Recruiting foster caregivers is the most common challenge animal welfare organizations cite when scaling a foster program. The good news: most of what works is fast, cost effective and within reach today. Here are 10 actionable tips, drawn from Maddie’s Fund research and our first year of the Foster 50 Challenge, to help you recruit more fosters this week.

1. Post about fostering at least once a day, every day. The shelters with the largest foster programs talk about fostering in roughly 30% of their social media posts. The 2024 National Foster Survey found organizations posting 10 or more times per week placed a median of 350 pets in foster care, more than double those posting four or fewer times per week. Tree House Humane Society increased foster mentions to 40% of their posts, which directly correlated to an increase in foster placements.
   
   
2. Create a boosted foster post this week. Whether you spend $5 or $500, paid boosting works at any budget. If your organization doesn’t have funding for this, consider asking volunteers and other supporters to donate for post-boosting. It’s an easy and effective way to help!
   
   
3. Include the foster sign-up link in every foster post. Whenever you mention needing fosters, link directly to the sign-up form. Don’t make people search your website to find an application and let them know they can also walk in to fill out a form.
   
   
4. Ask three current fosters to recruit one friend this week. Maddie’s Fund’s research found 73% of prospective foster caregivers would trust information on fostering from current foster caregivers, and 35% first heard about fostering from someone they knew. Turn your foster caregivers into your ambassadors by sharing the potential impact, providing sample posts and simply asking them to talk about fostering!
   
   
5. Set the expectation that fosters market their own pets. Ask every foster to post updates, photos and videos on their own social media as part of their role. Send them sample captions and easy templates. Build a fast system to repost their content from your accounts. For dog fosters, volunteers should know that marketing can be as simple as taking them around town to local dog-friendly shops, walks around the neighborhood or a run in the local dog park. You never know when a conversation can lead to a new home.
   
   
6. Offer short-term foster options today. Field trips and sleepovers lower the commitment barrier and produce strong outcomes. Dogs who go on a field trip are five times more likely to be adopted, and sleepover dogs are 14 times more likely. Bitter Root Humane Association tripled its foster placements during last year’s Foster 50 Challenge using short-term foster.
   
   
7. Approve and place fosters the same day they apply. If foster caregivers wait more than a day or two, you’re losing them. Pima Animal Care Center tells prospective fosters they can walk in during open hours and head home with a foster the same day. Audit your process this week. If the time between sign-up and fostering is longer than a day, identify how to shorten your timeline.
   
   
8. Invite people to foster. Think about all of the people who help your organization: volunteers, stray pet finders, adopters, donors and advocates. All of them are potential fosters, yet we often forget to ask for their help. One simple step you can take today is to automatically approve all your volunteers to be fosters and send them an email inviting them to foster.
   
   
9. Copy organizations doing this well. LifeLine Animal Project in Atlanta placed more than 10,000 pets in foster in 2025. Follow them, along with Pima Animal Care Center, One Tail at a Time and The Animal Foundation.
   
   
10. Create posts that feature one specific, named pet. Featuring an individual pet creates emotional connection that program-level pleas cannot. Organizations doing this often recruit multiple fosters for a single post. Use a real photo, a real name and a real story.

Nearly 600 organizations have signed up for the 2026 Foster 50 Challenge. These tips can drive immediate impact during the May to July challenge window, and the Foster 50 coalition is here to help you build, grow and innovate your organization’s pet foster program. For more information and additional resources, please visit: www.pedigreefoundation.org/Foster50.