Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Crawford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi David, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea?

Animal Help Now began as an effort to catalog all the animal species living in Colorado, including where they live (in the wild, on a factory farm, in our homes, etc.), what threats they face (loss of habitat, premature death for human or pet food, unending confinement, depredation by outdoor cats and dogs, etc.), and efforts being made on their behalf. This program would tell a story rarely told. It would make it clear that virtually no animal species benefits from its relationship with humans. It would also allow people to get involved in, or even initiate, efforts to help animals. The project turned out to far exceed the capacity of our small group of volunteers. But our work had yielded a lot of good data, including fairly comprehensive lists of animal shelters, animal control agencies, wildlife rehabilitators, veterinarians, and the like.

Our team was well aware of a separate need in the animal world – the need to be able to quickly find help for an animal emergency. Our team also had substantial technical expertise. So the idea presented itself: create an app that provides users with assistance when they encounter an animal in need. This would include helping injured and orphaned wildlife, helping lost and found pets, reporting cases of abuse and neglect, finding the nearest veterinarians, and a few other features.

Colorado would be the service area.

We would start with a mobile website and then add a desktop website, an iPhone app, and an Android app. Work began immediately.

After a decade of service, Animal Help Now is nationwide, with a narrowed focus on wildlife emergencies and wildlife conflicts, with several hundred users a day. This year the organization will launch a neighborhood pet safety app, which will give animals in our homes a better chance of surviving when wildfires and other disasters strike.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was raised to be curious and compassionate. A whole mosaic of events and interactions – culminating in a summer job at a pig slaughterhouse – led me to animal advocacy. Adopting an animal-friendly lifestyle informed my advocacy. Back then, Tom’s of Maine toothpaste hadn’t even been certified by the American Dental Association. We had dry sunflower mix for “sunburgers,” and dry mix to add with tofu for LoveBurgers. You could get a catalog of leather-free goods from Heartland Products. If memory serves, Heartland was the only such operation in the entire country. If the owner, Frank, is not in the animal rights hall of fame, that’s an oversight.

I began my advocacy in Iowa as a columnist and protest organizer. An early success, in the late eighties, was to ban Tim Rivers and his “diving mules show” from the All Iowa Fair. After moving to Colorado, I co-founded and for many years directed Rocky Mountain Animal Defense – a regional animal rights organization that would strengthen the state’s anti-cruelty legislation, produce the country’s first video exposing the inherent cruelty of factory farmed egg production, work with the citizens of Estes Park to stop a multinational corporation from building a zoo at the east entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park, and expose the Nalge-Nunc corporation, makers of Nalgene water bottles) for its role in developing inhumane restraining devices used in animal testing.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We have been acutely aware of the importance of reputation since our founding. Our extended community is broad. It includes wildlife rehabilitators, veterinarians, animal advocacy organization staff, wildlife agency personnel, and the general public, most notably the animal-loving/animal-respecting public.

We consulted with numerous experts as we developed our initial concept. We were meticulous with our data. We treated everyone with respect. And we placed customer service at the top of our list of priorities, which is where it remains today.

The fact that Animal Help Now is a volunteer-based organization is itself testament to our dedication. See www.AHNow.org/team to get a sense of the value, the contributions, the commitment of our volunteers (and small paid staff).

The world of animal advocacy is a challenging place. People aren’t in it for the money. Theirs are labors of love. And passion. There’s a dearth of recognition and appreciation. And two advocates who might agree on virtually every issue, may well end up estranged because they disagree about whether or not trap-neuter-release is ethical. Just today I had to respond to an email from a person – an animal lover, so to speak – who took the time to write to tell us our app is useless.

Building our reputation is as much about diplomacy as it is about having a good product.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Animal Help Now is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. And I personally am celebrating the organization’s first year of financial security. It’s easier to raise money for dog and cat work than it is for wildlife work. The first 10 years have been hand-to-mouth, with a few high donors and foundations writing checks just big enough to serve as stepping stones through each fiscal year. With our usage increasing every year and with hundreds of visitors a day, we are finally getting the broad public support that we need to be sustainable in the long term. And this is good, because we still aren’t giving enough time to fundraising.

A dear friend passed away unexpectedly in May of this year. She left a large sum of money to Animal Help Now. I believe the best we can do with that gift is to leverage it to further establish the long-term sustainability of the organization. After 35 years of underfunded animal advocacy, I feel a freedom that’s completely unfamiliar. I’m so grateful to my friend and to all of the people who have entrusted their time and their funds to Animal Help Now.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AnimalHelpNow.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animalhelpnowapp/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalHelpNow/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/animalhelpnow
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/animalhelpnow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnimalHelpNow