Welcome to Kallen Media’s next company spotlight! Since 2008, Operation Blankets of Love (OBOL) has been working to better the health of homeless animals to give them a better chance of survival. OBOL’s ultimate goal is to eliminate animal homelessness and euthanasia.
Kallen Media is happy to do their part by helping OBOL set up their Google ad grants. We also managed their Google Ads account for over a year. The team at Kallen Media has taken OBOL from zero campaigns to over ten specific campaigns.
Nathan, Kallen Media’s founder, even has a dog named Willy, who is an animal ambassador on OBOL’s website. Willy is a 7-year-old Lhasa Apso rescue who loves morning walks and playing with his dinosaur and monkey toys. Nathan says that when Willy isn’t playing, he is the best work-from-home buddy. Nathan’s family is excited to give Willy an excellent rest of his life. And that is what OBOL and its mission are all about.
About Operation Blankets of Love
Operation Blankets of Love believes that no animal should ever be neglected, abused, or abandoned, spending its existence in fear, pain, and hunger, but instead have the right to live a life full of compassion and love.
OBOL does this charitable work by donating pet food, treats, blankets, towels, pet beds, leashes, collars, harnesses, toys, crates, medical and grooming supplies, and many other items to shelters, rescue groups, pets of the homeless, animal transporters, foster caretakers, and wildlife sanctuaries.
OBOL advocates for animal welfare through service-oriented humane education to 1,000s of children each year. They also donate pet food and supplies to homeless and low-income pet owners like veterans, the disabled, families, seniors, and people of all backgrounds.
Their Story
OBOL’s founder, Eileen Smulson, had never had a pet before her dog, Ginger. This little doggie became the inspiration for OBOL, which now offers hope to thousands of stray, sick, neglected, abused, and homeless animals.
Eileen was a school teacher and non-profit fundraiser for 20 years before OBOL. She raised millions of dollars for non-profits and won national awards. Eileen likes to help animals without a voice by thinking outside the box and using an entrepreneurial attitude.
In January 2008, Eileen saw puppies shivering on a cold cement floor at an animal shelter near her home. Eileen couldn’t bear to think of her rescue dog, Ginger, lying cold on the floor like this. She expressed her concern to the shelter manager, who explained that they didn’t have the budget for blankets and towels. Eileen offered to help, and in just a few weeks, she had collected over 800 blankets and towels.
When Eileen learned that a lot of other animal rescue groups needed blankets and other comfort items, she created 20 drop-off locations and collected over 3,000 more things in just a few months. Excited by her success, Eileen dedicated herself full time to the cause, and OBOL was born in 2009.
Programs
Shelter and rescue group support
OBOL “rescues the rescuers” by donating crucial food and pet supplies to rescue groups and animal shelters across the United States. Shelters don’t always have the budget for comfort items, and rescue groups don’t have the resources needed to provide food, bedding, and comfort items for the animals they care for. OBOL bridges the gap by donating these much-needed supplies to rescuers.
Shelters are not required to provide comfort items despite research that shows shelter pets who appear in home-like settings have higher rates of adoption. The supplies and food OBOL donates to pets in rescue settings find more forever homes.
Pets of the Homeless
When pets can stay with their best friends â their human companions â they stay out of shelters with high euthanasia rates. To help pets stay with their people, OBOL donates food, blankets, pet beds, toys, and other crucial supplies to homeless pet owners, low-income seniors, and homebound people with pets.
OBOL believes that no person should ever have their pets taken away because they can’t afford the necessary supplies for their pets’ survival and health. No pet should have to be uncomfortable, go hungry, or suffer.
Helping Veterans with Pets
There are very few organizations that assist veterans with pets, and OBOL is one of them. They help homeless and low-income veterans keep their pets safe and healthy so they can stay with them. OBOL partners with the Veterans Administration every month to provide pet food and supplies to VA locations in California.
\Animal Relocation Project
OBOL helps save animals from “death row” by supplying food, crates, and other critical pet supplies to rescue groups who place homeless pets in loving homes throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico.
The comfort items such as blankets, treats, and carriers help put animals at ease on their long journeys to new homes by providing warmth and a sense of security. OBOL also partners with rescue groups that save dogs from slaughterhouses in China and South Korea.
Humane Education Learning Program (HELP)
OBOL knows that educating children is one of the best ways to end animal abuse and to promote the well-being of pets in the future so that they don’t end up in a shelter later.
Eileen’s first occupation was an elementary school teacher, so it would make sense that someday her love of education and children would coincide with OBOL’s mission. Eileen designed OBOL’s education program, “HELP,” which teaches children to be kind and to respect all animals and people.
HELP lessons provide a sense of kindness, empathy, compassion, responsibility, community spirit, teamwork, self-respect, and respect for all living things. OBOL inspires others to answer the call to action by incorporating these critical values into their lessons.
Students of HELP can achieve a feeling of accomplishment when they participate in an OBOL drive by collecting gently-used and new pets items for homeless shelter animals. Children even make blankets and toys for stray dogs and cats. They can choose to deliver donated items to local shelters personally or to have OBOL take the things for them.
HELP teaches students why animals end up in shelters in the first place and how to take care of pets. The program has even inspired several of its students to grow up and become animal welfare advocates.
Just some of the HELP’s curriculum topics include Pet Care and Responsibility, and adoption is the Best option, Animal & Human Bonding, Puppy Mills, Compassion for All Living Creatures and Animals Have Feelings, Too!
Anti Cruelty Campaign
OBOL works to raise public awareness about homeless animals. They have created their campaign titled “We Dream of Justice, Too.” OBOL has campaign flyers that educators, animal shelters, and humane organizations can use to emphasize the importance of reporting animal abuse and neglect.
The goal of their campaign is to raise awareness that animal abuse and neglect is a crime, to encourage people to report animal abuse and neglect, and to make people think twice before harming an animal.
OBOL raises awareness at adoption events and pet expos. They give presentations to schools, youth, and civic groups and organize a collection of pet comfort and care items for shelters.
Ways to Give
One Time and Monthly Donations
There are many ways to give to OBOL, and because they don’t receive any state or federal funding, that means your contribution and support is incredibly important.
You can donate just once or join their monthly giving club. Financial donations help OBOL to continue helping more than 12,000 homeless animals every year. Donations help OBOL give food and life-saving supplies to rescue groups, shelters, pets of the homeless, and struggling pet owners all across North America.
Pet Item Donations
OBOL urgently needs new and gently used pet supplies such as blankets, pet beds, towels, pet food, collars, leashes, bowls, crates, toys, and kitty litter. Shelters have zero budgets for comfort items for their homeless animals, so comfort item donations help tremendously.
Comfort items help shelter animals become more adoptable. Shelter animals tend to relax when resting on a bed, blanket, or towel. They appear more alert, and they become more affectionate towards other animals and people. A more home-like setting because of comfort items makes it easier for potential pet owners to imagine the animal in their home.
These much-needed comfort items also keep shelter pets off dirty and cold floors and cushion their joints. By donating just one blanket, you save two lives. One life you save is when a pet is adopted, and another when that vacancy becomes a temporary home for a new animal.
Donate while you shop
When you sign up for Amazon Smile, 0.5% of eligible purchases go to your favorite charity â and you can choose OBOL! There are no fees and no extra cost. Ralph’s Community Contribution Program also has a donations program. A lot of Kroger grocery chain stores will donate a portion of your purchases to OBOL at no additional cost.
How to get involved
There are a couple of ways to get involved in helping Operation Blankets of Love. They have been a recipient of proceeds from volunteer-hosted events. You can contact OBOL for more information, and they are more than happy to provide you with graphics, guidance, and more.
Volunteers are always at the heart of any charity or organization. As a non-profit, OBOL heavily relies on volunteers to help with many different activities, such as administrative tasks and fundraising.
One of the many ways to volunteer is by hosting a collection drive. Get your school, church, temple, workplace, civic, and community groups involved by collecting pet supplies. You can also volunteer at an OBOL fundraising event like their wine and paint nights, pet adoptions, animal expos, and bingo nights.
Kallen Media is proud to help Operation Blankets of Love with their mission to end animal abuse, homelessness, and euthanasia. If you’re looking for help with your Google Ad Grant or any of your digital marketing needs, please contact Kallen Media.
