Booze and Barks

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On May 19th, the 4th annual Booze and Barks event was held at DBGB in downtown Buffalo. Although the weather was kind of shitty, people still came out to support the cause for the SPCA. First off, the SPCA and the ASPCA are two totally separate organizations, which is really too bad for the SPCA as it makes their differences less distinctive and leaves people confused or fundraising weary.

In brief the SPCA is good. The ASPCA is generally bad.  When I see commercials for the ASPCA nothing grinds my gears more. I will eventually update this post with links that explain why one is good and the other bad. In the meantime, if you’re really that bored, you can read about the results of our findings here. The main point to take away is the SPCA is pretty solid and it’s nice to see people come out to support a good cause. 

I had the opportunity to spend the day at the SPCA Erie County in West Seneca, a suburb outside of Buffalo last year and I brought along with me one of our software developers, our UX designer, and one of our electrical engineers. The purpose of our visit was to observe the intake processes and identify first hand any inefficiencies.  This includes the software they use for their management purposes (whether they had any problems) as well as their current workflows. In summary, I would put the SPCA at the top of our list of all shelters we have visited.

Booze and Barks

 After speaking with the SPCA about what they were already doing to raise funds and before donating her valuable and limited time, Nicole Jacobs learned as much as she could about the way the shelter operates, and the good things that it is doing to rescue, feed, care for and help animals that end up there. After doing so,  Nicole was inspired to help support the shelter’s work and pledged to do so for 5 years.


Nicole is more interested in focusing on the cause rather than on herself so I think it’s really cool for the world to know about her selfless part for the better and what she has been doing to help the animals. My goal of this blog post is to capture the donation moment for future donors next year to see the outcome of Nicole’s hard work for themselves. 

This was not a basic Social networking fundraising endeavor that encouraged people to make donations online through a secure donation source. zzzzzzz

Nicole of course spread the word through her social media contacts and asked them to pass it on, b ut she also 

◦ Passed out flyersand emailed electronic versions of those flyers
◦ Sent emails around to friends and family and asked them to forward this information on to people they know in the area.
◦ Through word of mouth––told people whenever she had the opportunity.


It was really cool because she invited  various pet related vendors set up shop to get the word out about their small businesses. Everything from dog treats, doggy photographers, cartoon artists, and mineral oils. 

I would suggest next year that she have ALL vendors donate a percentage of their sales to the shelter as well. That includes a percentage of revene from drink sales from whichever venue she choses to hold the event at as well… and she would probably disagree. 

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