Becoming an Amnesty Wildlife Sanctuary

If you are involved (or want to be) in exotic animal rescue, welfare, and education, you may want to become an Amnesty Wildlife Sanctuary satellite facility. There are many benefits to you.

You can enjoy the benefits of non-profit status without going through the lengthly and expensive registration process yourself. If you are a small sanctuary housing only a few animals, you probably pay most or all of the expenses involved out of your own pocket. As a nonprofit, you can solicit tax-deductable contributions, and the money you personally donate to cover the expenses of your sanctuary should be be tax deductable.

In some states, you must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit wildlife sanctuary in order to legally shelter wild or exotic animals, and becoming an Amnesty facility may be the quickest and easiest way to satisfy your state's legal requirements.

We are currently registered as a nonprofit in Oregon and are accepting new satellite facilitites in that state. In order to conduct operations in other states, we must be registered in those states as well. As a small, grassroots organization, we lack the available funds to register in every state. If you would like to make a donation to sponsor our registration in another state, simply indicate with your donation how you would like it to be used. If you would like to become a satellite facility in another state, we will happily register if you can provide the funds needed to do so. The cost typically ranges from $50-$200. To keep costs at a minimum, we try to prepare and file registrations ourselves whenever possible.

Each facility pays a $40.00 per year administrative fee. Each satelite is responsible for its own fundraising and is responsible for all costs incurred by its operation. 90% of funds raised by satelite facilities go to support that facility directly; 10% of funds raised by satelite facilities are paid into the general fund.

The Amnesty General Fund is used to pay expenses incurred by the home sanctuary and for various expenses of rescuing and relocating animals. For instance, the fund might pay to fly a rescued animal to the Amnesty facility where it is being placed, or to pay veterinary fees incurred in the initial rescue of an animal.

Why charge fees to be a satellite facility? Wouldn't that money be better off in the hands of the individual facility?

The first reason is to help cover the basic operating expenses of Amnesty, which are small but present, such as accounting fees and screening of facilities. One of the advantages of a network of facilities is that resources can be pooled to help with individual needs. By having small amounts acculmulating in the general fund, we acquire a buffer that can be used to help out in situations where a facility would like to rescue an animal but cannot afford to erect an enclosure for it, pay for transportation, etc.

To learn about the requirements to become an Amnesty Wildlife Sanctuary satellite facility, click here.