FAQ's

You will be providing monthly summary data to The National Database using the Intake and Outcome Data Matrix. This includes information about the species you manage, broken out by age category, intake and outcome information, and facility-specific data. Shelter Animals Count provides specific definitions for each category and data point, eliminating ambiguity and ensuring consistency if data is rolled up beyond the local level. When you first register, we ask you to provide monthly data beginning with the previous month. You are also able to enter historical data as far back as 2011, if you have that data available. The Intake and Outcome Database is intentionally concise in its effort to provide a common framework for data collection whether organizations already gather a great deal of data or have only gathered the basics. Shelter Animals Count is exploring additional data collection means that would further benefit the animal welfare community.

Click here to see the Participant Agreement.

This lifesaving effort depends on us all – your data can help not just the animals in your care, but across the nation!

Shelter Animals Count provides you with a wealth of information on national trends that may affect your organization, improves visibility and reporting options for grant applications, fundraising and coalition-building efforts, and opens the door to a world where we are all working better – and smarter – together. But we cannot do it without you!

The national database is intended to be a tool for you and your community at the county level, state level and national level to help understand the trends, opportunities, and challenges you face, and to help create a picture of how those evolve to the regional and national levels.

Shelter Animals Count is comprised of animal welfare professionals like you, many of whom have extensive backgrounds or active relationships with major animal welfare organizations across the country. We have come together to promote an open, fact-based, and respectful national data collection effort.

By providing comprehensive, collaboratively sourced data, we enable a greater understanding of the state of animal welfare and how we can all increase our positive impact for the animals we are privileged to serve.

Data Entry Instructions

There are three ways to enter your data: Manual entry, CSV Upload and API (for select software). Details on how to enter data manually or using a CSV can be viewed in the video tutorials below.

• How to Enter Data Manually
• How to Enter Data with a CSV File Upload
• To opt-in to a live API with Petpoint, Shelter Manager, Petstablished or Animals First, visit our API page: SAC Announces API Development for Automatic Data Transfer from Shelter Software – Shelter Animals Count

The national database shares aggregate data through its website via dashboards and may also release de-identified data in an export file upon request. While we strongly encourage participating shelters to be transparent with their community about their data, SAC believes each organization has the right to share their data and their story in their own way. Therefore, Shelter Animals Count does not publicly release identifiable organization-level data, but we do have a dashboard organizations can embed on their own website to share their data.

In addition, organizations can opt to share their data in our coalition portal with local, regional or national coalitions which have to abide by our data use agreement.

As data and reporting efforts have evolved in the field, many of the national groups involved with data collection understood that it was time to reconvene and reach a broad agreement on what kind of data is most useful to collect and how we can best capture the animal welfare data in our communities.

Based on existing data reporting structures, such as those that came out of the Asilomar Accords, and incorporating what we’ve learned through the reporting efforts of animal welfare organizations and funders, Shelter Animals Count was created by consensus and commitment to a standard set of statistics that could be captured in every community with relative speed and ease. We know you’re busy, and we’re here to help make meaningful data collection easier so you can get back to the business of supporting animals!

Shelter Animals Count is a neutral database that holds the security of your data in highest regard. Data collected is not reported publicly in any identifiable manner by SAC, encouraging organizations to share their data in combination with their story in their own way. Whether or not your data is already shared publicly, you’ve likely considered the pros and cons of doing so. With transparency comes the reality that your stakeholders may ask questions to gain a better understanding of the challenges and decisions your organization faces, or worse, make assumptions that may not be based in fact – and this can and does happen, whether or not your data is currently being published.

And while sharing data may lead to a few potentially difficult conversations or misunderstandings about why your organization makes certain decisions or operates in a certain way, it also gives you open access to clear, concrete data that you can use help dispel myths or rumors, and pave the way for honest dialogue, enabling you to build trust within your community and rally supporters to your cause. SAC supports organizations in being transparent with their data but does not share data directly with the public.

Data submission doesn’t have to take long. 80% of our participants indicate that data entry is easy or very easy and 70% indicate it takes them 15 mins or less time each month to submit. You can automate your data entry (depending on your shelter management software), upload your data using a CSV, or manually enter your data.

If you use one of the following softwares, you can automate your data entry: Pet Point, Shelter Manager, Petstablished, Animals First, and (very soon) Shelter Luv.

Instructions for the APIs can be found here: SAC Announces API Development for Automatic Data Transfer from Shelter Software – Shelter Animals Count

If you don’t want to opt into an API, or you have one of these softwares: Shelter Boss, Shelter Buddy, Sparkie, Chameleon, ShelterTrack, Shelter Luv, PetPoint, Animals First, Petstablished, or Animal Shelter Manager, you can download a CSV specifically designed for SAC and upload to your account for easy data entry. Instructions for downloading a CSV for each software can be found here: Resources – Shelter Animals Count

If you don’t have a shelter management software with an API or CSV download, you can manually enter your data. Some shelters recruit volunteers to assist with data entry or designate a team member to manually enter the data on the first week of each month.

It sure is! With the Data Dashboards on our website, you can view Industry Trends, Intakes and Outcomes, and Community Services data. We also release quarterly reports that simplify the data and provide forecasting for the months ahead.

Yes! We offer API, or automatic data transfer from shelter software. Once an organization opts into API data transfer, they’’ll never have to manually enter their data again! With an API, organizations’ animals will automatically be represented in the monthly SAC dashboards and reports, they will automatically qualify for grants that SAC gives out as well as meet the data requirements for grants from other animal welfare granting organizations. The API is currently available for users of PetPoint, Animal Shelter Manager, Animals First and Petstablished. Users of other softwares can sign up to be notified when API becomes available. Learn more on our website at https://www.shelteranimalscount.org/sac-announces-api-development-for-automatic-data-transfer-from-shelter-software/