Happy New Year!
2019 year in review: As 2019 has come to pass, any good business would take some time to review how effective and efficient the company has run, and even though we are a charity, Amelia Air is no different. A look back at what we’ve accomplished in the first 4 months of our existence reveals what I think to be pretty impressive numbers, which I’ll go into along with some stories of how we operate as well as some areas I look for improvements.
Bottom line: 2019 was a great start! We rescued 48 dogs last year under our newly formed charity Amelia Air, spending $4,765.98 which translates to $99.29 per animal rescued. That’s almost exactly what we’ve committed as the metric for success – we wish to rescue animals at a cost of $100/animal or less, so our initial rescue year was a resounding success!
Logistics success: We have developed a good set of pipelines for animals to get out of high risk areas, and successful rescues that manage to organize adoptions very quickly. We’ve filled a niche where other charitable organizations have left a gap – our mission is about multiple animals on any flight, and we’ve partnered with several shelters, coordinators and rescues that are meeting out needs nicely! Some include Canine Humane Network, Wilson Human Society, Delta Humane Society, For the Love of Dogs NC, and more. 2020 is starting out with some new and exciting opportunities, for more partnerships, more efficient planning and transportation, and some new help from wonderful volunteers to expand our ability to plan trips, promote the mission, raise funds and measure our success.
Areas of improvement:
Improved funding streams: We have started talking with companies and have seen an interest in making donations to Amelia Air
SWAG! 2020 will be the year we get some Amelia Air t-shirts, hats, jackets and other assorted designs out in public to generate buzz, and start discussions with people about the problems facing animals in the US these days.
Redundancy: We need some more commercial-rated pilots to get the animals rescued from different locations that currently aren’t efficient for our DC-based crews to fly to/from. We have some partners in California lined up, and hope to make that happen this year.
Disasters: We are preparing to service the post-hurricane traumatized animals this fall, with more coordination and flights.
Publicity: A national news segment this in 2019 raised awareness dramatically, and we look forward to local and national news again in 2020, which we’re actively working towards.
Improved economics: As we’ve been able to meet out initial goal of the most efficient transportation of animals in need, we’ll be working with different rescues and shelters that can offset the cost of transport which will allow us to stretch the donations from our wonderful supporters even further.
Thank you: We’d very much like to thank our wonderful volunteers, our life-giving donors and all our readers, viewers, subscribers and social media followers! We couldn’t do this without all of you, so thank you for getting and staying involved. We promise to do much more in 2020 to help save animals, decrease rampant over-population and educate anyone who will listen about the value of adoption, and the need for population control. For all you do, we thank you!