Quarterly Report May 2025

Official / General

  • Approved/renewed employee health insurance with new 2025-2026 rates.

Financials

  • The financial statements for 2024 have been completed, reviewed and approved as of the end of April.
  • Our tax accountants have completed the 2024 US federal tax return and MA Form PC. We are currently reviewing these documents and hope to have them both filed by the end of May.
  • The April financial statements should be completed by the end of next week. I was on vacation for 2 weeks and will focus first on the review of the tax returns, then the April reports.

Adoptions

130 adoption as of 5/20/2025

Fundraisers

Candle-Making Workshop

Westford, MA

March

2025

$1,225

Paint your Pet

Hanover, MA

March

2025

$2,105

Buns & Bud – Baby Snuggles

Rockland, MA

March

2025

$1,210

Baby Snuggles 3/16

Westford, MA

March

2025

$1,500

Baby Bunny Snuggle Pawty

Westford, MA

March

2025

$2,880

RHDV-2 Clinic Sales

Westford, MA

Feb/March

2025

$570

Celtics Flash Auction

Virtual

March

2025

$560

Bunny Yoga at Rococo Floral Studio

Somerville, MA

April

2025

$1,020

A Plush is Enough – Bunny Tea Party

Westford, MA

April

2025

$1,260

Yoga @ True North

Ipswich, MA

April

2025

$525

Easter Event w/ Bow Market

Somerville, MA

April

2025

$350

Anniversary Party

Chelmsford, MA

April

2025

$14,100

Baby Bunny Snuggles 5/3

Westford, MA

May

2025

$2,020

Baby Bunny Snuggles 5/4

Haverhill, MA

May

2025

$1,200

Buntucky Derby

Virtual

May

2025

$1,400

Baby Bunny Snuggles at Bow Market

Somerville, MA

May

2025

$1,395

Condo Sponsorships – $2,000 – Jan 10th  2025 – May 18th 2025. There are currently 13 monthly donors at $50 each. 

Upcoming Summer Events- 

  • Bun Dads & Board Games – Scheduled for 6/14
  • Bunny Yoga – Scheduled for 6/22
  • Bunny Block Pawty – Scheduled for 6/29
  • Mini-photo sessions – in the creation process 
  • Pen-pal workshop – in the creation process 
  • Bonding Seminar / Workshop – in the creation process, working with Bonding team

Services (Spa Days, Bunsitting, Bonding)

Spa Days & Nail-trim clinics

  • March Spa Day Westford was held March 1, 2025 at the Westford HRN Shelter.  We saw 64 bunnies plus several foster bunnies that needed grooming.  The event raised $1,920 for HRN.  We trained four new volunteer groomers Haily P, Caitlin W, Paige G and Mark F.  Three are now on the approved groomers list one is on the approved shelter groomers list.
  • April Spa Day Westford was held April 5, 2025 at the Westford HRN Shelter.  We saw 56 bunnies plus worked on nine (9) shelter bunnies that needed grooming.  The event raised $1,860 for HRN.  We trained two new volunteer groomers Judy D and Courtney & Max W.  Judy is now on the approved groomers list.
  • May Spa Day Westford was held May 10, 2025 at the Westford HRN Shelter.  We saw 50 bunnies plus worked on another handful of shelter bunnies that needed grooming.  The event raised $1,545 for HRN.  We trained two new volunteer groomers who are now approved, Lisa W and Sarah V.
  • May Spa Day Boston held May 17, 2025 at the West Roxbury Elks.  The facility is new to HRN and allowed us to use a conference room space free of charge.  Kay B was instrumental in securing the space.  We sold 32 tickets and raised $960.  During the event we had two people training for possible grooming approval.  Allison D has been approved. 
  • Nail Trim Events were held on April 27th and May 14th at the Westford shelter.  During the two events we saw 21 rabbits and raised $315.  We have two more dates already scheduled and will be scheduling more to cover the remainder of the year in the next few weeks.
  • Specialized Grooming sessions to date we have done three (3).  Two were additional brush outs for a Westford family with an older bun which raised $40 and One was a specialized groom including trimming that Suellen did for a family in need which raised $60.  This fundraiser will remain open as a place to record these grooming services.

Bunsitting (as of 5/19/2025

  • 72 paid requests for this quarter totaling $14,750.
  • 47 requests are scheduled up to 10/2/25 with 11 open requests. 
  • 7 new sitters were onboarded and 4 asked to be removed from the group. 1 other sitter is leaving for Japan for 2 years in July, but will hopefully be back on the list when she returns.
  • 7 bunsitter sitter discounts were given totaling 35 days between them.
  • We currently have 11 open requests. Some of these requests have been sitting for a while and most do not get filled right away. We could definitely use a social media blast asking for bunsitters.

Bonding  (as of 5/19/2025

  • 7 virtual bonding consultations totaling $275.
  • 5 in-person bondings (4 successful and 1 pair did not bond, but got close and are able to live next to each other without fighting) for a total of $2285.
  • There is a 9 person waitlist. Additionally, we have 3 others – 1 in the process of scheduling for this month, 1 scheduled to begin next month, and 1 that is beginning today. 
  • Bonding can definitely benefit from a few more volunteers since the waitlist is quite long and we most likely won’t be able to get to everyone until the fall.

Grants

We received the Marion and Richard Graham Grant for $20,000. Money needs to be spent by March 2026 and is earmarked for cages and equipment (autoclaves, anesthesia machines) for our clinic. 

We received the MAC grant for $7875 for spay/neuter surgeries. This is down from previous years. (we don’t know why)

Monthly Donations

Subscriptions

Monthly  

Bringing in each month $1179

1 for $100 / month

11 for $50 / month  

1 for $35 / month

10 for  $25 / month

1 for $20 / month

20 for $10 / month

4 for $5 / month

1 for $4 / month 

Condo Sponsorships 

Above- 13 at $50/month

Shelter 

It has been a busy few months at the shelter. 

  • Jessica has been meeting with and training over three dozen new potential shelter volunteers. 
  • Jessica has had a fabulous high school senior completing her capstone project at HRN. She has learned the shelter routines and has been helping train new volunteers, she is creating signs and posters for the shelter and did outstanding work creating a pamphlet for people who stop by the shelter looking for more information about HRN. She has also created some QR codes to link to videos on how tos for cleaning the shelter sink trap, how to clean the washing machine filter and how to do a shelter shift.
  • There has still been some tweaking to the different spaces as we figure out how to work in some of the newer spaces such as the intake room and the different assortment of cages we have. 
  • There are also a few minor fixes that have needed to be made and still need to be made such as changes to the sink faucets in the main shelter and the bathrooms and some fixes to some outlets
  • There are currently 43 rabbits at the shelter. With the hard work and dedication from the volunteers the rabbits are cleaned, exercised, fed, hayed, watered and played with daily. On average 20 rabbits a day are out on the shelter floor getting much needed time out of their cages.
  • Jessica created a google form to send out to all the local garden clubs to let the public know how and where they can come pick up compost fertilizer for their gardens. 
  • Jessica has the shelter log where the volunteers are tracking information about the daily cleaning schedule and a place where volunteers can write notes about bunnies who get extra exercise and make notes of any concerns they have. The volunteers are really liking this book and will look back at any notes from the days before.
  • Numerous volunteers have given positive feedback about the different ways they can view or read about the steps needed to complete a shelter shift. 
  • There are still about 100 bunnies on our intake wait list. 
  • Jessica has been working with volunteers to reimplement the evening feeding of greens. Thanks to some generous donors we have given monetary donations to fund the purchases of greens. Right now Jessica goes 2 times a week to the store to supply the shelter with greens.
  • As of Apr 1, 2025 our scheduling program Deputy has been reactivated for our volunteers to sign up for their own volunteer shifts. While Deputy is useful it has many limitations. During a conversation with a new volunteer, Nils, it was discovered that he has a connection with some other programs that might be beneficial to HRN for scheduling. He has graciously agreed to cover the cost of a program that would work better than Deputy. He is currently on vacation and we will continue to discuss this possibility when he is back. 

Clinic

  • Construction:  Still working on several small close out items to ensure the space works best for HRN.  This included adding an outlet in the Kitchen, Adjusting the lights in the exam room, sending a request for repair for an outlet that is not working and a small roof leak found last weekend.  We are also working on changing both bathroom faucets and the thermostats installed in the clinic, kitchen and storage area.  The faucet in the rescue area was changed to facilitate better functionality for the shelter operations.  Initial feedback from long time volunteers Vinny and Judy is the change is a big improvement.  Once these final items are completed I will submit the final change invoice to finance for review with my notes.  I anticipate this maybe in late June 2025.

Foster Homes 

  • Scheduling another in person workshop for foster homes at the shelter, likely in July.  Topics will be nail trim, bunny pickup and holding techniques, syringe feeding and medication administration.  Our last session was well attended and good feedback received.  It’s a great team and community building opportunity.  We will be asking for supply donations for foster home take home bags.  (nail trimmers, styptic powder and door prizes)
  • Planning a foster home appreciation event.  Working on scheduling that for October at the shelter
  • Updated and published Foster Bunny Care packet
  • Continuing to update foster home protocol handout and scheduling a virtual meeting to review
  • Our vacation coverage system is working really well.  Helps keep foster homes who will need coverage on our radar.  We keep putting the form link our there so folks remember to use it.

Hotline

  • Everything is running smoothly on the hotline. No new additions or departures this quarter. I am currently training Orla O, who will hopefully join later this month/early next month.
  • No substantial changes to hotline procedure.
  • Currently working with Kay and others to rethink how we request foster parents to review applications, and who we invite to adoption appointments. 
    • Currently, the foster manual doesn’t outline how to review adoption applications, so some foster parents just show up to appointments and find out then that it’s not a good fit. 
    • We also invite too many fosters to appointments, and this is becoming a burden. On the hotline side, we usually just invite all fosters whose buns an applicant wants to meet, but we should modify this so we stress the time commitment required for fosters to do so. 

Outreach, Volunteering & Events

  • Events attended:
      • Education and Bunny Meet & Greet @ Dracut Senior Center
      • Kids’ Education @ Allston Library
    • Upcoming events: 
      • No purely outreach events presently scheduled. Summers are slow for outreach; will pick back up again in late August/early September.
      • Will be participating in Pet Rock Fest and Boston Veg Food Fest this fall.
      • Trying to schedule speed dating lessons for NHSPCA to help them set up their own speed dating program.
  • Volunteers: 
      • Volunteer application process has been streamlined to send applicants directly to certain teams (e.g. shelter volunteers, spa days, bunsitting, bonding), while Nikki still fielding general inquiries, providing info about volunteer roles not listed on the website (e.g. social media, photography), and pulling in prospective volunteers via networking.
      • Krissy B. now working with Sharon H. on shelter adoption scheduling.
  • Other outreach:
    • Advertising campaign w/ in-store signs at The Paper Store.

June 1 there will be a Vet wellness training to teach future vets and vet techs how to do an exam on rabbits. It will be run by Dr Kneeland. 

RHD

Vaccine clinics are being scheduled through Exotic Pet Mobile Vet. Next three are Jun 1, Jun 22 and Jul 12. HRN buns are being vaccinated during these clinics at no cost to HRN. We have negotiated a deal with the EPMV to cover the costs of all HRN rabbits who attend. We invite all fosters and keep records of which HRN rabbits are vaccinated, which requires a 2-dose initial series spaced 3 weeks apart. We are permitted to offer a discount to families with financial constraints, making the vaccine dose $20 instead of $60. These requests are brought to Lauren who discreetly relays to our check-out team. At this time, we are not advertising this service and are, instead, making sure those who express a financial burden of vaccinating their bunnies (on socials, in person, in our inboxes, etc.) are taken care of. 

Intra-Meeting Board Decisions

None.