After a year of learning and preparation, it was graduation day at the Camp Verde Library on Wednesday, Nov. 8, for the Verde Valley Sanctuary, the Humane Society of Sedona and High Country Humane, the representatives of which gave their final presentations for the Arizona Endowment Building Institute program facilitated by the Arizona Community Foundation of Sedona.

Previous Verde Valley graduates of the program include the Sedona Arts Center, the Sedona International Film Festival and the Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition.

“This is a year-long master’s-level program that trains staff and board members on how to establish an endowment and ask for and secure major and planned gifts,” ACF Regional Director Jennifer Perry said. “Many don’t understand that ACF is much more than a grant maker; we are NPO’s partners who work to help them build their reserves and long-term financial security.”

The participants concluded the program with a series of short presentations on why residents should make a planned or major gift to their respective organizations.

Verde Valley Sanctuary

“The Arizona Endowment Building Institute was the right thing to do at the right time for Verde Valley Sanctuary,” VVS development director Tracey McConnell said. “Although we have gratefully received matured planned gifts, we needed an intentional and comprehensive planned giving program and legacy society to help us build our endowment funds with ACF of Sedona. That’s no small undertaking for a busy nonprofit organization. We benefited from the very best expertise, support and mentorship. I would highly recommend AEBI for area nonprofits who want to build their sustainability with the community’s support.”

Building the Verde Valley Sanctuary’s long-term financial health is critical for the organization, which is experiencing increasing demand for support from victims of domestic and sexual abuse, executive director Jessye Johnson explained.

“Our shelter is frequently at capacity. We frequently use hotel-motels [as] overflow for our shelter,” Johnson said. “We also have a high demand in our community-based services. We potentially will be hiring additional staff to accommodate our caseloads, as there’s more demand for people to have that same level of support but not in shelter. We’re anticipating growth to be able to respond to all of that.”

Building out its Verde Valley campus is critical to the organization as it commemorates its 30th anniversary.

“We’re a growing organization, our demands are still pretty high,” Johnson said. “We purchased a property in Cottonwood to centralize a lot of our services, including our administration, and expand services for sexual assault survivors right at 221 South Main Street in Cottonwood. Our plan is to develop that property over the next few years.”

The first phase of the Verde campus development will involve relocating the community-based advocacy programming to the property. The second phase will be expanding sexual assault services for survivors and the final phase will relocate all of Verde Valley Sanctuary’s administrative offices to the property.

“Physical space is a requirement of our current and future vision and we know that it is better for survivors that they can access an array of services in one place,” McConnell said during the graduation presentation. “Our vision of a Verde Valley Sanctuary campus is within reach with your help.”

In fiscal year 2022-23, VVS provided over 5,300 services to 1,250 survivors of domestic and sexual violence and 140 violence prevention education presentations to over 1,000 youth in Verde Valley schools.

Sedona Humane Society

2026 will be the 60th anniversary of the Sedona Humane Society. As the anniversary approaches, one of their organizational goals is to increase their commitments for legacy gifts from about 100 to 160, according to SHS executive director Jennifer Brehler.

“I learned we have an incredible mission and a lot of work ahead of us,” Brehler said. “We’re just starting to touch legacy gifts and major fundraising and so [the Arizona Endowment Building Institute] set a foundation for the Humane Society of Sedona to move forward and work to give people an opportunity to support the animals in their lifetime and beyond … we’re happy we had this opportunity.”

SHS is planning to use the education to strengthen its community support programs and address its capital needs.

“We do a great job with what we have and what we have, though, is an aging facility,” Brehler said. “Twenty years ago it was state-of-the-art. We’re finding ourselves depleting our repair reserves through aging HVAC systems and roof repairs.”

SHS has recently had to replace its commercial washer and dryer at a cost of $30,000, as well as resealing the roofs at the main shelter and their Village of Oak Creek thrift shop.

“Our flooring [at the shelter] is in need of being resurfaced and in some areas replaced … primarily in the animal areas,” Brehler said. “So where we have our dogs, the kennel runs, and then a lot of our animal housing is in need of upgrades and repairs.”

The society’s short-term needs include $50,000 for 20,000 pounds of food it requires to feed non-owned animals.

“We use food both in-house for our shelter animals, as well as we provide food to families in need,” Brehler said. “One of the things that we don’t get a lot of donated [is] cat food. People tend to give us a lot of dry and canned dog food. If we do a plea for puppy food, [people] will give us puppy food as well. But when we had over 120 kittens in foster care this summer, obviously, we needed a lot more kitten food at that time. [We] still have kittens coming back from foster to get adopted.”

Brehler elaborated that the increased cost of food has also affected families with pets.

“I think Sedona is very generous,” Brehler said. “But we need them to be a little more generous with their food. We can always use food, whether it’s for our in-house animals or for the community. We have a lot of citizens that have animals and they’re struggling out there. And if we can help them with some food, that’s what we want to do.”

For more information about the Verde Valley Sanctuary, visit verdevalleysanctuary.org or contact Jessye Johnson at (928) 239-4874. For more information about the Sedona Humane Society, visit humanesocietyofsedona.org or contact Jennifer Brehler at (928) 282-4679 or info@humanesocietyofsedona.org.