A Message from our Founder & CEO

Hi! My name is Alejandra Peimbert, and I have been an animal lover since I was a child. I wanted to become a veterinarian, but biology and I did not get along. In 2014, life took me to BARC Animal Shelter & Adoptions in Houston, TX one of the highest intake animal shelters in the country with over 25,000 animals a year. As usual in the animal shelter world, I had one title but three different jobs, and I found the most advanced kennel management software insufficient and not helpful in my role as Foster Coordinator.

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In 2015, I went to Texas Unites for the Animals in Austin, TX and was inspired by Diane Blankenburgs', CEO & Founder of Humane Network, Foster presentation. Diane said "there is just nothing out there that helps us Foster coordinators do our job", and I had a lightbulb moment. I used all my savings to bring Foster Keeper to life and aimed at creating a simple and visually pleasing program that made recruiting, managing and communicating with hundreds of fosters more efficient and most importantly affordable.

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I knew there had to be a better way to keep track of and contact with hundreds of Fosters other than having piles of paper, a colorful and messy excel sheet and/or google docs. I know all too well that horrible sense of frustration and panic when you get a box of crying bottle baby kittens or puppies and need to find an open foster home, but you don't know who to contact out of the hundreds of people you have signed-up.

 

Creating Foster Keeper has been an amazing journey filled with ups and downs, and never in a million years would I have imagined that a pandemic would show me a greater need for such a program. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the levels of fostering across the United States to never before seen levels, and I knew I had to continue with Foster Keeper. Not only to help save more animals, but to help the human being, the Foster Coordinator, do his/her job with less emotional stress, higher efficiency, better communication and customer service, and thus be able to save more lives. Also to provide the necessary support that a new Foster parent needs and show them the much needed appreciation for opening their home and heart to an animal in need that they deserve.

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Being a foster myself, I truly believe in the power of fostering for one's personal development and growth, and still cry when saying bye to a foster pet. From a Foster and previous Foster Coordinator to another, I want to thank you for your time, love, patience, and everything that you do to save the life of an animal. Like the wooden block on my desk at BARC said: "Saving a dog's/cat's life will not change the world, but it will surely change the world for that one dog or cat."

 

And I hope you chose Foster Keeper to help you keep changing a pet's world one home at a time!

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Thank you,

 

Alejandra

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