We love the fact that this wonderful, creative group of artists help different animal related charities.  You may have heard of Etsy, but did you know there was a special sub-group of artists helping animals called Etsy for Animals?  Here is what they are all about...and scroll down to see wonderful pictures. A super-duper Woofy Woo from Lookie Lou to EFA!!!

 
EFA (Etsy for Animals) Artists Helping Animals is a group of more than 500 independent artists, independent craftspeople, independent vintage suppliers, and independent art and craft suppliers that combine their efforts to provide charitable relief to animals. EFA can be found as a Team on Etsy.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade items. All members of EFA are also Etsy members.

Each month an animal charity is chosen from charities nominated by one or more EFA members to be the EFA Charity of the Month. Please check out our EFA Animal Charity of the Month to see who we are supporting this month as a group and past charities to which we have donated; this information as well as amounts raised may been found at http://efaartistshelpinganimals.org/charities.htm .

Many members of EFA donate 10 to 100 percent of their sales or profits to either the EFA Animal Charity of the Month and other animal charities. To find EFA sellers on Etsy.com, search team efa.

Whenever any team member becomes aware of a specific situation where animals need help, the call goes out to EFA, and members chip in to help out. For example, after the catastrophic flooding in Iowa during the summer of 2008, many EFA members donated items to the Iowa Flood Relief Auction to help the Cedar Rapids Animal Shelter to care for the many animals who were stranded by the flood. The auction raised over $6700 to help the shelter.

EFA also sponsors a Monthly Challenge as a way of spurring participation, camaraderie, innovation, and fun, while showcasing the varied talents of each EFA member. The monthly challenge blog is http://efaartistshelpinganimals.blogspot.com .

For information on EFA, please visit the website at http://efaartistshelpinganimals.org and the blog at http://etsyforanimals.blogspot.com . For information on joining EFA, please contact Mvegan5 (Michele), EFA membership director and leader at mvegan5-at-EFAArtistsHelpingAnimals-dot-org .




Posted 3/09
March Charity is Muttville!
Etsy for Animals' February charity of the month was Rainbow Connection Animal Foundation (http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/OH273.html) ; their March charity is Muttville (http://www.muttville.org/). The mission of Muttville is to find loving homes for wonderful senior dogs. Why seniors? Because senior dogs

* are loving and mellow
* learn quickly
* adapt easily
* and much, much more

But when a dog reaches the age of eight, its chances of being adopted drop precipitously. No matter the advantages, people are more likely to adopt puppies.

Go to Etsy.com, search "team efa" to find some great handmade art, crafts, jewelry, pet products and more which will benefit Muttville and/or other animal charities!

Creative Animal Relief
Etsy for Animals' sister group Creative Animal Relief (http://creativeanimalrelief.org/), also known as C.A.R., is dedicated to creating a fellowship of creative animal lovers by utilizing its members’ talent to help raise the quality of life for animals. For this reason, C.A.R. was created to provide a way for its members to raise funds through artistic and creative means and to disburse these funds to known and worthy non-profit animal organizations. C.A.R. was launched in January 2009 and is in the process of becoming a 501(c) non-profit organization. Also visit our sister Group, Etsy for Animals at www.EFAartistshelpinganimals.org



Here is a link to a Blog Talk Radio Show explaining CAR:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/creativeanimalrelief


EFA AND ETSYVEG TEAM UP FOR SPAY DAY 2009

In shelters all across the U.S., 4 MILLION homeless pets are put down every year. 4 MILLION. Think about that. 4 MILLION innocent lives.

That number will keep increasing if we don't act now to help alleviate the overpopulation of unwanted, abandoned, and stray animals ending up in shelters.

One of the most effective things we can do is to spay or neuter our own pets. Read this if you're asking "why?". Simply put - spaying and neutering saves animal lives.

That is why members of Etsy teams, EFA and EtsyVeg, have joined together in support of Spay Day. We are offering a 'Spay Day 1 Day Special' on Tuesday, February 24, in all our Etsy shops to donate to our favorite or local animal non-profit organizations, and to bring attention to this very important animal life saving message.

Please join us in making a difference to the hundreds, thousands and millions of unwanted cats, dogs, and rabbits born in the future. And take advantage of our specials by checking out the members shops participating below on February 24.