I am looking to gather a bit of information about rabbit shelters that receive funding, so more then donations/bottle drives and the likes.

I would like to know what the process was to get this.
What were some humps you had to get through?
Do you have a physical shelter vs. just foster homes?
Does your area have a Municipal shelter or SPCA, and do they take Rabbits?
Who is funding you? Is it a State/Province or a City?
Are there full or part time employees?

And anything else you may find useful. I am trying to gather information in hopes the rescue group I volunteer for can lobby about getting funding since there is a need, and no one is filling it but our non profit volunteer run group.

 

I don't know what it is like in Canada but grants for domestic animals especially rabbits are few and far between in the US and everyone is fighting for the same grants. I know too that there is a certain finesse to grant writing and you really must know what you are doing in order to write a grant to get a grant.

Unless your city has a budget for rescue groups as for example Edmonton does, you are going to be hard-pressed to get a grant. For this reason, it is sometimes smarter to work with an existing municipal shelter, and organize a foster program, than to start an indepedent rescue group. This is something to keep in mind for people thinking of starting out. Animal rescue is a money pit. You never break even.

I would contact your municipality to find out what money is available and how to qualify. Depending how hard the recession affected your area these programs may have been cut too.

Just a little background, the organization i volunteer with does all small animals, not dogs or cats, but rabbits, ferrets, hamster etc. They are SPCA approved and many of the SPCA small critters come to us, since they do not take or then have very minimal caps on how many they house at a time (if they even accept them, many don't). We are a province (or 'State') wide organization.
With 500+ animals (I think 300+ rabbits) there is an obvious need for rescue of small animals in our Province.

The cities that have budgets and either have the SPCA in their area or their own municiple shelters are only accepting cats & dogs, and like I mentioned if they do take small animals they have a limit cap, some of even 4 only. So I am looking for information on how any other organization has worked from being a non profit that was not funded to beign a funded one, and what went into this, how they 'sold' the idea and such. It doesn't matter if it's not related, I am just doing some homework and researching to get an idea of what goes on.

Have you asked the SPCA that you work with for information? It sounds very different in Canada from the US.

Andi, I would start by presenting the situation of small animals to your county or municipality, and then submit your shelter's plan as to how you will alleviate the burden of these animals. This would have to include your running costs and accounted for to show your exact needs. With anything like that, a new proposal, half your battle will be to find the person in charge for making the decision.