Setting Up an Animal Rescue Booth to Draw in the Crowds

Animal rescue groups often go to events in order to educate the public about their cause, raise donations, and get adoptions. Some groups just set up a table, chairs, and some flyers. Other groups try to bring as many animals as they possibly can. Some groups bring as much merchandise as they can possibly display. While there are of course many different ways to set up a nice booth, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances for success in educating the public, raising donations, getting sales, and adopting out animals.

Balance is Everything

If you're trying to do multiple things with your booth, such as sales, donations, and adoptions, you have to balance out the booth. It's fine to go towards just one aspect of your organization if that's all you're going for at that event, but otherwise, make sure that the booth includes something for everyone. If the event focuses mostly on educating the public, you'll want to go more towards education (posters, flyers, slideshows, trained volunteers present, etc.). If you're at a general event where you have a choice, decide on a balance that is best for your group at that time. Perhaps you desperately need donations at the moment, so it would be worthwhile to make a huge fancy donation jar to display. Maybe you have a lot of animals to adopt out and want to mostly show off as many animals as possible (remember, they don't all need to be present, you can also do slideshows and photo albums). Make sure that the balance goes towards what you want. Remember that you don't want the booth to look cluttered, so you have to think about how many things you can realistically show before the booth ends up looking like a big mess that no one would dare to visit. A lot of groups pile all the merchandise they can fit into their booth. It's better to put one or two items of each type out, and have the rest underneath or somewhere else for safe keeping. If someone wants to buy more than what you have out, they can ask if you have more. If you're afraid people won't ask, it's okay to put a little sign out that says something along the lines of: "Looking for more items? Just ask any volunteer to see additional stock!" Many groups also make the mistake of bringing too many animals. Let's say that a rabbit rescue stresses on its educational posters that rabbits need a lot of space. However, due to lack of space at the event, they have 30 rabbits in tiny cages packed into a 10' x 10' booth. Set an example with how you set up your animals. Instead of bringing 30 rabbits, bring one or two groups and put them in exercise pens with litterboxes, hay, and some toys. Show people how rabbits are kept in your foster homes if possible (maybe in a bit smaller enclosures due to booth space restrictions). At the very least, try to show one example of something acceptable. A pair of guinea pigs living in a 6 square foot cage sets a much better example than a bunch of guinea pigs crammed into small pet store cages to save space. It's pretty hard to tell people you won't adopt your animals to them when the setup you're showing is worse than what they have. A good alternative to bringing a lot of animals, is to bring a few, and then also do a slideshow. This way people can interact with animals in a good environment, see a good setup, and still notice that there are more than just 2 animals in your rescue. Properly balancing out your booth with probably take you several events to figure out, but once you have a nice setup you will get a reputation for being a group that those holding events wish to have present.

Know How Much Space You Have to Work With... Ahead of Time

Knowing how to balance a booth out does you no good if you don't know how much space you're working with. If you're used to working with 10' x 20' booths and have your layout balanced based on that, you'll be in for a surprise when you arrive and see the 10' x 10' booth that is awaiting you at the event. Always check into this ahead of time. See what size tent(s) will fit in your area, what size tables you'll need to bring, how much merchandise should fit, how many animals you can realistically set up in the space, and how many chairs will fit. Having chairs is generally important, as your hard-working volunteers deserve a break every so often. Don't make your volunteers stand all day or you might have quite a few that don't come back. Let volunteers help with the booth setup plans as well, to ensure that those actually setting up the booth know what to do and like how it is going to be done. If possible, draw out a diagram of your booth setup before the event. Include measurements where possible, to avoid getting to the event and finding out that things don't fit where you had thought they would. After you do a few events, you'll get an idea for how your setup will need to look for a few basic booth sizes. The most common sized booth space tends to be 10' x 10', so that's a good starting point for your planning. Never assume that event planners chose a standard size for the booths though, always check it out before you show up. You'll generally know right away what the size of the booth will be if you had to pay for it. Some booths are donated though, so you may have to ask. Don't be afraid to ask the size of a donated booth. Explain that you are grateful for any space that is given to you, but you just need to know the size so that you can know what to bring. Don't feel silly if you have to do a trial run first and mark out 10' x 10' on the ground to see what will really fit. Once you get used to setting up booths, you'll get more and more comfortable with knowing what will fit where.

Experiment with Different Layouts

Sometimes you want to have any and all tables out in front, with volunteers sitting behind the tables. For other events, you will have to be more creative. Always make sure that volunteers can get in and out of the booth easily (and no, ducking under the tables to get out and go to the restroom is not considered easy). Something I've noticed after going to many events, was that people often made the passageway for volunteers too small. Make sure that any volunteer can comfortably get out of the booth. Aside from making the layout easy for volunteers to move about in, you'll also want to make the layout friendly to the public. Can the public easily reach the merchandise they want, or are you stacking things too high? Are people going to be able to easily steal items, or are the items easily within your field of vision? Yes, believe it or not, people will steal from rescues (so make sure your cash box and donation jars are secure as well). See what layout works best for you and be sure to ask for feedback from volunteers. Don't be afraid to change your layout in the middle of an event if something is horribly wrong, but try to come up with a good layout ahead of time if possible.

Know Your Event

Events come in all shapes and sizes. Some events are family oriented, while others are for a mature audience. Some events focus on adoptions, others focus on education, and some focus on something else entirely (such as remembering pets in shelters who have been euthanized). Know your event and know what's appropriate. Know who your audience will be. Is this an event hosted by a vegan organization? You probably don't want to sell anything with animal products in it, but anything natural and organic should be a big hit here. If the event is family oriented, you probably don't want to have those graphic posters of neglected and abused animals as they came to your organization out in front of your booth (if at all). Is this event only for a mature audience? If the event somehow caters only to adults, your more graphic posters should be okay, and you can probably take the "Color this Puppy" coloring sheets off your table. A little bit of research into the event and its audience will go a long way.

Look at Other Booths

Take a look around while at events. See what other rescue groups are doing. Does a rescue with a fun donation jar get more donations? Do graphic posters in front of booths cause even adults to skip over those rescues? Bring a digital camera along and take some photos of other setups to get ideas for your next event. Many groups that have been around for a long time have their setup down to a science. These groups come to an event, quickly setup, draw in a huge crowd, sell a lot of merchandise, recruit new volunteers, bring in donations, bring in adopters, and then at the end of the day quickly tear down their setup and go home. You can learn a lot from watching these other groups. Often they'll be willing to help you when they aren't busy. Ask for advice on what you can improve on, and don't be afraid of criticism. If having a better booth educates more people, adopts out more animals, and brings in more donations, that's a good thing and you shouldn't let your pride get in the way of that.

While having a nice booth may seem trivial to you now, consider how you think of booths when you are a visitor to an event. If you're like most people, you don't have time to visit every booth. A booth with too much merchandise might seem overwhelming, but a booth with just a table and handouts might seem boring. Seeing a few animals is always fun and usually animals will draw in just about anyone walking by. Think about different booths from an adopters perspective. If you see a booth where it appears that the animals aren't properly cared for at the event, how are you going to believe that the animals are well cared for in their foster homes? If you see a booth where the animals are in good sized enclosures and look happy, you're going to walk over to that booth and check out the animals they have for adoption. Having a nice booth setup will help you to further your cause. If more people visit your booth, more people can potentially be educated. If more potential adopters come to look at the animals your organization has to offer, the more likely it is that those animals will soon be adopted. When more people walk up to see your cute donation jar, more people donate. Even if you think appearances aren't everything, you'll soon find that a better booth appearance really helps to further your cause at events.