Frequently asked
questions.

Our goal is to understand your organization well enough to design funding that's actually useful to you — not to audit or test you. Our vetting process for partnership is straightforward and includes:

• A review of your mission and current operational capacity
• Confirmation of registration or legal standing where applicable (informal rescues are welcome)
• A virtual or in-person conversation with your leadership team
• A standard compliance screening required of all U.S.-based international grantmakers

We're looking for mission alignment and a willingness to collaborate honestly — not a perfect organizational track record.

Partnership with Lữ Rescue Alliance is designed to be collaborative rather than transactional. We rely on rescue leaders to inform our strategy — you understand your operational realities better than we do, and that knowledge shapes how we work.

Each funding round in Phase 1 lasts approximately three months and involves at least one specific funding model — for example, a stabilization grant, a cost-per-outcome disbursement, or an emergency veterinary buffer. At the start of a round, we establish a shared understanding of what we are trying to learn. At the end, we ask partners to complete an outcome survey and submit basic documentation related to how funds were used, and photos where appropriate. No formal narrative reports are required. We aim to make the process useful to partners, not just to us.

Our pilot phase is intentionally structured to learn from partners, test our assumptions, and adjust before we grow. That means we'll ask for honest feedback. If something isn't working — a funding model, a reporting requirement, our communication — we want to know.

No. Our funding is designed to support your work, not direct it. We do not require rescues to change their operational structure, adopt specific policies, or align with any particular animal welfare philosophy as a condition of partnership. Grant agreements will specify how funds may be used within a given round, but decisions about how your organization operates remain entirely yours.

We ask for basic documentation for three reasons:

Compliance

As a U.S. nonprofit distributing funds internationally, we're required to ensure donor funds are used for charitable purposes consistent with our tax-exempt mission. Documentation is how we demonstrate that obligation is being met.

Funder Accountability

To sustain and grow our grantmaking, we need to demonstrate to individual and institutional funders that resources are reaching vetted partners doing real work. Good documentation helps us direct more funding to rescues over time.

Useful Data

We collect structured information about how rescues use funds and where operational pressures are greatest — not to evaluate you, but to build funding models that are more useful to rescues like yours and to support broader advocacy in the region.

Depending on the funding model, documentation may include receipts or invoices, a simple expense breakdown, or bank transaction records showing funds were used as intended. We will always communicate exactly what's needed before each round begins — you won't be surprised mid-round by requirements you weren't told about upfront.

Reporting is intentionally light and proportional to the funding received. We've designed it to take as little of your time as possible.

We understand that rescue work is unpredictable and that administrative capacity varies significantly across organizations. If something comes up that affects your ability to submit documentation on time or in full, we ask that you communicate with us early rather than go silent. We will always try to find a workable solution before making any decisions about continued partnership. Our goal is to support your work, not to create barriers to it.

Yes. We recognize that many of Vietnam's most active rescue operations function informally, without official registration. Legal standing is not a prerequisite for partnership. What matters is your commitment to the animals in your care and a willingness to collaborate transparently. Vetting procedures and documentation requirements are adjusted proportionally based on organizational structure.

Data collected through our partnership — including intake assessments, funding utilization records, and outcome surveys — is used exclusively to improve our funding models and inform broader animal welfare advocacy in the region.

Findings may be published in aggregated, anonymized form as patterns emerge across our partner cohort. For example, sector-wide findings about veterinary costs or funding predictability may be used in internal learning documents, funder reports, or published research. No individually identifiable data will ever be shared externally without your explicit written permission.

We retain partner data for up to 7 years following the conclusion of partnership. Data is stored securely and accessible only to Lữ Rescue Alliance staff involved in program operations.

If you have questions about how your organization's data is handled at any point during or after our partnership, we are happy to discuss further.

We recognize that English is not the first language of many of the organizations we hope to work with, and that language accessibility is important to a genuinely equitable partnership. We are working toward offering translated versions of our key documents, forms, and communications by our third funding round. In the meantime, we welcome communication in Vietnamese and will do our best to respond in kind or with translation support. If language is a barrier to completing any part of our process, please reach out directly and we will find a workable solution.

Partner selection begins with a structured intake and baseline assessment that helps us understand an organization's operational profile, financial conditions, staffing, veterinary access, and community prevention involvement. We look for partners who are transparent about their challenges, willing to engage in light reporting, and whose operational needs align with the funding models we're testing in a given round.

We do not select partners based on size, registration status, or polished presentation. We are specifically interested in organizations whose real conditions and operational needs make them well-suited to help us learn what kinds of support actually work — including organizations that may not have accessed institutional funding before.

Funding models are selected and matched based on what we believe will be most useful given a partner's baseline profile and the questions we are trying to answer in a given round. Our goal is to test rigorously, not to fund reactively.

We measure impact at two levels: organizational stability and animal welfare outcomes.

At the organizational level we track indicators like financial runway, veterinary debt, reporting quality, and whether partners describe their operations as more or less stable over the course of a funding round. At the animal welfare level we track outcomes like sterilizations completed, emergency cases treated, vaccination coverage, and mortality indicators.

We establish a baseline before each funding round through our partner intake assessment, and collect outcome data at the end of each round through a short reporting survey and basic financial documentation. We compare baseline and outcome data to assess whether a given funding model produced meaningful change — and we publish what we learn, including when results are mixed or inconclusive.

We do not claim impact we cannot demonstrate. Our pilot structure exists precisely because we want our eventual impact claims to be grounded in real evidence rather than assumption.

All grants are disbursed under a signed Partner MOU and pilot-specific Grant Agreement that outline the permitted uses of funds, reporting requirements, and disbursement conditions. No funds are released without a signed agreement in place. We maintain a grant register and reconciliation records for all disbursements, and partner financial documentation is retained for seven years following the conclusion of the partnership.

We are a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) organization (EIN 41-3646656) operating under IRS nonprofit compliance requirements.

Our Phase 1 pilot is self-funded, and we welcome conversations with funders who are interested in Vietnam's companion animal welfare ecosystem. We believe the strongest funding relationships are built on genuine understanding of the problem and the model — and that takes time. If you are a funder with interest in this space, we'd encourage you to reach out now rather than waiting for a formal application process.

We anticipate beginning formal grant applications in Year 3, once Phase 1 findings are compiled and our model has been validated at small scale.

Our founder spent seven months in Vietnam in 2020, visiting shelters and rescues firsthand and developing a clear picture of both the commitment of the rescue community and the structural conditions working against it. The combination of high intake demand, limited community prevention infrastructure, a growing but under-resourced rescue sector, and almost no systematic data on what's working made Vietnam a compelling place to test a different kind of intervention.

Vietnam is also a country where companion animal welfare is at an inflection point — public attitudes toward pets are shifting, a younger generation of animal advocates is active, and the conditions for meaningful systemic change are present. We believe a well-timed investment in infrastructure and data could have significant and lasting impact that extends well beyond the organizations we directly fund.

We are focused on Vietnam specifically rather than the broader region because we believe depth matters more than breadth at this stage. We would rather understand one context well than replicate a surface-level model across multiple countries.

We do not rescue, shelter, foster, or rehome animals. We exist because the people who do that work are already doing it well — and because doing it sustainably requires infrastructure that most grassroots rescues cannot build alone.

Our focus is on the conditions that allow rescue organizations to keep operating: financial stability, upstream factors that drive intake, and the systems that connect good work to the funding it deserves. For rescue partners, we offer structured support designed around their actual operational needs. For funders who care deeply about animal welfare but don't have a practical way to individually vet informal or grassroots organizations, we do that work — so their resources can reach the right places with confidence.

The most valuable thing you can do right now is connect us with people who should know about our work — rescue organizations in Vietnam looking for structured partnership, funders with interest in Southeast Asian animal welfare, animal welfare advocates working in Vietnam or abroad, researchers or data collectors working on related questions, and advisors with experience in nonprofit capacity building, systems change, or international grantmaking.

If you work with or know of rescue organizations in Vietnam that might be a good fit for our pilot, we'd welcome an introduction. If you are a funder, advocate, or advisor interested in following our work as it develops, we'd encourage you to reach out directly through our contact form.

We are not currently accepting general donations, but we expect to open individual giving as our model matures and our impact data develops. If you'd like to be notified when that changes, let us know through our contact form.