Colorado Animal Welfare Conference Session

Volunteer Retention

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9-10:15am - Aug. 21, 2025

City Lights 2 and 3

Shelter Operations

This session will discuss the unique advantages animal welfare organizations have when engaging and retaining volunteers, how to ensure the needs of both the volunteers and the organization are met when on-boarding, how to identify and channel the motivation of volunteers to support the mission and how to approach challenges as opportunities.

Elizabeth Waetzig

Kristen Galles

Kristen Galles was a volunteer for four years at Foothills Animal Shelter before becoming the volunteer program manager in 2017.  She has degrees in English and Secondary Education from Valparaiso University and a masters degree in Liberal Studies from Hamline University. Before entering animal welfare, she taught high  school in St. Paul, Minnesota for 15 years. She shares her life with a husband, two horses, two barn cats and a Border Collie mix.