Definition of a Capital Campaign

A Capital Campaign is a rigorous attempt, made by a nonprofit organization, to raise major gifts for one specific goal or a variety of goals. These donations will be used to construct our Grand Strand Humane Society’s new forever home. Essentially, we’re trying to raise a significant amount of money within a defined period of time as a way to support the larger goals, vision and mission of Grand Strand Humane Society.

Capital campaigns differ from other forms of fundraising in that they are massive projects that can span multiple years and cost millions of dollars. As such, capital campaigns often require a targeted fundraising effort with specific phases. Campaigns invite donors to make special gifts over and above the recurring, annual operating gifts they make to an organization.

Before donating, supporters like you, know exactly what it is you’re helping to accomplish. 

The goals of a capital campaign are more specific and clearly laid out as the campaign progresses through its phases. The end goal of a capital campaign is rarely an abstract change; it is almost always something concrete, like a building. Simply put, before our current building was deemed uninhabitable we knew we had outgrown it and came to the conclusion that it no longer met the needs of our community. Since we find ourselves without a permanent home our situation has become dire and raising the capital needed to fund our vision and dream is even more urgent.

A growing city like Myrtle Beach deserves an animal shelter residents can be proud of and tourists want to visit. All you have to do is take a good hard look at the state of our current shelter to see why we need to build a new and better one. Our animals deserve it and our community deserves it.

Grand Strand Humane Society was organized in April 1972. For 50 years we have been a safe haven for thousands of animals in need. Everything about Myrtle Beach has changed except Grand Strand Humane Society. Now, we are looking for our own safe haven. The building a 3241 Mr. Joe White Ave. has given us 50 years of service but it is now outdated and outworn the needs of the rapidly growing Myrtle Beach area.

Fifty years of growth and fifty years of change to both animal welfare and our community means our current facilities no longer meet the needs of the Myrtle Beach area. With an increase in residents comes an increase on the strain of community services and resources. Unfortunately, this also includes the enormous about of animal abuse and animal abandonment cases brought to us. We simply cannot continue to take in the number of animals needed to be sheltered with the current facilities we have at our disposal.

 

 

Why is a new shelter needed?

• We are in dire need of a new, modern shelter to accommodate the number of animals in our care. Simply put we currently don’t have a suitable shelter/buiding for our community’s homeless animals.  The former building on Mr. Joe White Avenue has been deemed uninhabitable. Our city and county are rapidly growing.  Shelter, a veterinary clinic, open adoption areas and a spay/neuter surgery center are all critical to serve our community. With an increase in our community housing population comes an increase in our animal population.

• We estimate that between the cost of land and the new facility we will need to raise between $6-$7 million for all phases of the project.

• We are increasing the space needed to accommodate animals brought to us, adding enrichment areas to make their time with us as comfortable and stress-free as possible and increasing the size and services of our Veterinary Clinic. Also, building costs are steadily increasing because of the demand put on the construction industry and the pandemic we all experienced beginning in 2020.

• Sadly, no we do not expect to receive significant funds from any national animal welfare groups to build the new shelter. However, the city of Myrtle Beach has pledged $500,000 towards our new facility.

• GSHS serves approximately 30,000 pets per year.

• Based on past years numbers we anticipate providing shelter up to 3000 animals per year.

What is the current shelter’s capacity as compared to the new facility?

• There will be an approximately 20% increase in our capacity to house animals.

• Yes! We are planning to add services to our Veterinary Clinic as well as areas of the new shelter that our community can take advantage of for their own use.

• Increased services and new facility features will provide increased revenues to offset increased operating costs.

• Yes, thanks to the generous work of LS3P Architects we have amazing architectural plans in place that we are eager to implement in phases to create a world class facility to care for animals.

 

  These last few years have been challenging to say the least. In early 2020, we came up with new ways to serve our community both with our Veterinary Clinic and Adoptions. These changes and challenges continued through 2021 and in the midst of it all our building on Mr. Joe White Avenue was deemed uninhabitable and we found ourselves homeless like the thousands of animals we care for each year. We are proud to say that during all of these challenges we kept our “doors” open and continued to take in animals found as strays or surrendered by their owners. We continued to provide our low-cost veterinary services as best we could and continued to place animals in loving homes through our adoption & foster programs. We have no other choice. Many times Grand Strand Humane Society is these animals’ only hope. Our mission has remained the same throughout these most difficult years.

There are many ways to donate towards helping us build our New Forever Home! To get started please use the DONATE NOW button at the top of the page.