How does the Foster Finder work?

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Heather Duncan
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This powerful tool helps your foster team quickly identify and recruit available foster parents right in Shelterluv!

(Note: Foster Finder was formerly known as Filter for Fosters.)

 

Logic Updates

Foster Finder will now look at all people with the "Willing Foster" attribute AND/OR are actively fostering. How this is different from previous behavior:

  1. Active fosters (those who currently have an animal in their care) without the "Willing Foster" attribute are now included, when they previously were not.
  2. People who have left the foster program (those who had their "Willing Foster" attribute removed) are now excluded, when they previously were not.

 

Navigation

Under the main People tab, you will see two subtabs:

  1. Recent Records is loaded first and has the same records you're used to seeing on the main People tab.
  2. Foster Finder gives you a quick way to start your foster search!

PeopleSubtabs.png

 

Starting Your Foster Search

You can filter by just animal type and capacity, or you can get more specific with people attributes and start/end dates.

FosterFinder.gif

  1. Start your search by filtering for an Animal Type.
  2. Capacity will default to 1 and can be updated as needed.
  3. You may select one or more Attributes if you are using people attributes for your foster program (e.g. "Bottle Baby Foster"). Filtering for multiple attributes will return people that have all of the selected attributes.
  4. Start Date and End Date are now optional fields that will check against any blackout dates listed in foster profiles.
  5. Exclude active fosters allows you to hide foster parents who currently have animals in their care, which is helpful to do prior to sending out foster plea emails.

Foster Plea Email

Send a foster plea right from Shelterluv! The Reply-To Email field will pre-populate with the current user's email address, and you will be able to change it if you would prefer responses to go to a shared foster inbox instead.

FosterPleaEmail.png

 

Export Options

In the top right corner of Foster Finder, you will see two ways to export your data to Excel:

  1. Export Current View provides all data that is currently displayed on your screen.
  2. Foster Contact List provides a mailing list of all people with the "Willing Foster" attribute AND/OR are actively fostering. This export only contains their contact information.

FosterFinderExport.png

 

Audit Your Foster Profiles

Foster Finder only works with records that have a foster profile set up with their Animal Type and Capacity preferences, so be sure to audit your records to identify those still missing a foster profile!

We've made this easy to do:

FosterProfileAudit.png

  1. Select the Display willing fosters without foster profiles checkbox.
  2. Click on each person's name to open their record in a new tab and navigate to their Attributes tab to check if they have the "Willing Foster" attribute.
    • If they do not have the "Willing Foster" attribute yet: Add the attribute and fill out their foster profile in the pop-up.
    • If they do have the "Willing Foster" attribute already: Navigate to the Animals tab, click on the Foster Profile button located in the upper right-hand corner, and fill out their foster profile in the pop-up.

 

Note: The Animal Type and Capacity filters will be disengaged until you exit this view because they work directly with foster profiles.

 

Available Data in Foster Search

  • Date Added
  • Names, Associated Names (people)
  • Address
  • Zip Code
  • Current Fosters (animals)
  • Last Foster Return
  • Capacity
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Attributes

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