weirdos by the numbers

Hi, I’m Amy, the accountant for Weirdo Cat Lovers of Cleveland. As a recognized 501(c)(3) organization, we were required to file our annual report with the state on July 15. This was our first, as we only received this recognition in October 2019, and it was post-dated to April 2, 2019. While I was going through the ledgers to gather the required information, I found some interesting points to note that I felt our members would appreciate knowing.

- Last year, between April 2 through December 31, we raised almost $5,000 through our fundraisers, including t-shirt sales, Larchmere Fireworks, and calendar sales.

- Through emergency posts (EPs), during that same time period, our members donated just over $17,000 to help pets experiencing medical crises, and we paid out $18,500 in doing so.

- Because our leadership is comprised solely of volunteers, we were able to keep our expenses down to $3,100, and almost $1,000 of that was money spent to attain our non-profit status. That will not be an ongoing expense.

- Because of the way records were kept, it’s difficult to determine exactly how many cats and kittens were helped (i.e. we had line items that just said “kittens”, so I couldn’t tell how many that meant), but I estimate we helped between 50 and 70 cats and kittens last year.

As you can see, our members are especially important to us and our mission, and we are so thrilled that we were able to help so many cats as a group of over 18,000 members. When an emergency post goes up, please know that we have completely reviewed the situation, and any funds we collect beyond what the situation requires are then reserved until the next time an emergency arises for one of our members.

Recently, I’ve noticed comments on some of our EPs asking why we type “bump” as a response. Facebook newsfeed algorithms work in, among other ways, almost a Fibonacci method (Google it), the more a post is interacted with, the more it is seen. In other words, as ridiculous as it sounds, the more it is seen, the more it is seen. It’s like the old Breck shampoo commercials: “and they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends…” (I just seriously dated myself). So our admins and moderators continuously respond with “bump” or an emoji to increase activity and views. Some have taken issue with this, saying that it’s obnoxious, but I ask you to consider this: If it was your cat who was in a life or death situation, wouldn’t you want as many people to see it as possible?

On behalf of the entire leadership team, I wish to thank everyone who participated in our fundraisers, donated funds to an emergency, or even bumped an EP for us. Every little bit helps with our mission. Here’s to hoping that 2020, despite this pandemic, sees us make a difference in the lives of even more felines and their human mommies and daddies!