I am going to end 2014 with the beginning of a new chapter in 2015… and the beginning of this instaDIARY. This diary will chart the development of the wonderful Wild at Heart Foundation – a charitable foundation set up to support animal welfare projects, in particular dog rescue, rehoming, neutering, owner education and public awareness of issues.
In this diary entry I will tell you about how the WAHF came to be… and it was all because of this amazing little social engine called INSTAGRAM! Back in June, I started following two incredible people@nikkitibbleswildatheart and @anca_miki … these wonderful women introduced me to their humble world of rescuing and rehoming poor dogs from Romania - and long story short - I adopted the little fella you see in many of my pics, Bally Boy.
For a long time now I have been waiting for the right moment to do something different with my life, having worked for nearly twenty years in the corporate world of grey suits and powerpoint presentations – I knew that my next venture in life would need to be of the four-legged furry kind – something that would make an immediate and positive difference to the world in which we live… and once I had spent some time with the fabulous Nikki Tibbles, I knew that my life would change and that I had found my new direction.
In the last few weeks I have spent much time researching the processes for setting up a charitable foundation here in the UK – the Charities Commission sure like to make it a little bureaucratic challenge! But it is great fun learning about this new and rewarding sector … and I must add that the Small Charities Coalition and a book called ‘Run a successful charity’ written by Nick Marr, have both been extremely helpful. So at this stage, it is a matter of working out our legal structure, the trustees and their role and creating a ‘governing document’. I have realised that a lot more goes on than simply fundraising and helping our beautiful furry friends… THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGINS…