I was thinking of doing this myself also, but I do not have the space until June. I am in the process of researching this & working out the formal kinks...

Does your city/region have a pet publication (i.e. Petfolio) or even a weekly pet section in the newspaper? If so, there should be a section for rescue organizations & you can contact these papers to get your new "organization" listed. Make sure you say you are starting a new charity & they should help you out with ads, listings, etc.

Do you want to adopt out the animals you rescue? If so, would you require a fee in order to adopt? You'll need to distinguish your charity as profit or non-profit. I believe that if it's for profit, you will need a business license/contract, depending on your state. If it's non-profit, you can say "donations are accepted but not required." However, if you provide vet care out of your own pocket, then you reserve the right to ask for money like the SPCA does.

Utilize newspapers for ads... you can have an ad with the "rescued reptile of the month" or seomthing of that sort, with a description of your rescue efforts & the reptile itself.

Contact local pet-related stores (even the internet based ones)for sponsorships. Sometimes you will come upon a generous business that will help you out with donations. However, most will ask for "credentials." This is a kink of mine... it helps if you are "listed" first.

Also utilize the internet, like Kingsnake's rescue network. If you make a website, maintain it. I am in the process of trying to figure out how to get a dot org site. Anyone know how to do this???

Contact your local animal shelters, like the city's Animal Services/Animal Control, the Humane Society & the SPCA to tell them of your rescue org & hopefully they will cooperate & let you know if/when they have reptiles in or if they recieve any calls. Make sure you speak with who's in charge, not just anyone at the front desk. If they are too busy to call you or email you, then you can call them every 5 days or so. The HS & SPCA out here do not take in reptiles, not sure if it's like that everywhere else?

I am also in the process of figuring out how to get free grants/money from the state government. Here in NV, they hand out grants like water b/c of that big tobacco settlement 4 years ago.

Hope this helped a little... I'm no expert & I'm giving hints based upon what I learned so far here in NV, though I plan to move back to CA.
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Danielle
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1.0 green water dragon, 0.4 leos, 1.0 iguana, 0.1 beardie, 2.0 green anoles, 1.0 blue anole, 1.0 rosy boa & 2.2 bettas ~My Pets~

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