Charitable Giving
Midwest FurFest proves each year that the anthropomorphic world is more than unleashed creativity and boundless energy - furries also have very big hearts. Here, you’ll find some of the more detailed stories about recent charities we have worked with.
You can also see our full history of charities.
Live Like Roo
2023 saw MFF attendees give an unprecedented $185,758 to Live Like Roo, which provides financial and emotional help to pets and their families who have been given a cancer diagnosis. Live Like Roo has granted over $355,000 in 2024 to date to pet families and are on a record pace for a calendar year. In fact, said executive director Sarah Lauch, they were able to go back to 2023 and help people that have been waiting for months, with a load of heartening stories to match!
“In December 2023, we granted $57,194 in medical assistance. At the end of the month, we gave out $8000 to Tessah, who had sold her car and most of her belongings to pay for medical expenses for her dog Charlie (pictured). With those funds, she was able to pay off his remaining bills.
December was our biggest month ever with the most funds ever given out in a 30 day span thanks to Midwest FurFest! That is until we got to January 2024 where we gave out $60,576 helping 48 animals! Just incredible.”
The Street Dog Coalition
Midwest Furfest congoers raised $110,271 during MFF 2022 for The Street Dog Coalition, which helps care for the pets of Chicago’s unhoused population. Street Dog has placed most of this money into an interest-bearing CD for ongoing needs. Funds have also gone toward renting a new storage locker, and future plans call for purchasing tablets which will help Street Dog shift to electronic recordkeeping.
The next spring, Street Dog Executive Director Katrina Wechsler offered a glimpse of how MFF will directly help pets and people:
“Moving forward, we anticipate using the majority of MFF funds on urgent/acute veterinary care that we cannot provide in the street clinic setting. Stacy (Lempka, Street Dog’s Chicago coordinator) said she plans on using funds in the near future to run bloodwork on some of the older animals that come to the Humboldt Park (Division and California) bus stop. (We provided) a cat named Chloe with some prescription cat food as well as supplements and medications. This will likely be an ongoing need. We also purchased heart medication for a small Yorkie named Niko, and Stacy is working on getting a homeless young adult with a dog housed this week. MFF’s funds are truly helping both ends of the leash.”
MCP Rescue + Outreach
During MFF 2021, furries from around the country and world raised $73,360 for Chicago's MCP Rescue + Outreach, which has placed hundreds of hard-to-adopt dogs with new forever homes, supplies pet food donations to food pantries, and directs families to low cost spay and neuter services. MCP explains their mission as changing minds -- particularly urban youth minds -- about the worth and value of the city's canine community:
“Every dog deserves to have their existence acknowledged, their personality shine and their heart breathe. MCP teamwork brings life, light and love to the ones that everyone may not be able to hear or understand. The stance isn’t speaking for them but speaking with them in ways they will be heard.”
Felines & Canines
Felines & Canines had previously attended Midwest FurFest 2012, where our community raised a significant amount of money which they used to renovate and expand their shelter. They returned in 2016, where our community donated to help purchase property for what would eventually become the “Felines & Canines Hunter Stephenson Rescue Center.”
In 2019, we welcomed them back. As winners of the ASPCA’s 2019 Henry Bergh Award, they were able to unveil plans for their new “Puppy Rescue Center” along with the exciting news that all donations raised at MFF were to be matched, dollar for dollar, by an anonymous donor.
F&C Director Abby Smith provided us with the following update before MFF’s 2020 online event:
“Since Midwest Furfest welcomed Felines & Canines with open arms in December of 2019, we have managed to put your donations to work in a BIG way! We feared the pandemic may halt our expansion of Felines & Canines Rescue Center, but thanks to our amazingly committed construction team, we were able to break ground on our Puppy Rescue Center in April 2020! We have been working feverishly for months on broadening our program and facility to save more lives, and as we enter the holiday season, the finish line is quickly approaching. We are slated to begin operations at the Puppy Rescue Center in January 2021 and couldn’t be more excited. With this new facility, we will be able to accomplish the following:
1. House an additional 32 litter of up to 10 puppies per litter at any given time.
2. Provide customized housing pods that eliminate the risk of cross contamination.
3. Dramatically increase the volume of adult dogs that we are able to rescue by utilizing all 53 kennels at Felines & Canines Rescue Center for dogs over the age of four months.
4. Continue to provide exceptional housing and care for up to 50 cats at a time.
5. Add an additional weekly transport, bringing us to three transports per week.
6. Increase to overall volume of lives saved from 3,000 per year to 4,500 per year.
7. Assist additional rural shelters who we previously have not had the space or manpower to support, who desperately need our help.
As we approach the close of 2020, we can celebrate surpassing 7,300 animals saved in 28 months time. This is without a shadow of a doubt due to the support that we received from our amazingly selfless friends at Midwest FurFest. MFF provided the funding we needed to expand from Felines Inc. to Felines & Canines in 2012, then helped us raise enough money in 2016 to purchase the land we needed in Alabama to start Felines & Canines Rescue Center, and once again blew us away in 2019 with a donation substantial enough to erect the Puppy Rescue Center. MFF has directly saved thousands of lives through Felines & Canines, and we couldn’t be more grateful if we tried. Your purpose, conviction and compassion makes this world a better place for the animals, and we will be furry fans for life. The animals are so lucky to have each and every one of you.”
To learn more about our 2012/2016/2019 charity, visit felinescanines.org.
SitStayRead
In 2018, more than 10,000 people gathered to talk anthropomorphics, cavort in fursuits and have a ball at Midwest FurFest. However, they also made sure that more than 2,600 children from struggling Chicago schools were given the opportunity to boost their reading skills with the unconditional love and attention of volunteer dogs.
Thanks to MFF con-goers, SitStayRead was able to expand its innovative elementary school literacy programs into kindergarten classrooms for the first time. Also, SitStayRead's end-of-year Keep Reading celebrations sent hundreds of students home with six new books apiece!
SSR executive director, Mara O'Brien, says the $90,000+ donated at MFF 2018 made a serious difference:
“Thanks to the support of the MFF community...we added two new partner schools in two new neighborhoods for SitStayRead, bringing our total to 18 for this school year. Also, the new kindergarten program utilizes read-alouds, group discussion, and engaging activities to help kindergartners identify sight words and key details in a story. Small group visits with Dog Teams introduce the concept of having dogs in the classroom while practicing Dog Safety. Stories like this would not be possible without the support of Midwest FurFest.”
To learn more about our 2018 charity, visit sitstayread.org.
CRISP
In 2017, we invited the newly-formed Chicagoland Rescue Intervention and Support Program (“CRISP”) to join us at Midwest FurFest. CRISP was created when eight awesome rescues and shelters agreed to pool their resources to provide low or no-cost services to help Chicago pet owners keep their pets rather than surrendering them to the city shelter. If pets cannot be kept by their owners, then CRISP will network to help place them immediately with a rescue group or no-kill shelter to bypass the city shelter completely.
The attendees of Midwest FurFest were able to raise $85,000 for this amazing charity!
To learn more about our 2017 charity, visit crispchicago.com.
Save-A-Vet
In 2015, we were excited to welcome Save-A-Vet to Midwest FurFest. And beyond the $62,020 raised, it was a weekend that changed countless lives, bringing people together who, probably would not have otherwise. Saveavet COO, Mark Ingles explained:
“When Danny told me that we were gonna be doing this event, I, I’ll be very blunt, and I apologize for the language, I said there is no way in Hell. Because you have to register for this and said Danny, I’m not doing it. We don’t need it. We don’t need to be involved in this. We... We don’t.
What you have done for us has been absolutely amazing. I have completely changed my train of thought. This has been the most fun weekend I have ever had in my life.
I have gone from, I’m not gonna say I’m gonna be jumping into a suit tomorrow. As far as being a homophobic, ya know I… You tought me to not hate something I don’t know anything about, to be more open minded.”
To learn more about our 2015 charity, visit saveavet.org.