Inside Rabbit Advocates’ Next Chapter
Next year, Rabbit Advocates will be celebrating its 25th birthday. Since its inception in 2002, the organization has hosted countless vaccine and spa clinics, facilitated thousands of pet rabbit adoptions, and consistently gone above and beyond to protect the domesticated rabbits of Portland Metro and Southern Washington.
While this milestone is certainly cause for celebration, RA’s leadership has also utilized this time to reflect on the current trajectory of the organization.
Meet the Restructuring Trio
Ultimately, RA Board President Stephanie Castillo, Interim Board Treasurer and IT Manager Kathryn Wong, Development Senior Manager and Interim Marketing & Communications Senior Manager Ginger Clarke all came to the same conclusion: Rabbit Advocates needed to grow.
Left to right: Stephanie Castillo, Ginger Clarke, Kathryn Wong
As a completely volunteer-run organization since its founding, RA has depended on volunteers to fill the positions other nonprofits hire on as staff. However, as the scope of the organization has broadened, the size of RA’s staff volunteer team has mostly stayed the same.
“We need to solve the root of the problem which was that one, maybe two volunteers in each department did everything,” explained Castillo.
While the need for new volunteers was becoming increasingly urgent, Castillo and Wong also recognized they couldn’t start the volunteer hiring process without a plan. “We realized we couldn’t put anyone into positions if there was no structure to put them in,” explained Wong.
With this in mind, Castillo and Wong met with every department manager to learn what each team really needed. The pair also reached out to past leads like Ginger Clarke, who had previously assisted RA with fundraising and marketing.
Since her initial time at Rabbit Advocates, Clarke had worked extensively with some other local nonprofits, such as the Community Cycling Center. With Clarke’s external expertise, and the insights Castillo and Wong had gathered from internal leaders, the trio started to form a comprehensive restructuring plan.
Growing the Rabbit Advocates Team
Since receiving approval for their plan in March, Castillo, Wong, and Clarke have been diligently interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new volunteers. However, their work isn’t done yet. Rabbit Advocates is still looking to fill several more volunteer staff positions.
With roles available in nearly every department, RA is looking to build a team with a diverse skillset. So whether you’re a marketing whiz, a logistics maven, or a skilled medical professional, we’d love to hear from you.
Say you’ve found a role that excites you, but you’re worried you don’t meet all the qualifications? Castillo, Wong, and Clarke were all in agreement: still apply!
“I love volunteering as a way of connecting with people and building skills… I don’t need team members to be expert professionals,” said Clarke. “If people want to come in and build skills, we can help teach them.”
As their roadmap unfolds ahead of them, Castillo, Wong, and Clarke are all eager for what’s in store for Rabbit Advocates.
“In the next five years, I would love to have a next generation. That’s the reason Kathryn and I wanted to do all this,” said Castillo. “I would love to have the next generation come in and continue to build Rabbit Advocates and make it even better, however that looks like.”
