Volunteer Opportunity: Partner Network Outreach & Relationship TeamPartner Network Outreach & Relationship Team

Location: Remote - United States (U.S. citizens and permanent residents only)

Commitment: Approximately 3-6 hours per week; assignments matched to skill, availability, and assigned territory

Initial term: 90-day introductory period; renewable by mutual agreement

About the Role

The Animal Cause is recruiting a Partner Network Outreach & Relationship Team to identify, contact, and build working relationships with shelters, rescues, and animal-welfare organizations across the country — growing our Partnership Program into a real, documented, Texas-first and increasingly national network. This is a multi-person team recruitment, not a single all-purpose vacancy. No volunteer is expected to own the entire national network, contact every organization, or determine which shelters become partners. Work is divided by state, region, or assigned organization list, based on demonstrated skill, availability, and approved priorities.

Team Structure, Territory & Collaboration

• Multiple volunteers may be selected to build a functional outreach team, not fill one all-purpose position.
• To prevent duplicate or conflicting contact with the same shelter, each volunteer will be assigned a specific state, region, or list of organizations rather than reaching out at will.
• Assignments will be divided into defined projects with a stated owner, reviewer, deadline, source materials, approval path, and handoff requirement.
• Team members are expected to communicate progress and blockers, log every contact and conversation in the shared Partner Orgs tracker, and make continuity possible for another authorized volunteer.
• A project may have a designated lead or coordinator, but team membership or a working title does not authorize anyone to set policy, publish, contact outside parties beyond their assigned list, spend funds, sign agreements, or bind The Animal Cause unless that authority is separately provided in writing.
• Access to partner information, donor information, and unpublished materials remains limited to the assigned work.
• The Animal Cause may add, reconfigure, narrow, pause, reassign, or conclude team assignments as organizational priorities, performance, security, safety, funding, or mission needs change.

Responsibilities

• Research and identify potential shelter and rescue partners within an assigned state, region, or list.
• Conduct initial outreach using approved scripts, email templates, and messaging — never freelanced language representing TAC's capacity or commitments.
• Run discovery conversations using TAC's standard four questions: urgent barriers to placement/transfer, typical ready-animal volume, which kind of support matters most, and existing receiving/transport/clinic partners.
• Document every organization, contact, and conversation in the Partner Orgs tracker — this is the truth record, not a personal notebook.
• Confirm each partner's designated contact and what they are authorized to approve (records, visibility, transport discussions, pilots).
• Maintain relationship touchpoints over time so partners are followed up with, not just initially contacted.
• Flag promising partners, ready pilots, or urgent needs to the Partner Support & Relationship Team Lead for review rather than committing TAC directly.
• Hand off qualified partners to Mercy Stage, Shepherd's Ark, or leadership once initial discovery and documentation are complete.

Possible Initial Assignments

• Build a prospect list of shelters and rescues within an assigned state or region.
• Conduct discovery calls or email exchanges with 2-3 organizations using the standard four questions.
• Document findings in the Partner Orgs tab of the shared tracker.
• Draft a partner welcome packet or follow-up sequence for review and approval.
• Research existing national receiving-partner, rescue-transport, or breed-specific networks relevant to an assigned region.
• Identify gaps where TAC has no current relationship but a documented need exists.

Requirements

• At least 21 years old, and a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident currently residing in the United States.
• Relevant experience in partnership development, business development, account management, relationship management, sales, community engagement, or nonprofit collaboration.
• Comfortable initiating outreach to organizations that don't yet know TAC, and following up without being pushy.
• Ability to complete discovery, absorb organizational complexity, and document findings accurately rather than from memory.
• Capacity to work within an assigned territory and accept defined authority, approvals, and resource constraints.
• Strong written and verbal communication, reliability, and respect for factual accuracy.
• Respect for confidentiality, intellectual property, organizational ownership, and the Christian mission.

Preferred Experience

• CRM or structured contact-tracking experience (spreadsheets, Salesforce, HubSpot, Airtable, or similar).
• Animal welfare, shelter, rescue, transport-coordination, or veterinary-adjacent experience.
• Nonprofit partnership development, grant relations, donor relations, or church/community-partnership experience.
• Experience leading a project or territory without assuming unilateral organizational control.
• Ability to build simple relationship or pipeline reports and explain them to nonmarketing stakeholders.

Operating Boundaries

• Outreach volunteers do not independently select which organizations become partners, promise transport, placement, funding, veterinary payment, supplies, or rescue transfer, or make any public commitment on TAC's behalf.
• Every discovery conversation should account for program readiness, current capacity, and honesty about what TAC can and cannot yet deliver.
• No animal outcome, partnership, statistic, donation result, program status, or organizational capability may be invented or overstated.
• Public posting, direct messaging outside an assigned list, media communication, fundraising solicitation, or signing any agreement requires written authority.
• Partner information, contact details, and unpublished plans may be accessed only when the assignment requires it, and must stay in approved organizational systems.

Volunteer Service Terms

• This is an unpaid volunteer position and does not create an employment relationship.
• A 90-day introductory period may be used to evaluate reliability, communication, judgment, and assignment fit.
• Volunteers may be asked to sign the Volunteer Service Agreement and applicable confidentiality, intellectual-property, and public-communications documents.
• Volunteers may not speak, publish, contact organizations outside their assigned list, make commitments, or otherwise represent The Animal Cause without written authorization for the specific role, channel, and activity.
• Organizational files, source files, credentials, research, work product, and records must remain in approved organizational systems and be returned or transferred at the end of service.
• AI tools may be used only within approved boundaries. Confidential partner or donor information may not be entered into external AI systems, and AI-generated content (emails, scripts, summaries) must be reviewed for accuracy, rights, safety, and mission alignment before use.
• At this time, The Animal Cause does not accept or verify court-ordered, probation, parole, diversion, judgment-related, school-required, or employer-required community-service hours.