Interview! Natalise Kalea, COO of poundWISHES

“We want to save animals, help animals, and better the lives of animals around the world. We aim to execute on our mission through creative innovation and community.”

Natalise Kalea has always been an animal lover, and she always dreamed of putting her business skills to good use to help animals. As the COO of poundWISHES, she is now doing exactly that!

Natalise is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she did an internship that encouraged her to create an environment of impact in business. When she was younger, Natalise regularly volunteered with Best Friends in Los Angeles, which opened her eyes to how many different programs needed funding. She remembers seeing people take in five to ten animals at a time, which would only put them into debt. Because of this experience, she wanted to move into a role where she could directly impact the future.

poundWISHES is a crowdfunding platform for animal welfare nonprofits started about two and a half years ago by a young woman who had survived leukemia. During her illness, the young girl’s family utilized the Make-A-Wish foundation, and the experience stuck with her. The girl’s family adopted a pet from a shelter when she was five, and she remembered how sad the shelters were and wanted to create a “Make-A-Wish”-type foundation for them! At last, when she was twelve, she and her dad created poundWISHES to help animals in shelters and elsewhere.

poundWISHES receives crowdfunding request for animals who need surgery, medication, or transport. There are also crowdfunding items for natural disasters, or even things like the creation of a dog park!

poundWISHES is similar to GoFundMe, but is specifically for animals and is much more hands-on. poundWISHES helps rescues craft and optimize their campaigns and shares campaigns to their community of over 90,000 animal lovers. They also highlight campaigns on their social media platforms, which allows shelters a much broader reach than they could likely achieve on their own.

Natalise shares tips on running successful campaigns, such as focusing on the quality and content of the story. Great pictures and videos are a must, along with successfully framing the story to bring an emotional response.

poundWISHES is also working to expand into the e-Commerce industry, with a platform similar to an Amazon wish list. They are aiming to be a one-stop-shop for rescues so they can focus on the good they set out to accomplish, instead of on the day-to-day details of operations. Donors are able to contribute physical items, along with monetary donations, allowing rescues to worry less about how they will fundraise and bring needed products and medicine in the door.

Learn more today at poundwishes.com.

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