29A – Venture Concept No. 2

This a dog enjoying the Plushie at a volunteer event 

Opportunity:

Project Canis is a nonprofit organization and has a mission to help shelter animals by providing toys made of recycled materials. Project Canis provides instructions to other organizations or families. These other organizations or families can help by making their homemade toys from old material like t-shirts and plastic bottles. The toys are donated to Project Canis, and then our organization sends them to shelters in need across Florida. The market that requires animal toys is animal shelters. The shelters and rescues have new animals enter the shelter almost weekly. Their demand for toys is high. The animals, especially dogs, go through toys at an exceptional speed. Keeping up and buying new toys is extremely expensive, especially when most of their donation money goes to other things like vet care.

I mentioned in my other post kitten season has sparked this need, but I would argue that COVID has also brought further demand. Since the pandemic, many animals have are getting adopted. For example, on the Humane Society of North Central Florida Facebook page, they reported they had 700 adoptions since March. (Gilley, 2020) This is a significant number for the shelter as they have not been able to hold adoption events and only booked in-person appointments. Higher adoptions usually mean more space for other animals, indicating a higher turnover rate and a more prominent need for toys.

The market is most likely determined geographically. Normally, each county has at least one animal shelter and maybe a few rescues. For the state of Project Canis currently, we are only focusing on animal shelters in Florida. Shelter's fulfilled their need for toys by getting donations or, in extreme cases, buying their toys. Shelters will always receive donations from other businesses or people. However, the more contributions they get, the better. I think this opportunity is significant and continues to grow. This opportunity has longevity because there will always be shelters, and they will always need new toys.

Innovation:

The products that Project Canis is dealing with are dog toys made up of old materials such as old T-shirts and old water bottles. Currently, we have instructions for three types of toys can be made:

• The Braid
• The Crunch
• The Plushie

Instructions are on our website and Instagram. Project Canis is a nonprofit; if I am candid, we are not worried about making money. Like one of the comments said, we make toys out of recycled materials, so our cost is very minimal, and the toys are donated. We get the toys from organizations or families, and we would not charge the shelters for the toys because they will be donations from us. We are planning on using PayPal to get donations so we can jump-start the business. We need funds for paperwork and legal matters like registering Project Canis as a nonprofit. 

Venture Concept:

Since we are donating the toys to shelters, our consumers (shelters) will not have to switch to our product. However, I do think that people will want to help and volunteer. Especially now, during the pandemic, people can volunteer by making toys from the comfort of their homes. However, we still need organizations and other volunteers to become aware of the nonprofit. Making toys is an easy way to help organizations in need, and it minimizes everyone's carbon footprint, and that is why I think people will want to participate.

Since we are a nonprofit, any other organizations making donations to shelters would not be seen as competition. If anything, other organizations are our competitors' in terms of getting volunteers. Since the toys are made of recycled materials, the packaging does not matter. In terms of delivery, Project Canis has to make sure that the toys come when promised. Shelters depend on the toys for animal welfare. Volunteer experience is essential because we want them to continue making toys. We also need a good relationship with shelters because they can spread awareness of our cause.

Our organization has seven directors. The positions are executive director, finance director, operations director, outreach director, fundraising director, marketing director, and program director. Each director has a specific job that they have to do within the nonprofit. For example, my position is the outreach director. My responsibility is to reach out to volunteers and donors, build relationships with them, and get new people involved in the organization.

Three elements:

1. Our most valuable resource is the combination of all seven directors. No one can recreate our past relationships with other shelters and nonprofits and our experience dealing with nonprofits, marketing, fundraising, outreach, etc.

2. I think the next opportunity is to figure out more toy designs geared towards cats. While cats can use the toys made now, they are mostly marketed towards dogs.

3. In the next few years, I hope to have project Canis be established in Gainesville, have a steady stream of volunteers and donations being provided. My future hope is to spread Project Canis' mission outside of Gainesville and maybe in other college towns.

If you guys would like to find out more about Project Canis, go to our website or Instagram!

Website: https://projectcanis.weebly.com/

Instagram: @theprojectcanis

Feedback:

All the feedback I received was positive. But I wanted to make clear that the reason for Project Canis' being is not to make money but to give toys to animals and shelters in Florida. Plus, the money received will be used to jumpstart the business. So I made sure to state that in my document explicitly. On my "What's Next post," the comments mentioned that they liked having toys created for cats, so I wrote that in my three elements instead of looking for durable toys. That way, when people volunteer, they can make toys based on which animal they prefer. I think this a better next step. 

Reference:

Sarah Gilley. (2020, July 31) Just surpassed 700 ADOPTIONS since the beginning of quarantine!!! Adoptions have been foster fails or one-on-one appointments, no large events or visiting hours, which makes this number even more amazing! [Facebook Update] Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3776356852381212&set=a.383229108360687&type=3&theater