LIFESTYLE - INTERVIEW

Interview with Karn Myers, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FixNation

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

FixNation

LIFESTYLE - INTERVIEW

by Melisa Kaya

Everybody loves cats, that is real, but not all of us care about homeless cats. In city life, they live a lot of different problems such as health, hunger, and violence. They have a very large community that makes impossible to help all of them one by one. But some of us are trying to help all of them.

Karn Myers, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FixNation

Maybe it is too hard to make this as one person, but there are clinics and nonprofits that dedicated themselves to help all homeless cats with different solutions.

Karn Myers aimed increasing awareness about homeless cats but it was not enough for her. Then, 11 years ago she and her husband founded an award-winning nonprofit, FixNation.

I asked Karn Myers about FixNation activities and future plans and she answered with her all sincerity. You can find Q&A about FixNation here.

Could you tell us about FixNation and its history?

FixNation is a top-rated, award-winning nonprofit that was founded 11 years ago by myself and my late husband Mark Dodge. We became feral cat advocates after learning about the shocking number of homeless cats in our community (estimated to be from 1 to 3 million cats). We started Catnippers in 1999, an all-volunteer spay/neuter clinic, but soon realized we needed to do much more to truly make a difference.

In 2007, with the help of grants from PetSmart Charities and others, we launched FixNation – the first full-time spay/neuter facility in Los Angeles with a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) mission. I’m proud to say that our innovative, respected programs have become a model for other towns and cities…even countries who are dealing with similar situations.

FixNation

What are the projects you are actively organizing? Could you tell us about them?

FixNation provides FREE spay/neuter services to homeless cats, along with basic medical care and a generous dose of love and compassion. Our high-volume, high-quality, state-of-the-art clinic also offers low-costspay/neuteringand microchipping for pet cats.

Other TNR free services include:

Loaning humane traps to the public
Providing education and training
Offering guidance and information on the care and management of feral colonies
Engaging in extensive community outreach

In addition to free spay/neuter services for homeless cats, we also rescue tame “red-listed” cats from city shelters and transport them to adoption organizations seeking adoptable animals. For shelter cats like these, doomed to be euthanized within 24 hours, our transport program is literally their last hope.

How can businesses and employees donate to your charity?

Via our website, fixnation.org.

For companies that want to establish a long-term support relationship, could FixNation offer long-term collaborative opportunities such as sponsorship?

Absolutely! We have a number of longtime sponsors and our relationships with each one has proved to be mutually beneficial over the years. We could not continue the urgently needed work we do were it not for our corporate sponsors and generous donations by individuals.

FixNation

What are the next steps and future plans for FixNation?

FixNation has come a long way in 11 years, but there is still so much more I want to accomplish. Some of my ambitious goals include

Increase clinic capacity by opening the clinic 7 days a week, which would allow the clinic to fix thousands of more cats each year
Introduce new programs, such as a relocation program for feral cats
Expand outreach about TNR in low-income communities with the greatest need
Raise greater awareness with professional PR/media relations, new marketing collateral, new website, additional social media and more special events
Engaging in extensive community outreach

FixNation

What is your advice to Business owners who are ready to allocate budget for their first Social Responsibility Projects?

Studies have shown that in order to do the most good, donors are much better off funding a single charity – better enabling it to achieve its goals – rather than distributing funds to multiple organizations.

Larger donations are crucially important to smaller nonprofits such as FixNation; it’s an ongoing struggle each year to find the funding we need to continue providing free services to homeless cats. I fear we won’t be able to keep our doors open, and the negative impact that would have on this community would be truly devastating.

Anything you’d like to add that I haven’t asked?

I encourage you to watch our video, Ordinary Heroes Wanted.

https://vimeo.com/127961182

Thank you Karn.

For more information, please visit website of FixNation

More photos of Homeless Cats