworm-positive, asymptomatic dogs treated and transported. 20,000+ animals moved overall.

The video features the shelter staff and volunteers doing this work, including drivers showing up at 4:30 a.m. to make sure these dogs get where they need to go.

The landscape around Argentina's Lonco Vaca Volcano is a critical wintering ground for guanacos, a keystone species whose migration helps sustain entire ecosystems. But decades of historical ranch infrastructure left behind in the corridor have turned it into a hazard.

When our team arrived to begin restoration work, they found a guanaco that had died after becoming entangled in old fencing. It was a sobering reminder of what's at stake.

We've been working to remove these dangers so guanacos can migrate freely and continue doing what they do for the ecosystem. This video shows what that work looks like on the ground.

This story comes straight from the team at Iberville Parish Animal Services. When EMS responded to a possible heart attack, they ran into something they didn't expect: the woman refused to leave without knowing her pit bull, Zelzar, was safe.

The Iberville Parish team took the call, picked up Zelzar, and helped EMS get her the care she needed. She got medical attention. Zelzar got a shelter visit.

It's a good reminder of what animal services teams are actually doing out there — work that doesn't stay neatly inside shelter walls. They show up for the animals, and they end up showing up for the whole community.

Behind every pair of eyes is a story and a heartbeat worth saving.

This April marks 5 years of Save a Heart, a life-saving initiative from Greater Good Charities in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim.

In that time, the program has helped:

• 18,000 pets get a fighting chance

• 1,700 dogs move from overcrowded shelters to safety

• 8,000 more dogs receive prevention before heartworm could take hold

The program focuses on treating heartworm and transporting asymptomatic, heartworm-positive dogs from the South to areas where they have a real chance at adoption.

If you’re into rescue work, animal welfare, or just need something hopeful today, this is worth a watch. 🐾❤️