Step up and help the Humane Society of the Black Hills build a strong shelter for animals that need help and a home
Two years ago, my wife reached out to the Humane Society of the Black Hills (HSBH) on St Patrick Street in Rapid City to see how she could be of service either to them as a volunteer or as a board member.
She is a lifetime animal lover and cat owner already deeply involved in feral cat rescue and local feral cat spay and neuter organizations. While searching for a lost rescue cat that we had adopted but that had gotten out, she went to the HSBH shelter on St. Patrick Street to look for the cat. She was shocked at the condition of the facilities, the low morale of staff and the terrible, overcrowded conditions. Cats were cowering in cages, terrified by dozens of wildly barking dogs that were caged in the same room due to overcrowding in the deteriorating facility.
Expecting to find a well-functioning shelter befitting a growing city full of animal lovers and pet owners, instead she found a sub-standard facility run by an organization in dire straits, struggling to maintain services and overwhelmed by the flood of animals in need.
HSBH, despite a core cadre of dedicated staff, was struggling mightily to provide services but was clearly failing, caught in a downward spiral. It was reeling from the aftermath of COVID and a troubling legacy of mismanagement and financial scandals going back a decade which had soured the public and decimated the donor base. This created substantial reputational damage resulting in a further drop in donations.
Food and labor costs were rising as donations fell. There was no vet on staff, so animals had to be trucked to an outsourced veterinary office at great expense.
Adoption rates were low, euthanasia rates high but there was no letup in the number of animals in distress coming through the door. HSBH was spiraling downward, caught in a negative, self-reinforcing “doom loop.”
HSBC is the only public shelter in the city and as such it handles all the animal control intake for the city and the county on a contract basis for an amount that most likely exceeds the actual costs. The Humane Society, which should be a central resource for the community and a place of refuge for animals in distress, was fast becoming the last place you would take a stray or a distressed animal in need of help.
The board had dwindled in size and pressure from inside and outside the organization to do something was growing. They resolved to act. Recognizing that in most organizations everything, good or bad, starts at the top and the board is “the top,” they looked inward, opened themselves up to outside evaluation and analysis and responded.
The first step taken was to expand the size of the board by increasing the number of board members. They sought out people with fresh ideas and badly needed skill sets. The expanding board recognized that good board organization and strong corporate governance is a common trait of high-functioning organizations.
Weak bylaws and sloppy procedures had led to past financial scandals, so they rewrote the bylaws and strengthened corporate governance with an emphasis on accountability and transparency.
Next, they initiated a top-to-bottom management review of personnel and operating procedures. As result the board hired a new executive director, Tammy Barrows, a new manager of community relations and outreach, Crissy Davis, and its first in-house veterinarian, Jessica Matlock, all of who have been rapidly updating its operating procedures and strategies, addressing long-neglected issues and implementing best practices gleaned by reaching out to the operators of other shelters in the region.
The internal change has also been notable: with new optimism, staff re-arranged and fixed up their own offices and break spaces. The lobby has started to feel fresher and more welcoming. You can see and feel the difference in the facility and in the attitudes and morale of the staff.
They developed and approved the first ever five-year strategic plan (“Project Rescue”), which outlined the new direction for the society. When shared online, the plan inspired even more people to get involved (and also get hired) because it had been so long since the public had seen a clear vision and plan for the future from the Humane Society and the community responded to the good news. The negative feedback loop feeding the downward spiral started to turn into a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop.
The board pushed hard for new public support, renegotiating their contracts with the city and the county (which had not kept pace with costs or population growth) increasing city funding from around $200,000 to $600,000 and county funding from $50,000 to about $107,000.
The board met with the staff for the first time in a long time to reestablish a lost relationship, and took a further risk in raising the starting wage from $13 to $15 per hour to mitigate turnover.
They created new committees where board members, staff and volunteers can serve together bringing a broader perspective to the board and more voice in the decisions of the Humane Society to the staff.
The transformation is truly astounding, but in order to achieve it the board took a huge leap of faith initiating bold changes and taking financial risk hiring competent personnel. The new, transformed HSBH is running a substantial operating deficit, losing around $30,000 per month. They are only staying afloat by tapping into investments and bequest funds — but these are finite resources they aren’t replenishing themselves.
Animal shelters are a critical component of urban infrastructure and virtually everyone in the community is a direct or indirect stakeholder. There is some public funding, but in direct proportion to animal control services performed at a cost.
Thousands and thousands of lost, stray, unwanted and abused animals find their way to shelter doors each year. The need at HSBH is urgent and very local.
To help drive a community-based level of sustainable funding, the board has put in place and has high hopes for a local membership program offering individuals, businesses and civic organizations the opportunity, through memberships, to relieve animal suffering and have a direct and immediate impact on a very real problem right in our own backyard.
The board is also engaged in an ambitious effort to raise over $1 million in capital for infrastructure; a new, badly needed dedicated cat shelter, a pet enclosure, and new medical facilities that are absolutely essential to prevent overcrowding, provide proper care and relieve suffering.
The biggest challenge they face now is regaining public trust and rebuilding their donor base after so many challenging years in order to fund its expansion plans and close the substantial monthly operating deficit which poses an existential threat to HSBH.
There is no shortage of celebrities imploring us on our TV screens to donate to help relieve the suffering of animals in the heart-wrenching pictures we are shown, but HSBH receives no funding from these organizations.
This is a local issue and can only be fixed by us. There is an opportunity for all of us to help in this effort and help is badly needed, now while they have momentum. Opportunities to help abound.
HSBH is holding its first ever Pet Gala tonight at The Dahl fine arts center in downtown Rapid City where they will role out, among other things, the new membership program.
There are multiple ways for the community to engage. The Humane Society of the Black Hills is located at 1820 East St. Patrick St.. Here’s its website.
Now is the time for the public, the private sector, as well city, state and local officials to step up and be counted. Compassionately caring for lost, neglected and abused animals is a moral imperative as well as civic duty that reflects directly on us as a community. We were failing miserably at that task in Rapid City.
The HSBH board, volunteers and staff have taken the first difficult steps to turn that failure into success. They’ve earned back our trust and it’s up to us to take it from here.
Walter Albasi is a Rapid City entrepreneur and downtown business owner
Photo: Walter Albasi
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