The puppy raiser community

Very few organizations have a constituency like this. A puppy raiser takes an animal into their home, does the foundational work for a year or more, and then returns it — knowingly, from the start, as the point of the arrangement.

They are the most committed volunteers in the sector and the most emotionally invested audience an auction could have. They are also, for exactly those reasons, the group to ask most carefully.

Ask lightly, and never as an obligation

Somebody who has given a year of their household to the organization has already given more than any lot. The ask should be easy to decline and invisible when declined.

• Ask what they do professionally, not only whether they will donate
• Ask for promotion before money — it is what they are best at and most willing to give
• Never tie participation to placement news, dog assignments or raiser standing
• Do not ask a raiser in the weeks around handing a dog back

That last point is specific and important. The handover is genuinely hard, the community knows when it happens, and an ask landing in that fortnight is badly timed in a way the raiser will remember.

What raisers will donate

• Skills and services from their own businesses and professions
• Handmade things — raiser communities produce quilts, collars, coats, artwork
• Photography of the dogs, which they have in quantity
• A puppy-sitting week for another raiser, which is genuinely valuable within the community
• Their networks, which reach far beyond the organization's own list

Items raisers will bid on

• Anything featuring a specific dog they raised — a print, a portrait, a paw print
• Naming a puppy in an upcoming litter
• A day with the training team, seeing where the dogs go next
• Sponsoring the raiser year for a future puppy
• Reunion or meet-up events with dogs they raised, where the organization can arrange it

A commissioned portrait of a dog a raiser had for a year is the single most reliably emotional lot in this catalogue. Find a local artist and offer several.

Give them the promotion job

Raisers have social followings built around a specific dog's progress, and their audiences are people who already care about the work. That is a better promotional channel than the organization's own list and it costs nothing.

• Send them the auction link with an image of a dog they know
• Give them one specific item to share rather than the whole catalogue
• Let them say why in their own words rather than supplying copy
• Thank them publicly by name where they are comfortable with it

Career changes and losses

When a dog a raiser worked with changes career, retires or dies, the community feels it. Do not run a campaign into that week, and do not use those events as fundraising material.

Where a raiser wants to mark a dog with a donation or a named item, that is theirs to initiate — and it is one of the more meaningful things this organization can offer.

General information, not legal or clinical advice for your organization. Access rules, recipient privacy and the language your own community prefers differ — your training leadership and the people you serve decide how any of this applies.