Always & Furever · St. Francis Outreach · Veterinary Rescue Collaboration
The Osawatomie Community Care Fund
Keeping families together through veterinary care.
“Even a single act of kindness can save an animal’s life.”
Can a town of 4,100 people become the first rural community where access to veterinary care is treated as community infrastructure?
If we can prove it works in Osawatomie, we will not just have helped one town — we will have built a model that any small city can follow.
A Sponsorship Invitation · Presented by the Veterinary Rescue Collaboration
Community Care Starts Here
Always & Furever’s Community Care Fund helps Osawatomie families afford veterinary care for the pets they love. Each month, a portion of our care is distributed by a fair, random drawing. Complete the form to enter — or help make this care possible by sponsoring or donating to the fund.
One button is for families seeking help. One button is for the neighbors, businesses, and donors who make that help possible.
Helping families keep the pets they love.
Watch Jen Explain the Vision
Why the OCC Fund Matters
Hear directly from Jen about why the Osawatomie Community Care Fund is launching, how families will be selected, and how donor-funded veterinary care can help keep beloved pets with the people who love them.
$100KTotal Impact Fund$10,000 / month
400Care Appointments~$250 each
10MonthsA provable launch
Community Care Stories
Every appointment is a family kept together. These are some of the pets and people whose lives have been touched by neighbors helping neighbors through the Osawatomie Community Care Fund.
OCC’s first spay surgery
Bowie Makes a Little History
Bowie became the first pet to receive a spay surgery through the Osawatomie Community Care Fund. She received proper anesthesia, monitoring, and follow-up, did wonderfully, and went home safely to a relieved mom who loves her. Her appointment is exactly why Community Care exists: to make veterinary care accessible so beloved pets can stay healthy, stay home, and remain with their families.
Wellness and allergy care
Meet Bugsy: Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Bugsy’s family loves him deeply, but cost had put the veterinary care he needed for his allergies out of reach. Through Community Care, the St. Francis Outreach veterinary team provided vaccines, a 4Dx test, comprehensive bloodwork, treatment for his ear infection and allergies, and a full year of heartworm, flea, and tick prevention. It was more than a quick fix—it was complete care that helped Bugsy feel better and gave his family a way to keep him healthy.
A Beautiful Little City That Stepped Up
Osawatomie is a small Kansas town with a big history. Settled by abolitionists in 1854 and made famous by John Brown in the struggle to keep Kansas a free state, this is a community that has always understood one thing: you stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
When Always & Furever needed a home, Osawatomie welcomed us.
Now we are giving back — by taking care of this city’s animals at the shelter & in their homes with the people who love them.
The pound no one was supposed to see
The old rural pound was not open to the public. It was a small shed — no windows, no bathroom, no social media, no promotion. The dogs and cats who landed there had almost no chance of being seen, let alone saved.
When Always & Furever stepped in, we did it the only way we know how — all in. We volunteered 100% of our time, our funds, and our staff. We vaccinated every animal. We took every single one into our care to promote for adoption and foster.
It went from a high kill shelter to not one animal being euthanized for space.
From a windowless shed to a place of dignity
In 2023, we purchased the property from the city and took it over completely. What had been a place animals were hidden away became a place where they are cared for in small, calm, tiny-home-style living spaces — room to decompress, to be seen, and to be loved while they wait for their family to find them.
It was never about taking over a building. It was about stepping up for the animals who needed help the most and now, for the people who love them and need help with veterinary care.
A City Partnership That Changes Lives
This is what it looks like when a city and a rescue decide to take care of each other.
What Always & Furever provides the City of Osawatomie
Care for every city stray within city limits — at no charge
Vaccination, medical care, and a safe place to land for every animal at the shelter
Adoption and foster promotion so animals find real homes — not cages
A genuine No Kill commitment — no animal euthanized for space
The city no longer has to choose between a budget and a life. We carry that cost — for free — because that is what stepping up looks like.
Now the model goes one step further
We have proven we can care for the animals with no home. The Osawatomie Community Care Fund extends that same care to the animals who do have homes — so families never have to surrender a beloved pet simply because they cannot afford a vet bill.
Most animals do not lose their homes because they are unloved. They lose their homes because a family faces a veterinary crisis they cannot afford. A broken leg. A pyometra. A dental abscess. Even routine vaccines. Community Care lets neighbors step in before a crisis becomes a surrender.
Why This Little City Needs All of Us
Osawatomie is a community of roughly 4,200 residents — hardworking, proud, and stretched thin. The numbers tell a story of families for whom an unexpected veterinary bill is the difference between keeping a pet and letting one go.
Measure
Osawatomie
Kansas
United States
Median household income
$55,612
$80,734
$83,730
Population
~4,200
—
—
Recent income trend
−11.2% in one year
—
—
Osawatomie’s median household income of $55,612 sits roughly $28,000 below the U.S. median — and it fell more than 11% in a single year. In Kansas as a whole, about 1 in 9 residents lives in poverty.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau via Data USA (median household income, population, year-over-year change); U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts (Kansas median income); U.S. Census Bureau / CNBC (2024 U.S. median household income); USAFacts (Kansas poverty rate).
For a family living on $55,000 a year, a $1,200 surgery is not an inconvenience — it is impossible. Community Care is how a whole community makes the impossible possible.
Be Part of Something Bigger
This fund is an invitation — to be part of something bigger than yourself, and to start a ripple that does not stop with one animal or one family.
The ripple we are asking for
When a family receives a Community Care appointment, we ask them to do one thing: pay the kindness forward.
Volunteer an hour. Walk dogs. Help a neighbor.
Donate what they can, when they can.
Support a local business, or simply pass the joy along.
Every act of kindness becomes the next one. That is the model: care creates care, and a small city shows the rest of the country how it is done.
A blueprint other cities can follow
If we can prove that veterinary care can work as community infrastructure in a town of 4,200 people, we will have built something far bigger than a single program. We will have a replicable blueprint for rural communities everywhere — and Osawatomie will be the example that started it.
How Community Care Works
Your gift moves quickly and transparently from a sponsorship into real care for a real family.
1
Identify families and animals in crisis
Local pet owners and tiny rescues apply for help when a veterinary bill stands between them and keeping their animal.
2
Match sponsors to care
Sponsors fund single visits, procedures, or whole “Community Care Day” blocks — in any fixed amount toward the fund.
3
Deliver care through the VRC
Care is provided through the Veterinary Rescue Collaboration, so every dollar buys care at rescue rates, not retail prices.
4
Share the impact
Sponsors receive impact stories — privacy respected — so they see exactly how their gift kept a family together.
$250 funds one Community Care appointment — the gift that keeps one family together.
What Your Sponsorship Buys
Community Care is powered by the Veterinary Rescue Collaboration (VRC), which measures veterinary capacity in Allocation Units (AU).
What is an Allocation Unit?
An Allocation Unit is one standardized unit of sponsored veterinary capacity — think of it as one funded appointment or procedure slot. It represents access to care, not unlimited services: the veterinarian decides what care is medically appropriate within that unit.
Your sponsorship
Roughly funds
In real terms
$250
1 Allocation Unit
One visit — exam, vaccines, and basic care for one family’s pet
$2,500
~10 Allocation Units
A Community Care block — ten families helped
$5,000
~20 Allocation Units
Half a month of care for the whole community
$10,000
~40 Allocation Units
A full month of Community Care for Osawatomie
Sponsorship Tiers
Our goal is $10,000 a month for 10 months — $100,000 — enough to fund roughly 400 Community Care appointments. You can give monthly, annually, or in any fixed amount toward the fund. Every tier is named for the role you play in keeping this community whole.
Strategic Partner
$10,000 / month
~40 Allocation Units per month · funds a full month of care
Single-handedly funds an entire month of Community Care for Osawatomie.
Premier recognition across all materials, the Community Care web page, and events.
Dedicated impact reporting and a featured story in fund updates.
Core Partner
$5,000 / month
~20 Allocation Units per month · half a month of care
Funds about 20 appointments every month — half the community’s monthly need.
Prominent logo placement and recognition in fund communications.
Quarterly impact updates with stories.
Limited Partner
$2,500 / month
~10 Allocation Units per month · a Community Care block
Sponsors a steady block of ten appointments every month.
Business name recognition in materials and periodic impact updates.
Every Gift Has a Place
Not every hero gives ten thousand a month. Some of the most important gifts are the smallest — and they add up to a community.
Care Partner
$2,500 one-time
10 appointments · a single Community Care block
A business or family sponsors ten visits at once, with recognition and impact updates.
Neighbor (Tiny Tier)
$250
1 appointment · one family kept together
Sponsors a single visit — the gift that keeps one family whole. Listed among our community of supporters.
Any Amount
Your choice
Every dollar funds care
Give any fixed amount, monthly or annually — $25, $100, $1,000. It all goes toward the Osawatomie Community Care Fund.
Ways to give
Sponsor a visit — underwrite an exam, vaccines, and basic care.
Sponsor a procedure — cover all or part of a spay/neuter, dental, or surgery.
Sponsor a Community Care Day — fund a block of VRC medical time for a wave of local families.
Sponsor a rescue partner — help a tiny rescue onto the VRC ladder by offsetting their first tier.
What Success Looks Like
At six months, we report on the metrics that matter — and those metrics become the fundraising engine for everything that comes next.
We will track
Because it proves
Appointments delivered
Care reached real families
Households served
Neighbors kept whole
Pets kept out of shelters
Surrenders prevented
Spays / neuters performed
Fewer animals in crisis tomorrow
Businesses sponsoring care
A community that owns this together
Stories collected
The proof that brings the next sponsor
Every appointment is proof. Every household is a story. Every story brings the next sponsor.
How We Honor Our Sponsors
We recognize our partners with visibility that reflects their commitment — and their role in keeping this community whole.
Strategic & Core Partners: premier logo placement on the Community Care web page and printed materials, named recognition at events, and dedicated impact reporting.
Limited & Care Partners: prominent recognition in fund communications and regular impact updates with stories.
Neighbors: listed among our community of supporters and included in thank-you communications.
OCC’s first spay surgery
Wellness and allergy care
