When Love for Animals Meets the Science of Giving
How Philanthropic Psychology helped one animal welfare leader find the language to protect their mission and the people behind it.
For many professionals working in animal welfare, the mission is simple: help animals in need. Yet in practice, delivering that mission requires more than love for our furry friends. It involves navigating complex relationships with donors, communities, and the people working every day to care for animals in need.
When Izzy Tutcher, Philanthropy Manager at Leicester Animal Aid, began exploring Philanthropic Psychology through the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, she discovered something surprising. Much of what she had been striving toward for years suddenly had a language, structure, and scientific grounding.
“It felt like a map,” Izzy explained. “I’d been trying to piece these ideas together for years. Suddenly there was language and research that helped explain why it works.”
Izzy is now one of the Phil Psych leaders in the British animal sector, and has been pondering questions that many of us in the profession face daily, especially in smaller organisations:
How can fundraisers make the case for a sufficient fundraising budget?
How can we care for the people who care for animals?
And how can organisations protect the wellbeing of staff and volunteers facing increasingly complex challenges?
Through the lens of Philanthropic Psychology, Izzy has begun to answer these questions.
Izzy’s journey highlights three barriers that often limit animal charities of any size, and how a PhilPsych perspective can help unblock them.
Barrier 1: Rethinking the Fear of Spending on Fundraising
One of the most persistent challenges faced by small charities is the discomfort around investing in fundraising.
In many organisations, there is a strong belief that every available pound should go directly toward animal care. While this instinct comes from compassion, it can unintentionally limit the organisation’s ability to sustain and grow its work.
Izzy has encountered this hesitation.
“In smaller charities there’s often genuine concern that supporters will think communications are a waste of money.” She said, “The fear comes from a genuine place, but we also have to ask: what is the risk of not showing gratitude to the people who show that they care?”
This concern reflects a broader cultural narrative in fundraising: that spending less on fundraising automatically means a charity is more efficient.
Philanthropic Psychology reframes this assumption.
Rather than viewing fundraising as a cost, PhilPsych emphasises that when it is done well, it is a way to build meaningful relationships that connect people with causes they care deeply about.
We are not just asking people to open their wallet, we are helping them feel closer to the animals they want to love. We are allowing them to feel like they have directly made the world a better place for pets without homes across the region.
“People want to stay connected to the place where they adopted their animal,” Izzy explained. “They want to hear from us. They want the opportunity to help.”
By framing fundraising as a way to nurture such relationships rather than simply request donations, organisations can feel more confident about investing in thoughtful and heartfelt stewardship and communication.
Ultimately, spending wisely on fundraising allows charities to care for more animals and humans alike.
Barrier 2: Do We Sometimes Forget About the People?
Animal welfare organisations are filled with incredible people who care deeply about animals. Yet, even with the sector filled with the most passionate hearts, it is sometimes easy to forget that people are central to the animal welfare mission.
Izzy explained this beautifully, in one of the most poignant reflections of psychological wellbeing we have encountered.
“In animal welfare we are incredibly thoughtful about how we understand and care for animals,” she explained. “We just need to make sure we continue to apply this thinking to the people who support the work.”
When an animal arrives at a rescue centre, staff carefully observe its behaviour, understand its needs, and find the right environment and home for them. The process is incredibly individualised and compassionate.
Izzy realised that the same mindset could transform her organisation’s approach to donor journeys.
“We’re already brilliant at this [personalised approach],” she said. “We just need to translate it from animals to people.”
Philanthropic Psychology provides the framework to do exactly that. It encourages organisations to understand donors as individuals with identities, values, and emotional motivations.
“I realised fundraising isn’t about convincing everyone to give,” Izzy reflected. “It’s about finding the people who already care and helping them stay connected.”
By bringing people back into the centre of the conversation, animal welfare organisations can strengthen both their impact and their supporter relationships.
Barrier 3: Protecting the Wellbeing of People in the Sector
The final challenge Izzy highlights is one that she believes has escalated across the animal welfare sector in recent years: team wellbeing.
Since the pandemic, rescue centres across the UK have faced significant changes. Demand for rehoming services has increased, and many animals now arrive with more complex behavioural or medical needs, requiring longer rehabilitation. At the same time, utility and veterinary costs have risen sharply, while adoption rates have slowed following the pandemic boom in pet ownership.
“All of this has changed what success looks like in our sector,” Izzy explained. “Frontline animal care teams are dealing more regularly with more complex and emotionally challenging cases, and there’s added pressure on those who bring in funds to meet rising costs. All of these pressures add up, creating a very different emotional landscape for staff than even a few years ago.”
Philanthropic Psychology offers an important perspective here as well. Philanthropic Psychology is not just about loving the donor but loving all of humanity. That’s what phil-anthropy means. Love of humankind.
By recognising that giving creates psychological wellbeing, not only for animals and donors, but also to the incredible people working hard to save those animals and give them the best lives possible, it shifts fundraising from being a stressful necessity to a meaningful act that increases well-being in all touched by the organisation.
In this way, PhilPsych supports not only financial sustainability but also the emotional sustainability of the sector.
For Izzy, Philanthropic Psychology did not introduce an entirely new philosophy. Instead, it provided the language, evidence, and structure to support instincts she had been developing throughout her career.
As more animal welfare organisations face financial pressure, rising demand, and growing staff burnout, Izzy’s experience offers a hopeful reminder:
When we reconnect fundraising with real human hearts, generosity becomes easier, communities become stronger, and the people working for animals can feel supported too.
The Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology is our eight-week online course designed to help fundraisers and charity professionals understand the science and develop their application of PhilPsych to support donor wellbeing and sustainable income growth.