Deb Fair | Choosing Progress Over Perfection
Deb Fair | Choosing Progress Over Perfection
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Deb Fair, Executive Director of the PEDIGREE Foundation, has spent her career finding new ways to create positive change. After beginning in public relations and corporate community outreach, she eventually helped launch the PEDIGREE Foundation in 2008. Today, the foundation supports shelters and rescues through grants focused on transport, foster, behavior, and disaster relief.
For Fair, making an impact isn’t about waiting for the perfect solution. It’s about taking action, learning, and finding the next opportunity to improve.
“It’s about progress. Take the progress. It’s not about perfection.”
That philosophy is at the heart of Foster 50, an initiative created after data showed that dogs were spending longer in shelters. Fair and her partners asked a simple question: what if they could bring organizations together to help dramatically increase fostering?
The first year brought together the PEDIGREE Foundation, Maddie’s Fund, and Adopt a Pet, with $120,000 in grant funding and 9,000 new fosters in just two and a half months.
Now, the initiative has grown even further. Mutt Nation, Maddie’s Fund, the PEDIGREE Foundation, and Adopt a Pet have collectively committed $240,000 in grant funding, while Foster 50 has reached 19,000 new fosters.
“Mutt Nation, Maddie’s Fund and Pedigree Foundation and Adopt a Pet collectively 240,000 in grant funding.”
During October, which is Dog Adoption Month, the Foster 50 grant recipients will be announced. Stay tuned to the PEDIGREE Foundation’s website and social media pages for the announcements and updates:
- https://www.pedigreefoundation.org
- https://www.facebook.com/pedigreefoundation
- https://www.instagram.com/pedigreefoundation
Fair believes the success of Foster 50 comes from more than funding. It’s about organizations sharing ideas, learning from one another, and looking beyond the traditional animal welfare world for new partners and solutions.
“We’re all about best practice sharing.”
She also encourages animal welfare leaders to think differently when facing challenges.
“Ask yourself what if? And what’s the 1% shift that you would have to make?”
For Fair, that one-degree shift can lead to meaningful change. Her own career is proof that the path to purpose doesn’t always look the way you expect it to. What matters is staying open to opportunities, continuing to learn, and having the courage to try.
Ultimately, Fair hopes her legacy will be simple: that she did some good and left some good in the world.
If you’re passionate about helping animals, join the Doobert community where volunteers, fosters, transporters, and organizations work together to save lives every day. Visit Doobert.com to get involved.
And don’t forget to subscribe to the Top Dog Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.
Do you know any Top Dogs we should interview? We’re always looking for amazing people in animal welfare to feature on the podcast. Send us an email at tdp@doobert.com.
