Photo by courtesy PETBUCKs

Photo by courtesy PETBUCKs

Photo by courtesy PETBUCKs

Organization helps support animal foster care

A Frisco resident has started a new nonprofit organization to help homeless animals stay in foster care while they wait for permanent homes.

Kim Lechner started PETBUCKs in August 2013, and the organization's website launched in January 2014.

PETBUCKs focuses on raising money for animals already in the care of a rescue organization. Its website,

www.petbucks.org, lists pets available to be sponsored.

"Our main focus is to utilize social networking to raise funds for these organizations and to use the infrastructure that they already have in place for caring for the animals," Lechner said. "Of course, if someone is ready to adopt, that is a win-win."

So far PETBUCKs is working to help provide support to three local rescue organizations—Operation Kindness, Greyhound Adoption League of Texas and Furry Friends Animal Rescue.

"I am working with reputable organizations through the startup phase, and have strict application criteria [for rescue groups] in place through an application process and contract," Lechner said.

In order to create awareness, a major component of the organization includes utilizing Facebook.

"When someone sponsors a pet, they get emailed a picture of the pet," Lechner said. "If they sign in through Facebook, their news feed will spread the word about that sponsorship."

Sponsors can also choose to sign up through the PETBUCKs website and choose whether they would like the sponsorship to be shown on Facebook.

"Facebook will send an update on the pet's status monthly through the individual's news feed that signed up on Facebook," she said.

Lechner said because the organization is new, she is the only volunteer and she does not pay herself. Her plan is to use only volunteer help.

"The commitment is to donate 85 percent of proceeds to the member organizations and to use as little as possible to administer the business, which is essentially the site, e-commerce and fundraising," she said.

Lechner said the need for funding for homeless pets is "enormous."

"These organizations are all in need of resources, since approximately 4 million homeless pets are subject to euthanasia each year in the U.S.," Lechner said.

Support PETBUCKs

  • To donate to PETBUCKs, visit www.petbucks.org. Donations can also be mailed to P.O. Box 2123, Frisco, Texas, 75034.
  • Find PETBUCKs on Facebook at www.facebook.com/petbucks. To date, the PETBUCKs Facebook page has about 850 likes.

PETBUCKs