Growing Your Foster Program: Increasing Care for At-Risk Animals

Speaker: Ryan Miller, Grants Manager, The Animal Foundation

November 19, 2026

12:00 - 1:00 p.m. on Zoom

Fostering is a critical lifesaving pathway for most shelters, but too often at-risk populations are overlooked in favor of highly adoptable animals. This presentation will focus on two of the highest risk animal groups in your shelter and how to make them a focus of your foster program: dogs with extended lengths of stay and neonatal kittens.

Short term fosters, or “Foster Field Trips” as they’re known, help dogs by giving them a psychological reset from the shelter with minimal effort from foster families. Foster Field Trips help you set up these high-risk dogs for success in two major ways: they help improve kennel presentation and overall behavior upon their return to the shelter, and they provide your team with valuable personality insights that matter to potential adopters.

Empowering your community to foster kittens before they even enter your shelter can not only increase your capacity for care, but also set these kittens up for the best shot at a healthy life. For the kittens already in your shelter, overcoming the barrier of “I’ve never fostered kittens before!” is often the first and only step you’ll need towards increasing your live release rate within this population.

Included in this presentation will be a brief discussion about the financial burden these programs can impose, and how to overcome this barrier through the lens of fundraising and crowdsourcing donations. 

ABOUT RYAN MILLER

Ryan Miller is currently the Grants Manager for The Animal Foundation, and has been with the company for over six years. He graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2010 with a degree in Mathematics and further pursued Master’s coursework in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis in Project Management.

He has an educational and professional background in project management, financial forecasting, program development, and operational auditing. He left the for-profit corporate world in 2019 to pursue his lifelong passion in animal welfare. Starting in the animal admissions department and working his way through multiple areas including foster, community outreach, and accounting, he ultimately ended up in the development department. In his current role, he works heavily with nearly all departments within the shelter, helping to create or enhance programs with funding, planning, and implementation.

REGISTRATION FEE

• $0 for Ohio Fed Webinar Bundle participants with code
• $25 per organization for Ohio Fed members with 1-5 program participants 

• $35 per organization for Ohio Fed members with 6-10 program participants 

• $45 per organization for Ohio Fed members with 11+ program participants 

• $50 per organization for non-members 

Ohio Animal Welfare Federation is an approved provider of content which enhances professional competence and aligns with the 5 domains of the CAWA Exam specifications. Every hour of training equals 1 CE towards CAWA Recertification.

This webinar has also been approved for Continuing Educational Units by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). National certificate holders can submit for credit consistent with the NACA CEU policy located here.