An animal rescue website that finds homes and keeps supporters giving

Animals as pages, kept current by volunteers

The adoptable animals are the heart of the site, and they change every week. Hold them in a CMS collection, say animals, with fields for name, species, breed or type, age, sex, size, status (available, reserved, adopted, in foster), whether they can live with children, dogs or cats, medical needs, and a short write-up in the animal's own terms. Each animal gets a page at /animals/<slug>, and the collection page lists them all. Entries are edited in the dashboard, and with a Team workspace the foster coordinator can have their own seat and mark a dog reserved without waiting for whoever built the site.

Write profiles honestly. "Bonnie is nervous of men and needs an adult-only home with a secure garden" saves everyone time and gets more of the right applications than "Bonnie is a sweetheart looking for her forever home". Use your own photos, taken outside the kennel where you can. Keep adopted animals' pages, switched to a happy-ending status, so the site builds a record of homes found.

The adoption process, in order

1. Read the profile and the requirements: home check, garden, other pets, children's ages, time alone.
2. Apply with the adoption form.
3. A call with the adoption coordinator.
4. A home check, in person or by video.
5. Meet the animal, sometimes more than once.
6. Adoption day, the fee and the contract.
7. Follow-up, and what happens if it doesn't work out.

Publish those steps with realistic timings and the adoption fee and what it covers (vaccinations, neutering, microchip). Applicants who know the process don't email to ask why they haven't heard back after two days.

Applications that tell you enough

An adoption application in Anticode is a custom form with up to 30 plain-text fields. That's room for the animal applied for, household members and ages, other pets and whether they're neutered, home type and garden, landlord permission, hours alone, experience, and how they'd handle a difficult first month. The form's site function runs when it's sent, and the thank-you page can tell applicants what happens next and how long it usually takes. Applicants can't attach photos of their garden, as forms take no uploads; ask for them during the call.

Foster and volunteer forms follow the same pattern with different questions: for fosters, the space, other animals and how long they can commit; for volunteers, availability, skills and roles (dog walking, transport, fundraising, social media). Connectors belong to the account rather than to one form, so every enabled connector receives every submission: a Slack channel for the coordinators would see adoptions, fosters and volunteers alike. To send each kind somewhere different, point a webhook at a tool that sorts them by form. The page on volunteer sign-ups goes further into that form.

Applications contain home addresses and family details. Anticode seals submissions at rest, keeps an access log of recent reads, exports and deletes, and won't publish a site that collects data until the account owner and the person publishing have two-factor sign-in turned on. Agree among your trustees who should have access.

Donations and fundraising

Anticode doesn't take payments on the site itself. Create a donation link with your own provider (Stripe Payment Links and PayPal both offer them) and point the Donate buttons at it. Say what amounts pay for: a vaccination course, a week of kennelling, a neutering operation. Many rescues also keep a wish list of supplies at an online retailer; link to it. The donation page guide covers what to put around the button.

Display your charity registration number or legal status where your local rules require it, along with how donations are used. Gift aid or tax relief wording depends on your country; check it with your regulator.

What Anticode can't do for a rescue

• No animal records or case management. Medical histories and adoption contracts belong in rescue management software or your own files.
• No adopter or foster logins. Everything happens by form and email.
• No embedded social feeds or videos. Published pages can't embed them, so link to your social profiles and videos instead.
• No built-in event ticketing. There's one payment link per account, which your Donate buttons already use, so sell fundraising event tickets through a ticketing site.

Questions people ask

Can volunteers update the animal listings?

Yes. Animals are CMS entries edited in the dashboard, shared with volunteers through a Team workspace, and each one has its own page on the site.

Can people donate on the website?

Through a donation link from your own provider, such as Stripe Payment Links or PayPal. Anticode doesn't process payments.

Is it safe to collect adoption applications?

Submissions are sealed at rest and access is logged, and the site can't be published until the account owner and the person publishing use two-factor sign-in.