The weirdos 5 year plan

Good Morning Weirdos and welcome to the Sunday blog! Today we wanted to discuss our 5-year goals. We have had our 501(c)(3) status for 6 months and although we are still learning and growing as a team and as an organization, we believe that having long-term goals in place is one of the best ways to ensure that we have guiding principals in our day-to-day operations. It helps us to be able to ask the question – Will [this action] help us to achieve our goals and is it in line with our guiding principals? If the answer is no, then we know that it’s not something we should do or be involved with. If the answer is yes and we feel that it is attainable, then we can choose to move forward and throw ourselves into it, heart and soul.

• Emergency Vet Bill Assistance

The Weirdos plan to leverage grants to make our overall goals more attainable and sustainable. In a purr-fect world, we won’t have to have emergency posts (EP’s) for every emergency vet bill that we would like to cover. Grant money in this area would allow us not only to cover expenses without EP’s, but it would also allow us to cover a greater number of cases.

• Virtual Pet Food Pantry

We hope to continue our efforts to help those in need of assistance with food and litter for their pets. Whether that be because they are home-bound and unable to go to the store, or because they have fallen on hard times and simply need the assistance until they are back on their feet. In order to do this, our goal is both to grow and expand our monthly sponsorship pool, but also to work to obtain grants to further fund this effort.

• Expanding the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Efforts

Led by Dawn Thomas, the Weirdo TNR Division is looking forward to getting back to work once the TNR clinics reopen. The team plans to continue its project at a local trailer park, as well as start projects in feral colonies in Cleveland, Old Brooklyn and other surrounding communities.
With kitten season starting, we really need to work together to make sure we help as many cats and kittens now. If you need help with a feral colony, please let us know so we can see if we are able to assist you. If you know of a pregnant stray cat or one that has had kittens, please contact local rescues and see if they can help. Moving forward, we will work to continue building up the TNR division and will be working towards having the ability to foster friendly strays and kittens that are found.

• Bring Weirdo License Plates to Fruition

Despite the difficult times, we are continuing to work with Representative Robinson and his aide, Dakota Bidgood, to bring this dream to life. Not only will this help with name recognition through Ohio, but it will become a sustainable source of income for the Weirdos. Although we do not know if this will come to fruition by the end of the year as originally planned, it is something that we will continue to work to bring to life!

• Become a Rescue

One of our long-term goals is to actually begin rescuing cats and finding placement for them in good homes. This is another effort that we envision being funded mainly by grants. Efforts will likely start small, with foster-based care. We hope to grow this into an effort in which we are able to have a brick-and-mortar establishment that will allow us to have cats on site for adoption. Although we may not be able to accomplish this entire dream within the 5 years, we hope to at least be able to begin seeking grants and establishing foster-based rescue within this time.

• Get to know our Weirdo Family

One of the other things that we’d like to establish is monthly Weirdo gathering at different local establishments in the area. Sadly, with the current state of things with COVID-19, this won’t be achievable in the near future, but it is something that will begin just as soon as it’s safe to do so. We had so much fun meeting many of you when we were getting petition signatures for the Weirdo plates and we want to continue networking and getting to know our Weirdo family.

Some of the other efforts we will be continuing to work on moving forward:

• Expanding Weirdo merchandise offerings
• Establishing policies and procedures for all aspects of the non-profit. We are currently mid-way through this effort and will continue working to get this done.

A few other things that we’d like to say regarding the Weirdos, as it relates to the actual business, non-profit end of things. First, we appreciate all of you and could not do this without you. THANK YOU for everything you do to make this group the amazing bunch of Weirdos it is. Also, we work hard to be transparent and up-front in all aspects of the business. If you have questions or concerns, we welcome you to bring them to our attention at any time. This is just as much your family and business as it is ours.

Best Wishes & Purrs,
Amber Tischler