Volunteer animal rescue transporters get lots of benefits
We all know that transporting rescue animals as a volunteer driver or pilot brings many benefits, particularly to the animals that are being saved. But did you know that volunteers get benefits out of this as well? Check out our top five and share your benefits as well!
1. Quality family time
We know you’ve been looking for an activity to do with your spouse, partner, significant other or even with your children. There is no better way to inspire someone else to get involved in animal rescue than through transporting. You get a benefit of connecting with them and spending time together doing something that brings joy to the both of you.
2. Something to talk about on Monday
If you’re like us, you hate going into work on Monday and having everyone ask “How was your weekend?” This is usually because you didn’t have anything exciting to share. Now you do! When you do rescue transport on the weekends, you have amazing stories and even photos to share on Monday when people ask how your weekend was. You can inspire them with the stories of the animals and volunteers you met, and amaze them with your contribution to the world and to the animals. Let’s see them top your story!
3. Pilots: Get preferred routing from ATC
If you’re a volunteer rescue pilot, you may not know that you can get preferred routing as an additional benefit for your rescue activities. On your IFR flight plan you can designate yourself as an Animal Rescue flight with the code “ARF” and then ATC will refer to you as “Animal Flight four-three-five” or whatever your last numbers are.
The benefit is that by being an Animal Flight you get preferred routing and priority from ATC given your charitable activities. Our friend and pilot Steve Rhode did a great blog on Doobert about this a while back. Check it out!
4. Feeling good knowing you’re doing good
Of course we all know that doing good makes you feel good. But did you know that it’s scientifically proven to improve your health? The Grades Fixer has a great blog on the health benefits of volunteering that proves the point. Now you can tell people that you’re improving your health and saving animals…at the same time.
5. Reducing your tax burden through charitable involvement
It’s that time of year when people are digging up all of their receipts and trying to remember the donations that they gave throughout the year. Did you know that transport volunteers can deduct the mileage from their animal rescue transports from their taxes? That’s right, if you’re doing rescue transport work for an approved IRS 501(c)(3) public charity, you can keep track of the miles you drove and deduct the costs from your income.
BONUS BENEFIT: Doobert Charitable tracking
Yeah we know we said 5 benefits but as an extra bonus benefit, we wanted to make sure to remind you that Doobert has a Charitable tracking module built into the system. We keep track of all of the miles you’ve driven as a part of your rescue relay transport or local rides. We make it easy for you to attach receipts, view and edit the miles that we calculated, and even download the entire thing into Excel for sending along to your tax accountant. How’s THAT for a bonus!
