Volunteers Save Lives!
Individuals of almost any age, friend pairs, or families! As volunteers, you are helping Bond County Humane Society’s cat and dog shelters save hundreds of temporarily homeless cats and dogs, giving them the opportunity to find loving new forever homes.
You can absolutely list relevant skill-building volunteer work on most job applications!
Teenagers! Colleges and universities like to see a variety of interests and volunteer work on your applications. Show your first choice schools you are big hearted and love animals. Show them you’re responsible and dependable by volunteering at Bond County Humane Society’s cat and dog shelter facilities!
Future & Aspiring Veterinarians, Vet Techs, Biology Majors, Public Relations Majors, Business Majors! Bond County Humane Society has volunteer positions for you and your career goals!
Clean & Feed Team Member
A favorite of the animals, these hands-on volunteers help us to do the twice-daily feeding of our cats and dogs, dog walking and exercising, cleaning of their living spaces, and doing dishes and laundry. Volunteer shifts are scheduled in ninety minute to four hour shifts: shifts from 8am—11am (cat shelter mornings), and from 3:30pm—5:00pm (cat shelter afternoons); from 8am—11am (dog shelter weekend and holiday mornings), and from 5:30pm—7:00pm (dog shelter evenings). Learn our routines from the ground up, show responsibility, and you may qualify to serve as a shift leader!
We can also use volunteers to trim cats’ nails, brush and bathe animals, and train dogs. These tasks are typically scheduled weekly or on an as-needed basis.
Adoption Day Assistants
Are you a matchmaker and like working with people AND pets? We need volunteers for Adoption Day Assistants! If you’re free 1 or 2 Saturdays a month, at least 16 years old, a young retiree, or just love spending time with dogs and cats, call 618-664-4068 or email BCHS today at bchs4pets@sbcglobal.net to learn more about this role! We leave Greenville at approximately 9:20am every Saturday and drive our adoptable pets to PETCO in Fairview Heights. We need adoption assistants to help unload and load up the van, care for the animals during the day, and assist potential adopters in interacting with adoptable pets and filling out adoption application forms. We get back to Greenville and are finished unloading around 5pm. It’s fun and rewarding and a quick way to rack up those volunteer hours. You may also qualify to be trained as an Adoption Counselor!
Other On-Site Volunteer Opportunities
Handyperson: We have continuous projects at the shelter in need of skilled laborers. This could include general maintenance, landscaping, installations, plumbing, electrical and much more. All contractors are welcome.
Photographer/videographer: Professional photographers and videographers are needed to help us create impactful media content to feature our adoptable animals and promote the shelter and society.
Off-Site Volunteer Opportunities
Foster Parent: Fostering an animal in need is one of the most rewarding experiences! Sometimes pets need fostering due to health, age or temperament. Opening your home to an animal not only ensures that they will stay healthier and happier while awaiting adoption, but it saves lives by allowing us to bring more animals into our shelter facilities! Visit our Foster section of this page to learn more.
Fundraising Volunteer/Event Coordinator: Like to have a good time and help the animals? The fundraising committee is for you! This group puts the FUN in FUNdraising by planning not just our major events, but exciting activities throughout the year to help raise funds for the animals.
Graphic Designer: We need professional graphic designers to help us with creating print materials for events and shelter promotional materials as well as designing creative images for our website, social media posts, and email campaigns.
Outreach Volunteer: If you love animals and would like to educate people about adoption, spay/neuter, volunteer opportunities, and responsible pet ownership, become an outreach volunteer. This volunteer represents Bond County Humane Society offsite and assumes responsibility for faithfully presenting BCHS in a true and positive light.
Transporter: Don’t mind some extra time on the road? We often drive animals in our care to area vet clinics for routine medical care and their spay/neuter surgery. We transport adoptable pets and the equipment/supplies necessary for Off-Site Adoption Event Day to Petco in Fairview Heights each Saturday. We also transport trapped feral/free-roaming cats to and from the low-cost spay/neuter clinic once a month.
Volunteer as a BCHS Officer
Join our membership and volunteer to serve as an officer! We have great fun and make lifelong friendships while performing our mission to save and find loving responsible homes for adoptable pets, reduce pet overpopulation, and increase awareness for the welfare of pets in our communities.
Open officer positions include:
- Treasurer
- Vice President — Volunteers
- Vice President — Membership
- Vice President — Grants
- Foster Homes Manager
In order for BCHS to fulfill its mission it takes a lot of effort on the part of many people. If you would like to start participating more actively, please do not hesitate any longer. Call or email or come to one of our members meetings (1st Wednesdays 7:30pm at our conference room in our new Cat Shelter Building, 2510 South Elm Street.) Plus, please watch our Facebook page for changes or additional meeting notices. We can’t hardly wait to meet you and introduce you to the leadership team!
Foster a Pet in your Home
Fostering a dog or cat is, simply put, saving lives. When you become a foster parent, you volunteer to keep a homeless pet in your home temporarily until they go to a forever home or can be taken into our animal shelter. Sometimes a spare room is the only thing standing between a cat or dog and euthanasia in an animal control facility. You can help Bond County become a no kill county!
There are many different pets that come to Bond County Humane Society who would benefit greatly from a foster home. BCHS coordinators will work with the potential foster parents to find their foster match.
- Pregnant cats and dogs
- Young kittens and puppies
- New dogs and cats
- Pets with special needs
Because BCHS’s shelter facility has limited space and limited volunteer staffing, there is a great need in our community to have a network of foster homes available to take in adoptable animals prior to their placement in permanent homes. Many abandoned or stray animals are traumatized by the time they end up in an animal control facility. After BCHS accepts the animal from an animal control, home-fostering GREATLY increases the chances of being adopted thanks to lots of TLC, training, and love.
Fostering is a critical first step in helping a needy dog or cat to find a loving home. Foster parents provide temporary shelter and care for a BCHS dog or cat in need. Foster families transport their animals to and from vet appointments (vet care paid by BCHS), and may be asked to attend adoption activities with their foster animal. And of course, foster parents provide the loving attention their foster dog or cat so desperately needs.
Tax breaks! Unreimbursed expenses for fostering a pet for an IRS qualified 501(c)(3) adoption organization can be deducted! This includes the usual costs for pet food, supplies, and veterinary bills. You can also deduct 14 cents per mile for trips made to further the shelter’s work.
While most foster placements are short term, foster families have the option to adopt their foster animal and make him or her a permanent part of the family if they wish. BCHS provides each foster family with the necessary food, collar, crate, and ID tag appropriate for their situation, as well as support and training to help solve behavioral issues that may arise. The animal’s foster parent learns all about them (likes, dislikes, habits, etc.) so that we can tell adopters all about them and place them in the most appropriate permanent home. At this point BCHS has only a few homes available so... WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please fill out a Foster Home Application today or call 618-664-4068 to learn more!
If you cannot view .DOC documents, try these .PDFs of the Volunteer & Foster forms you can print and fill out instead!
Volunteer Form in .PDF
Foster Home Form in .PDF