We are Thankful For YOU!!

We did it! Congratulations my friends! I'm so freaking excited to say WE DID IT!!!! We started 2021 with the goal of this year being the "Year of the Barn"! We are now ending 2021 with the most incredible barn, office, and therapy space I have ever seen. It seriously surpasses all of my wildest dreams. So much so, that I often worry I'm going to wake up and none of it will be real! We are very close to getting to share about our anonymous donor, but the focus of this letter is on you, our followers! While we were gifted this beautiful structure and are so unbelievably grateful; the stress that came along with trying to make it work for us as we accommodate the unique animals and visitors we have here at times felt insurmountable. Because of your support and the money we raised from our Angel wall fundraiser we will have safe, warm, happy babies all throughout the winter as well as a space to continue to love and help heal anybody that needs us. As I predicted, and is often the case in my world, suddenly having a space where we can save more lives and heal more hearts meant there was an even greater demand. Since putting up the new building and starting construction we have brought the number of animals in our care that come from hard places or have special needs up to 200 plus; and before the construction has even finished we are already helping to feed, love on, and provide a safe space to heal and sometimes even sleep for even more humans than that. The level of enormity involved in that sentence can feel suffocating at times. It's an incredibly heavy task to take on and feel responsible for the saving and healing of so many different lives both animal and human. There are times when I'm sure it's going to bury me. That I am not strong enough or even remotely qualified for the job. But, as you already know, there are moments of absolute magic that happen here that make everything so worthwhile it's almost impossible to slow down. Moments when you can feel what love is. You can see what unconditional love has the power to do. There are moments I'm so honored to facilitate and be a part of that they actually completely take my breath away. Those moments are why I wanted to send you a love letter! I wanted to remind you how lucky I feel to have you as a part of my rescue family whether that is because you are here scooping poop and feeding animals, or at home sharing our stories and mission of kindness. Safe in Austin is only as strong as the people supporting it and what an incredible family we have. As we finish up this insane year I want to wrap you up in gratitude and remind you that all of these incredible things have been very hard on us financially. Besides the construction, the new animals, the struggling families, and random emergencies, all of social media has been working against us for months. If you follow any nonprofits that work off of donations like we do you are already fully aware that Facebook and Instagram are failing us miserably. Months ago, before there was a big court appearance against Facebook we were getting an average of 5-6 hundred reactions to our posts. On average somewhere around 5,000 people were seeing them. Right now, we are seeing less than 50 reactions to posts and maybe 1200 people are even seeing them. Unfortunately, we can study the algorithms all day long, but they constantly change and we can't control how many people Facebook decides should see what we share. As a nonprofit that works entirely off of donations, which basically means cute pictures on the internet, this is a really big and terrifying deal! With that in mind I just want to remind you how important visiting our page and sharing our posts is to us as an organization. The donation button on Facebook is a large part of our operating budget and we are not even coming close to covering the cost of feed at this point let alone anything else. Our monthly sponsorship opportunities available on our website and each individual animal's page are a huge benefit to us knowing that we have at least some amount of money coming in each week, so don't forget about that either! And finally, if you happen to know any individual or business that is still looking for a worthy place to share their end of the year donations we are in great need of such generosity. There is something really big and really exciting about to happen come the first of the year. I can't wait to share it with you all and it should help bring in some amount of donations! However, without a doubt, it will also bring in many many more needs. Thank you for sticking with us and sharing this journey with me. It's crazy to think eight years ago I was a scared single mother with an autistic child that was struggling. At that time I also felt unworthy and under qualified. But I followed my heart and found a miracle in the shape of a fluffy white dog appropriately named Angel. It's overwhelming, really when you stop to think about it, how one decision can change your entire life.... and also every single life you come across after that. My mission is very clear. Let's continue to change the world together!! Jamie AKA- Crazy animal lady, and proud beyond words Founder of Safe in Austin Rescue Ranch! Paypal: Safeinaustin@gmail.com Venmo: @safeinaustin Website Donations www.safeinaustin.org "Donate Button" Checks Mailed: Safe in Austin 14601 Honeycomb Dr. Leander, TX 78641