Ashlee Johnson Senior Seminar Fall 2011 My service learning project this semester was with the nonprofit organization Maxfund

No-Kill Animal Shelter, which is located just minutes from campus in Denver. Their motto is,

“The small shelter that makes a big difference”, and that is absolutely true, from my experience

working with them recently. Maxfund was established in May of 1988, and is a true no-kill

shelter. According to the No Kill Now website, so far, more than 25,000 animals have been

adopted from Maxfund and they have provided over 20,000 spays and neuters for low-income

families. As stated on their website, Maxfund works to save and prevent animals from being

euthanized in overpopulated shelters, because according to the Colorado Humane Society,

annually 6-8 million animals enter shelters and 3-4 million are euthanized. Maxfund’s employees

and volunteers work diligently every year to decrease and even try and eliminate those numbers

here in Denver.

I worked with my fellow classmate Gretchen Schniepp for this project, and I enjoyed my

time spent with Maxfund very much. Our biggest undertaking this semester was Maxfund’s 23rd

annual Silent Auction Fundraiser called “Puttin’ on the Max: We Are Colorado”. This event was

held on October 22, 2011 at the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver, and it is the shelter’s

largest fundraising event of the entire year. 100% of the money raised goes back to the shelter,

and this year, the funds went towards much-needed improvements to Maxfund’s dog shelter,

which is very old and small, because they have grown so much in recent years! They just

remodeled their cat shelter, and it is beautiful and spacious, so hopefully the dog shelter is able to

follow suit as quickly as possible. Overall the event was a huge success, the details of which I

will discuss shortly!

We worked closely with Maxfund’s Events Director Shannon VanDzura and her assistant

Anthony over the course of the semester. Shannon does an incredible amount of work for

Maxfund, and her passion and hard work are absolutely enviable. She was an amazing supervisor

throughout the process, answering all of our questions and being very receptive to our ideas and

suggestions. Gretchen and I were responsible for most of the preparation and execution of the

silent auction event, so we put a lot of work into this fundraiser before the big night, spending

several days at the shelter organizing and recording all of the donated items into spreadsheets.

There were over 200 donations from both individuals and local businesses, so we had an

amazing turnout just from the donors themselves, but it took a lot of work for us to just get

everything wrangled together in one room, because things were kind of scattered since the

shelter is so small. But we made it work, and many of the donations included beautiful artwork,

handcrafted jewelry, generous gift certificates to restaurants around town, themed gift baskets

filled with food and coffee, and several different pet items.

We were responsible for deciding the price on a majority of the items, and once

everything was organized, we then sent the comprehensive spreadsheets to Blacktie Colorado,

which is an online service for nonprofits who put on silent auctions. According to Blacktie’s

website, they are a national company headquartered here in Denver, and they have over 35

proprietary event planning and communication tools, that help with everything from fundraising

to event awareness to online registration and check out. They are a truly amazing, innovative

company! Specifically for us, Blacktie Colorado electronically assigned all of our silent auction

items with a bid number and a bid sheet, which was a huge time saver. This website was

absolutely crucial to the event’s success, and Gretchen and I became very familiar with it to

ensure that everything would run smoothly the night of the event. Before this year, everything

had been done by hand, so Shannon really wanted us to revamp and simplify the entire silent

auction, and especially the check-out procedures. Using Blacktie definitely made things much

easier and faster during the check-out process, and recording and keeping track of all the

information by hand would have been all but impossible, so technology was a vital resource for

us during the event! I enjoyed becoming more familiar with the Blacktie technology, because I

had never worked with it before, but again it was immensely helpful, and a great learning

experience!

The day of the silent auction, Gretchen and I arrived at the Brown Palace at 9 am to help

set up and organize last minute donations and volunteers. That took us all day, and once it was

5:30, guests began arriving and the silent auction commenced. While the guests were bidding

during the silent auction, Gretchen and I were constantly communicating with the Maxfund

volunteers and staff, Shannon and Anthony, and the attendees, running around and answering

questions in all of the areas where the items were set up. Things settled down a bit at 7 pm, once

all of the guests went into the ballroom to have dinner, which was beautifully decorated with

donated items, followed by a slide show and pet parade featuring some of Maxfund’s animals.

There were recognitions and awards from Maxfund founders Bill and Nanci Suro, and Gretchen

and I were excited and humbled by the mentioning of our names during the ceremony. There was

also a performance by the Denver Nuggets dancers, and a live auction, which was an exciting

conclusion to the night. The event was hosted by 7News Meteorologist Mike Nelson, so it was

really fun for me to see so much local interaction and cooperation, from various media outlets

and sports teams, going on for such an amazing cause.

Once the entertainment was over, we began the check out process for people who had the

winning bids. This was crunch time, and what we had prepared for so long, so Gretchen and I

were nervously excited. The check out process required a lot of communication with the

volunteers, who were eager to help and go retrieve items, which was another crucial part to our

success. Things went considerably smoother than in the past, and Shannon and her staff

emphasized again and again what a huge help we were throughout the entire event planning

process, and especially on the night of the silent auction. We were exhausted because we did not

leave the Brown Palace until after midnight, so that compliment really made us feel like it we

had done something truly great for the shelter, and once we learned that the event raised over

$16,000 to go towards improvements for their dog shelter, we were thrilled! It had all definitely

been worth it, and we were so pleased with the results of the evening.

Not only was the silent auction a really rewarding and enjoyable experience, but

Gretchen and I were able to help out with other events along the way, such as mobile adoption

events and online webinars with the Blacktie staff, so we really learned a lot in a short amount of

time. I’m excited to say that we will both continue our work with Maxfund at an upcoming

Christmas open house event in December, and I know Gretchen and I would really love to help

out as much as we can in the future. This project really showed me that I can make a difference

in my community, because I used to think that I didn’t have time to volunteer or that my work

wouldn’t be worth anything. However, I have learned that most places around Denver are

desperate for volunteers, so I am certain that after I graduate I will have no more excuses, and

hopefully be able to help out more. I met and witnessed some amazing, selfless people in the

world, not just working at Maxfund but all over, who sacrifice so much just for the good of

others. So even if I do small-scale volunteer efforts, I now know that I will feel exponentially

better about myself and my community, and I definitely believe in karma and paying it forward.

As a soon-to-be struggling college graduate, with student loan payments looming, I can use all

the good karma I can get! I also learned that are still some truly good-hearted and hard-working

people in this world, which can be so easy to forget sometimes, so that lifted my spirits and is

definitely something I want to continue to be a part of.

It was also really interesting to me to see how much communication is required for

nonprofits to put on an event like this. It sounds so simple, but effective and consistent

communication really was key for us, among all avenues, with the donors, attendees, fellow

volunteers, the Brown Palace staff, and the special guests. Since I want to work in a field where I

can blend my interests in the local media and animals, for example, this event encouraged me

that there is a lot of opportunity out there, especially with nonprofits. Being able to adapt and

think on your toes is another important lesson that I learned through this experience, and

teamwork is always an important skill to hone, especially working on such an important and

meaningful event, as Gretchen and I did.

Overall I had a great time working with Maxfund this semester, and I was able to

experience how getting out into the world and volunteering really does make you feel great about

yourself and the community in which you live. Plus, when you work with animals like we were

able to, it doesn’t get much better than that for me! I would love to make a career out of doing

something similar to this, so hopefully I am able to find opportunities once I graduate, and I’m so

glad I took part in this project this semester!

Works Cited

Blacktie Colorado. 2010. “About Us”. Retrieved from: https://www.blacktie-

colorado.com/about-us/

Colorado Humane Society & SPCA. 2010. “Why Should I Spay/Neuter My Pet?” Retrieved

from: http://coloradohumane.org/learn

Maxfund No-Kill Animal Shelter website. 2011. “About Us”. Retrieved from:

http://www.maxfund.org/about-us/

No Kill Now website. 2011. “Maxfund FAQs”. Retrieved from:

http://www.nokillnow.com/MaxFundFAQs.html