Volunteer
Our Story
FieldHaven Feline Center started in 2003 by sisters Jann Flanagan and Joy Smith with a barn and a handful of feral cats. Operating out of a trailer located on a private horse ranch in rural Lincoln, California, the sisters established “FieldHaven Feline Rescue” to provide a safe haven for local cats and kittens until adoption. By 2008, our community’s needs outgrew FieldHaven’s facilities. We completed our state-of-the-art cat center in 2011, created in cooperation with the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program. FieldHaven Feline Center isn’t just about adoptions: our goal is to enhance the lives of cats and their owners and caregivers by offering programs to Lincoln and surrounding communities to fulfill their needs.
Our Volunteer Program
Volunteers are FieldHaven Feline Center’s greatest asset. As a 100% privately-funded nonprofit organization, we rely on our volunteers to help us run our shelter, community programs and services, and the FieldHaven Marketplace Thrift Store. They are vital to our goal of finding a solution for every cat in need. Our volunteers come from diverse backgrounds, ages, and skillsets. Volunteering at FieldHaven is a great way to make new friends as well as share and learn new skills.
Join Us!
If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the volunteer application and/or the fostering application. Once received, we will send you an email with dates for a FieldHaven volunteer orientation. Please be patient: our applications are processed in the order they are received. Our volunteer coordinator will review the best area and schedule for you for volunteering.
Age: The minimum age for volunteering is 12, accompanied by a parent or guardian actively volunteering at all times. It may be possible for 16 and 17 year old volunteers to work on their own pending review and available assignments.
Time Commitment: We value your time and know you have a choice where you spend it. We appreciate you spending as much volunteering as you like. While we do not require a specific number of hours from our volunteers, some roles do necessitate a minimum weekly commitment for scheduling purposes.
Volunteering Needs & Positions
Cat care volunteers take care of the day-to-day needs of our shelter and Marketplace felines. People who love taking care of kitties, including feeding and scooping, are perfect for this role. You will feel the eternal gratitude of FieldHaven’s kitties and humans. A minimum of two shifts per month is required.
Community/Cat Assistant Team (CAT) volunteers provide phone customer service, staff our help desk, greet the public, respond to online inquiries, and triage requests for assistance. They are vital to the smooth operation of the shelter and FieldHaven’s overall mission to find a solution for every cat (and often, human) in need. There are opportunities for CAT volunteers to volunteer remotely.
FieldHaven Marketplace is an award-winning thrift store operated by staff and volunteers for the benefit of FieldHaven Feline Center. If you like retail, you’ll love volunteering here, where you can help organize and categorize donations, merchandise the store, cashier, and interact with customers.
Adoption coordinators provide customer service and guidance to potential adopters, accessing and aligning the needs of the adopters and the cat or kitten. Many of our adoptions are done at off-site locations. Our adoption coordinators are “people people” in addition to being “cat people.” They like to interact and are great at “reading” both the human and feline needs in a potential adoption. We appreciate when our adoption coordinators help transport potential adoptees.
We are always in need of foster parents and families to take care of kittens and cats while they are waiting for their forever homes. Please visit our Foster page for complete information, including training, on these volunteer opportunities.
We are often in need of transporting cats from other area shelters to FieldHaven or nearby medical facilities. We transport cats to Bay Area shelters, so you may get to spend a day in San Francisco! Some of these are scheduled transports, but many are short trips with short notice. You are perfect for this opportunity if you have a flexible schedule and reliable vehicle.
Spay Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) and Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) are two of the core services FieldHaven provides. Volunteers in this area may be sitting at a desk doing computer work or getting out in the field, helping to trap cats. Think of these volunteers as mild-mannered on the outside and superheroes on the inside!
FieldHaven’s Hathaway Cat Resource Center (630 B Street, Marysville, CA) is seeking volunteers to help at our office in Marysville. If you have been wanting to make a difference in the lives of cats and kittens, but don’t know where or how to start, this is the place for you! We’re currently seeking volunteers within these opportunities: customer service, data entry, trapping, cleaning, outreach, and fundraising.
Animal health care assistants support our medical team of veterinarians and veterinary technicians in caring for the health of all our cats and kittens. Some of the duties include administering medications, recording vital signs, and charting.
