Achievements and performance
2023 was another busy a year with The Donkey Sanctuary Ireland focusing on delivery of The Donkey Sanctuary’s new organisational strategy and continuing to adapt to the changing financial and environmental challenges in which we are operating in Ireland.
The Donkey Sanctuary Ireland continues to see strong demand for support to donkeys in need in the community. The complex situation for donkeys in Ireland has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis meaning that more donkeys are needing support with fewer homes able to offer lifelong care to donkeys. In addition, The Donkey Sanctuary Ireland has seen an increased number of its owned donkeys placed on the Guardian scheme returned as homes can no longer meet the needs of the donkeys. This has put unprecedented pressure on our owned and rented donkey care sites and means that we continue to restrict new relinquishments as we are at capacity and must safeguard the welfare of the donkeys already in our care.
The Donkey Sanctuary Ireland’s operational goals for 2023 focused on four key areas:
- Preventing poor donkey welfare in the community through increased intervention and support, and investments in the charity’s owned and rented sites that would improve welfare standards
- Working smarter, operationally, to achieve cost and time savings and improve outcomes for donkeys and staff;
- Planning and implementing fundraising efforts that would encourage an increase in donations; and
- Developing, and listening to the needs of one of our most valuable asset, our people, to improve their working environments and ensure the right level of skills and resourcing