Cassie’s Path Into Animal Welfare

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome back to the Market It With Atma podcast, where we give you the tips, tools, and strategies you need to be successful. My name is Brian, and I'll be your host today. Today we have a very special guest, and her name is Cassie Davidson, and she is a leader at the Humane Society of North Texas, an organization dedicated to saving, sheltering, and protecting animals across our communities. Through education, advocacy, and hands-on care, the Humane Society plays a critical role in improving the lives of animals while also strengthening the communities they serve. Cassie, welcome to the show. But before we get to the show, we'd like to say thank you to our sponsors. Today's episode is sponsored by Nouveaux Desk Co-Working, the home of Arlington's most accessible production-ready podcast studio. Whether you're launching your first show or leveling up your content game, NouveauDesk gives you a professional studio environment where you can walk in, hit record, and create. But Nouveau Desk is more than just a podcast room. It's fully equipped business hub with private offices, conference rooms, and workshop and event spaces designed to help you host, collaborate, and grow. If you're ready to elevate your brand, your business, or your voice, book your next recording or your next tour at nuvodesk.com. Create here, work here, build here. Today's episode is brought to you by Nuvio, the all-in-one business platform designed to help you build, manage, and scale with confidence. With NuVio, you can build your own website in minutes, manage all of your leads and customers through a powerful CRM. And if you're in the restaurant industry, you can run your entire operations using Nuvio's modern point of sale system. Whether you're a startup, a service provider, or a full-scale restaurant, Nuvio gives you everything you need in one place. Simple, connected, and built to grow with you. Discover why entrepreneurs are switching to Nuvio. Visit Nuvio.com and run your entire business on one platform. Well, welcome back to the Atma podcast. And like I said, we have a special guest today, and her name is Cassie. She's with the Humane Society. And uh thank you for jumping on, Cassie, this podcast. And this podcast is about educating and helping entrepreneurs, organizations, notprofits, um, and what it looks like to build launch, grow, and scale. Now, we do build launch, grow, and scale here in a marketing agency and um, you know, building a foundation, launching into the market, growing and nurturing relationships and scaling. But that could look like a you know different for all kinds of organizations and businesses. And uh I'm actually excited to talk about your uh organization because it's it's a pretty large organization, right? The Humane Society of North Texas. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about uh what you do and who who you are? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

I am Cassie Davidson, the senior director for marketing, communications, and public relations at the Humane Society of North Texas. Um I've been connected to the Humane Society of North Texas since 2017. Um, but I've actually been in animal welfare for 17 years.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

17 years, wow. 17 years. Really like animals.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

I do. It's more than just than liking animals, and we'll probably get into that here in just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

No, absolutely, absolutely. And so, um, you know, you you've seen our our our kind of flow, build, launch, grow, scale. We're gonna talk about the foundation, what makes a good foundation for an organization? And so what initially drew you personally to to be in this space, uh, and what made this mission something you wanted to be a part of?

SPEAKER_04 3:46

Sure. I would say um a lot of people don't realize the Humane Society of North Texas is independently run. We are not owned by the Humane Society of the United States, who has recently rebranded, but that has caused an awful lot of confusion with humane societies around the country. So our Humane Society of North Texas originally started in 1905. I mean, that's a hundred over 120 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

And originally started as a woman's shelter off of Lancaster Avenue here in Fort Worth, um, grew to women and children, and then we knew it was going to be women, children, and their pets coming from really horrific situations. But as additional needs and additional help was provided for women and children, women's shelters, um, places for them, placement centers for them, we found that we could specialize in pets. And so this all started in 1905. And we have had some crazy animals at our shelter from giraffe. We've had a tiger that is now in a sanctuary, we've had anaconda, all kinds of crazy animals. We don't deal with that as much anymore. We like to say we really specialize in hamsters to hooves. And uh we'll get to that as as well. But I think what drew me in was 17 years ago, um, I hadn't had my twins yet, and I really just wanted to give back to my community. I felt that I've got some extra time. Why don't I go volunteer? And it just started with walking dogs and then helping clean kennels or helping them with off-site adoption events, and it just led to a long-term relationship to where at that point, you know, fast forward 10 years, they were pursuing me to come and actually work for the organization.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

But that was never the intent. The goal was always just I've got to give back to my community. I've and after I had my twins, like, I've got to show my children, you have to give back. Let's round you out. We have to have an appreciation for life.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Wow. You know, it's funny you you you talk about giving back community. You gave with no expectation. And um that's recently been a topic in multiple podcasts, multiple conversations we've had. Uh in fact, I'm a part of an organization called B and I, Business Networking International, and their core value is givers gain, right? You know, you have to give before you gain. And I think that's just a foundation of any successful organization is most times when you even nonprofits, profits, it doesn't matter who um, if we're going into things with the foundation of I me, right, instead of we or how can I um serve, right? Um, then that's where business and organizations fail, right? It's it's very um and it's we've had multiple conversations within our organization of um you can't be selfish, you have to be selfless, right? Uh when you're selfless, you'll you'll find out it's one, more rewarding, and then two, all of a sudden things just start to fall in place. Right? So it's very interesting that you're you didn't go in expecting to be a part of this organization. You just it just happened, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Mm-hmm. Yeah, organically. And my kids started do um donating their time as well after school. So it really became really just kind of family.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Truly.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

That's awesome. So when you think about the early foundation of the organization, what core values have remained consistent over time?

HSNT History And Live Release Rate

SPEAKER_04 7:17

I will say one of the things that really drew me to the Humane Society of North Texas was how they wanted to change really the tapestry of what was happening in animal welfare. When I started back in 2017, you know, it's called a live release rate. And what that means, all shelters, all municipalities, all nonprofit shelters have this. It's the percentage of how many pets are leaving your shelter alive. Are you euthanizing for space? Are you euthanizing for um behavior? You know, what what are the causes here? And there was a time back, you know, again, 2017 time frame where we had a new president that had just come on to the Humane Society of North Texas, and you know, she was unsettled. She was not good with what she was seeing in such a low live release rate. Like, how can we operate like this but still serve our community? And so she brought me on within her first year, and I think that it is not a person, it is a team of dedicated leaders that have changed really the tapestry of the Humane Society of North Texas. And I say that because we have sustained a 97% live release rate for years, and that does not happen overnight. That is hard work, that is a lot of partnerships, that is a lot of animal movement, and there is absolutely a business side to an animal shelter, and so that that's the space I work in.

Community Programs And Pet Intake

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Wow. Well, we are if those watching, I mean, if you're a dog lover and a cat lover and um you hear just some of the stories that you've you know uh even shared with me, it's it's you know miraculous what you guys do and uh heartbreaking at times, right? Uh but there's a sense of hope that you guys bring to saying, hey, you know, there are people out there that are willing to to step up and uh help with these overcrowded shelters that you know you don't want to see any animal be put down when they don't need to be, right? And so um speaking of that, launching, right, educating and getting this programs out there, um what are the key services that programs that Humane Society provides today?

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Oh, I love these programs so much. We have one program called Ray of Hope. It is a program dedicated to senior citizens' pets, and it is no cost. So what we do is um every week we have scheduled appointments for our senior citizens, low-income senior citizens in the community, and we take care of their pets so that they don't end up surrendered in a shelter. I mean, research has shown that seniors with pets are living longer, more fulfilled lives. They're actually getting up out of bed, they're walking, they have something to take care of, something to love, they've got companionship. I can't even imagine my grandparents, you know, either not having a pet or something they were responsible for or not feeling that love from their from their pet. So that is one of the programs that we offer is our program for senior citizens. That's just one of many. I could keep going.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

You know, uh it just hit me. And uh unfortunately I had a friend that passed away and he had a uh a dog. Um they're looking for a home for the dog. Is that something that the Humane Society assists with?

SPEAKER_04 10:30

Absolutely. So we do have intake services, it's by appointment. The Humane Society of North Texas does not euthanize for space. We are so far past that. And being that we are a nonprofit, there is a difference in a nonprofit animal shelter, and we're the oldest in here in North Texas. There's a difference in in a nonprofit animal shelter and a municipality. Your municipalities are those that are funded by the city and the state. We are privately funded, we are completely donor funded. Um so all of our programs, all of our services, all of our intake, all of our adoptions, like everything is done thanks to the North Texas and beyond communities.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Wow. Wow, well.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

So, yes, we do have an intake program. It's by appointment. We behaviorally evaluate. We don't ever want to put a pet into our program that is fractious or that could cause problems. We look at every pet we're bringing into our program as is this a pet I could adopt? Is this a pet that could go safely into a home? And from there, um, we provide resources if we don't have immediate availability and we also have a waiting list. So we absolutely do our part to to intake pets in need in the community, but even past that, we are a community partner. So we go to all of the municipalities that are struggling with pets being dumped. We get them dumped too. But with pets that are being dumped, anytime there's a crisis and you know they had a surge of a hundred pets over a weekend, we will work with them and go pull pets from their shelters that they don't have to euthanize. So it's constant movement.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Gotcha, gotcha. Well, that's awesome. And so um you just kind of touched on this, but ta you know, engaging with the community, whether through adoption, education, outreach, you know, um tell us a little bit about you know what does that look like? Because you know, you kind of went into it, but a little bit more.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

We are very community-centric. And I think that when I came on board and we built the team that we have, that was really the core, it was the essence of who we are. And we have been community-centric ever since. So it really has been how many years is that? Eight, eight years, I guess, almost nine years now. So between our Ray of Hope program, which is built for senior citizens pets, we also have a veterans program for free adoptions that again is sponsored by our community so that um any veteran can have a a pet. Um, and we know that again, it just you make that lifelong connection with with this animal and it changes everything.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Absolutely. You know, we just talked about my dog just earlier, and yeah, it's so funny. He's a cute, he's a cute little monster, is what I always tell people. But he is a like you said, it's funny you say that, he is a ray of hope, right? Um he has completely changed our household for the better as far as um bringing fun and life and just those very little moments that you're like takes you away from all the stress and problems, right? So what does successful outcome look like for your organization on a day-to-day basis?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

So I would say success looks like adoptions. Success looks like donations. I mean, if you if you try to balance the two, you've got operations and you've got um, you know, the development side. And so that's the side I'm on is marketing, communications, development. And I think success looks like part of our success is sustainability, making sure that we do have donations coming in, but also animal movement and whether that is hosting adoption events across the Metroplex, Dallas, and Fort Worth. I believe we have 11 stores now between Pet Smart and Petco, where we bring our trailer six days a week. So we are meeting the community where they are at, not having them come to the shelter. So I think really for us, sustainability is gonna be making sure that we are on the right trajectory, that we have the funds to continue our community work that we're also adopting. So it's kind of like a two-prong.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I think that it's extremely important that um that you have KPIs, right? Um and it's uh interesting that some nonprofits um struggle with this, especially when they're starting off at nonprofit. Um because you have to have a balance between uh the partnerships like Petco and and Pet Smart and um but you have to have the right partnerships, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Uh you are so right. You're so right.

Funding Models And Growth Challenges

SPEAKER_01 14:52

And uh but you you is it's kind of like a uh cash twenty-two because you you have to have awareness in the sponsors and vendors, and then you also have awareness in people that you're serving, the the the households, the um the shelters, saying, hey, we're here to provide resources, right? And so I think that's extremely important to focus on when you're launching um your organization or it just you know launching campaigns or any kind of marketing campaigns, any kind of outreach, I think that's extremely important, right? But then you go into a grow phase and uh we had a conversation off camera, but the growth doesn't always look like growth, right? There are challenges that come in place when you are growing. So can you uh tell us some of the biggest challenges you've gone through with uh with you know the Humane Society and how did you overcome that?

SPEAKER_04 15:42

Sure. I think that because we have grown really for a nonprofit at a rapid rate with all of the programs that we're offering to the community that are either low cost or no cost. So kind of the theme around our department is if you're gonna fail, fail fast. So, you know, working in a in a digital world, it's easy to correct or pivot. But I think that for us, you know, the the growth aspect of this is we're look, we're forward thinking, we're forward thinking. And just in that business model alone, we are constantly brainstorming, constantly dreaming up, dreaming up ways, listening to the community, what is what is their immediate need? What are they looking for? Now we can't provide everything to everyone, but we certainly do our part to support the the greater community.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Right. And and how does balance and growing demand services when available resources, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_04 16:37

So again, I think that's gonna look like we have an entire department that is fundraising for us. So, you know, funds are essential for everything that we do because we don't receive city or state funding. And with a lot of nonprofits, um, any other animal welfare nonprofit, it is really, really hard to get it off the ground because you are funded privately. And so our greatest challenges, as you mentioned, have been just making sure we have the right partnerships. And we have been very, very blessed in our current our current relationships. Um, I can remember years ago we would partner and it just it just was not a good fit for both. We want to give and take equally, and it just was not a good fit. And so, like I said, we're gonna fail fast, right? So we learn and we grow from that. But we're on on track now. You when you talk about the KPIs, I mean that's fundamental to what we do because there is a business side to an animal shelter, yeah, and we have to stay on top of it.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

You know, it's so you just brought up another key point that uh I always I've done plenty of workshops on this, but this goes and and I've done I just did a social media post this this morning about this. Um the five pillars of business or organization or any, you know, I always tell people there are really five things, and I like to keep it five so we can keep it on one hand, okay? It's easy to remember. But um when starting a nonprofit or a business or anything, we gotta take a look at five things, which is legal, finance, marketing, sales, and operations, right? And what um a lot of organizations struggle with is keeping those departments separate but working together. And so um, you know, um when growing, like you just said it yourself, you have a team that really is your sales force, right? That's out there going out, getting partnerships, getting funding. Then you have a marketing team that's going out outreaching, building awareness, letting people engage, right? Um obviously in internal operations, um, but you just said it yourself, you you have to have funding and finance, right? And so uh I think a lot of people um they want the marketing to sells and operations, but they have to realize there's gotta be funds and either you gotta go get it somewhere, right? Uh in this case, whether that's outreach grants, things of that nature, um, but there's gotta be funding involved to help you scale the way you want, right?

Nonprofit Marketing Strategy And Transparency

SPEAKER_04 18:55

For sure. You know, in the way that when you talk about marketing, um there there is such a difference in the way that a for-profit would market versus a nonprofit. I mean, I don't want to name drop. Can I name drop? Um, but let's say that you are um a major shoe company. Okay. How about that? Let's say you're a major shoe company. Okay. Okay, so all you have to do is put a logo on it and it's gonna sell because they have created a brand that is sustainable and that is highly desirable.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Okay, yes, they're spending a lot of money on marketing, but their brand is known. When you look at a nonprofit and you look at us in particular as an animal shelter, our product happens to be pets or programs. And so, you know, I'm not trying to minimize the value of our pets or our programs. I'm just saying in the marketing world, you market differently.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

Major shoe companies literally all they have to do is showcase a logo and it sells. We have to market based on emotion and community and what we are giving back. And in order to give back, we have to receive. So we definitely have a strategy in place that has worked very well for us. And we just see it just as you said, when you scale like this, we just see it continuing to grow.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah. So, you know, it's uh because you kind of just opened the window for me. So you just uh and when it comes to marketing, uh like you said, um, there's different types of marketing. And um the misconception is that branding, marketing, advertising, all of this is the same, and it's not. And so you have uh to your point, uh, when you're building a brand, right, it's a it's a value of of the you know, going to Starbucks, right? I mean the value of the brand, the the value of the product, right? And if you if you build that brand, the more value it holds to use the product, use that service, um, utilize that company. Because you know you can trust the reliability, the consistency on that brand. Um and in advertising, it's just getting it out there, getting out there and getting in front of the right people. Uh that's the key. Yes, getting in right the right people. Okay, because uh you can get out there to everybody, but not everybody wants your product or service, right? Or not everybody's interested or wants to engage.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Um we found that even in that space you could discourage people, you know, and we certainly don't want to do that. So we definitely want to make sure that we are striving to hit the target audience.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah. Well you you you can get in front of the wrong the wrong person and be like, well, I don't care about this, right? Um you know what's so funny is uh I I I hate this uh phrase. Um there's a lot of people say, Well, uh negative publicity is good publicity. It's that's that's completely could help you tarnish your brand and business, right? Um how you navigate negative uh exposure uh tells you a lot about your business and you could flip the switch. Um but that that goes to the story side. of it. The story of um and your brand itself, right? Who you are on a core level as a as an organization. So I I just think it's interesting because when we take when we take a look at marketing advertising, it's not simple. Right? I mean you've been doing this a long time. You're the PR person. You've been doing marketing. I mean you've gone through ups and downs with marketing. I mean for sure. Can you tell us a little bit about like your experience with that?

AI Tools And Scaling Through Testing

SPEAKER_04 22:26

I mean I would say that one thing that we have been steadfast with is we are transparent. And I think some people may argue and say well you you shouldn't you know show the belly of the beast. Well why not? We have nothing we're not hiding anything from from anyone. All of our financials are public record. So if you have a question and I don't have the answer I'm going to find it for you. I'm not going to try and persuade you one way or or another. I mean again when you work in a PR world of course you want to be able to move the needle in the right direction. However I think that there is something that should be acknowledged in truth telling we have become the industry leader. We are contacted by all the local radio TV stations as experts and even if they know that we can't provide an answer they'll call me and say hey we need to do a story on this do you know anybody? And I think that that lends itself to the transparency that we have um maintained for years ever since I came on. I think that that's another just very genuine part of the Humane Society of North Texas is we answer questions.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah so I think it was a what was it two years ago I did a a podcast but I was interviewing my Gen Z interns and they have a phrase and it says you know be real right and I think that um that's becoming more and more and especially now with AI nobody wants fake anymore right and you know organizations and businesses they're like well you know this this AI is taking over yes but you got to be careful because just because AI is going to help you simplify things it doesn't take away the the authenticity that's needed and required to talk to a human being right and so and I'm not saying I I mean I use AI. I use AI all the time our organization uses AI but there's a time and place to use AI. Right?

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Well and I'll tell you we tell our interns with our internship program you know people say all the time like AI is going to take over the world. Oh my gosh you know so many people are are going to lose jobs because of AI. And I I don't want to get in trouble for saying this is just personal opinion but I don't feel like AI, I don't see, I haven't read I'm not convinced AI is going to take over the world. I do feel that people who understand AI will be the ones that are the game changers. And so we have started integrating AI for a while now into a lot of our processes as well. Yeah I think it's um I think of it because it goes straight into this next uh uh section here is a scale right and so scale what is scaling all about well when we talk about scaling and marketing we're talking about building the conveyor belt well that's what AI is gonna help us with you know you've built the foundation hopefully with your organization with your people with your product with your service but once you're in a scale phase now we can talk now we can talk about all this technology that's out there that can help us build this conveyor belt um now before we get off topic though scaling for a nonprofit an organization does look uh different right in in a nonprofit expansion vision and community leadership is is key right so um what does scaling impact look like for the humane society I think that we have we're dreamers and so we have a lot of programs that we want to bake up and put into the community but again without funding it it's not gonna it's not sustainable so we do all the footwork ahead of time. So for us to scale we are testing so we are testing programs for the community testing ways that we are communicating with the general public testing um adoption ways to to better adopt platforms that people might be using to find their perfect pet um and then from there we are adjusting and I think that that's really what will move the needle for us.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

That's so funny you say testing and you know when people think testing they only think oh maybe a software or website. I mean you guys are testing programs and you know it's stuff we're testing feedback exactly getting testing people. But that's it that's what it boils down to, right?

Expansion Plans And The Equine Ranch

SPEAKER_04 26:41

And we are very community centric but we're also you know I want the racial relational equity. So for me personally that is what I focus on is is really just having that that equity with everyone that I work with.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Yeah and and so um you know what are some of the goals this you know next few years and how you continue to expand your reach for the humane society.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

I think some of the goals for the next few years are we we really need a new shelter. I mean it's been 120 years. So I think that we have outgrown it and although we have several city blocks of all of our our shelter um programs and our clinic and our cruelty building a lot of people don't realize we actually have a humane investigations department working with seven counties. We do a lot and so we need to create a capital campaign. So that's what we're working towards now is finding the land that we could build on here in Fort Worth. And then from there we want to build out a nice beautiful shelter that can intake more that can support more community that can really sustain our programs.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

That's awesome. Well uh not just a new shelter but you recently started an equine ranch.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Our equine ranch is actually 10 years old we have actually rehomed over a thousand horses over the last 10 years but we have the only equine ranch in North Texas that rescues through cruelty rehabilitates and rehomes. We are the only large scale they they we're the only one.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah I had to get educated when I was doing research on the equine ranch right um luckily we worked with the rest a Western uh you know uh manufacturing company so we kind of have the ins and outs of uh you know how um people that are in the Western world and how they communicate it is such a hot like it's a hot button.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

It is it is and and it's growing yeah but with with our equine ranch um we're increasing almost doubling our capacity for this ranch. So being around for 10 years and we're going through a redevelopment right now we received an incredible grant to be able to do this. So we're gonna be building like a community center community center like barn dominion style where we will be able to actually educate the public but even at our Equine ranch we have programs and one program that is completely no cost is the wellness program for anyone struggling with PTSD or with cancer or survivors of and so just based on the human horse connection you can schedule times to go out to the ranch and work with our lead trainer and just have that work on that bond together. It is powerful.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

And that's what I was about to say those who are not educated on what an equine ranch is is horses okay yeah absolutely for those who aren't into the Western world that you know uh horse it's a horse ranch and you have lots of horses you also have a mammoth we have a mammoth donkey she's like we have a mammoth donkey his name is Zeb and he is enormous.

SPEAKER_04 29:52

If you've never seen a mammoth donkey it's worth just coming out to the ranch just to you know meet some of the horses and right now our capacity is down because we are restructuring our pastures but um I think that just coming out for a visit and seeing what it's all about like I said we're gonna double our capacity 25 to 35 up to 60 horses that we can then intake um rescue rehabilitate and and rehome. But Zeb is our mascot he's not going anywhere. There you go he is huge it catches people off guard but he is huge.

Where To Find HSNT And Closing

SPEAKER_01 30:24

I've seen pictures and I'm like that is a whole two people right there. Yeah yeah well Cassie well thank you for coming on to the Marketer with Atma podcast and you know um thank you for educating us. I mean uh you're HSNT you know Humane Society of n of North Texas you guys have been here since 19 what? 1905. 1905 see and even though you've been in an organization for that long there's still opportunity to build launch grow and scale in different capacities so those listening we thank you for guys for joining us and uh joining Cassie and I on this venture to talk about the Humane Society of North Texas where can we find uh the Humane Society of North Texas by the way we have a fabulous website um so hsnt.org is our website all of our programs all of our services all of our pets everything is is one stop shop. There you go well visit hsnt.org uh to find out more about the Humane Society of North Texas uh thank you everyone for joining us once again my name is Brian and we'll you know thank you for listening to the Market It with Atma podcast and we will see you guys next time