How an Aussie construction worker found himself rescuing and rehabilitating animals in Thailand

Originally from Queensland, Australia, Ryan Godden runs Pete’s Mission in Pai, Northern Thailand, a vegan rescue and rehabilitation centre for animals.

Ryan was previously a construction worker before he decided to dedicate his life to rescuing animals. He spent 10 years working with a number of domestic and wildlife rescue foundations in Thailand before setting up Pete’s Mission in 2017.

Ryan named his foundation Pete’s Mission as Pete was his first rescue dog who tragically died in an accident after being hit by a car.

A day in the life of Ryan and his team

Pai is a small town with a population of 2,500 people but there are a lot of animals in the valley and the team at Pete’s Mission find themselves commonly supporting dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, horses and wildlife.

 

Some of the daily activities that come with running an animal rescue centre include:

• Responding to emergency calls
• Feeding and enrichment for the pack of dogs 
• Providing sterilisation and vaccination service
• Expanding the farm rescue 
• Rehabilitation and adoption service

Ryan and his team offer sanctuary for old, ill and severely disabled animals along with those waiting adoption. They partner with the local veterinary service centre when emergency operations or sterilisation services are required.

The challenges with running a rural charity

A charity fundraising strategy will include everything from running events, and media campaigns to nurturing long term relationships with the donor community. Like many nonprofits the main focus for Pete’s Mission is to ensure there is enough financial support to keep the operation running week to week. 

Being part of a rural community makes that process additionally challenging and, though for Pete’s Mission there is some local support, the majority of the fundraising effort comes down to having a well curated online presence and being able to tell stories that resonate with their supporters.

The POWER of data driven storytelling

One of our missions at Task is to shine a light on the organisations who are really making a difference and so much of our technology has been designed to make it easy for nonprofits and social enterprises to present the impact they’re creating.

With Pete’s Mission the teams are able to demonstrate the success of their animal rescues, sterilization programs, and the successful rehabilitation of street animals in Thailand. Being able to share these activities with the donor community helps to create trust & confidence which in turn leads to additional funding.

The volunteers simply capture activity data via their smartphone before it’s verified and shared on the Task project page. And each activity earns an IMPACT token helping to encourage user engagement and initiate a points and rewards system.

Social media, payment gateways, and crowdfunding are tech that Pete’s Mission animal rescue is dependent on. Tech helps us to reach more people, to be more efficient and to bolster our fundraising so we can continue with the mission at hand.

– Ryan Godden, Founder & Director Pete’s Mission

These data driven stories are shared on the Task project pages giving donors an opportunity to see how their money is being used and as a result helping Pete’s Mission to garner further support from the online community.

The future for Ryan and Pete’s Mission

Ryan plans to continue expanding the mission and help more animals and people within the district. That means bringing on additional staff, volunteers and expanding facilities.

Whether working with social media platforms to spread the word or publishing other content to help keep the donor community informed, technology will play a key role in supporting that growth.

At Task we’ll be working with Ryan and the volunteer team to make their lives easier – helping them to easily collect mission critical data that can be used for reporting and sharing online, as well as supporting their fundraising efforts.

As the team grows we’ll also be implementing some of our recent features such as awards and local languages to help support the new volunteers. We’re excited to be part of Ryan’s journey. If you’d like to help you can support Ryan and the team by donating on the Pete’s Mission Project Page.

We’d also like to thank Collaboration Squared who are the technology sponsors for Pete’s Mission.

 

Do you have remote volunteer teams you need to connect with? Would you like to show supporters the great work you are doing to help build confidence and increase donations? Let’s talk.

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