In 2014, Cat Town launched the first ever cat cafe in the United States, with cat rescue and adoption services at the forefront of its mission. Ever since, more and more cat cafes have been opening up nationwide, giving visitors the chance to sip coffees and interact with adorable cats — all while helping get cats adopted.
Since spurring this movement nationwide, Cat Town’s devotion to its mission has never wavered. Based in Oakland, California, the nonprofit focuses on helping cats who struggle to get adopted in traditional shelter environments. Its work centers on cats who are most likely to fall through the cracks: older cats, stressed cats, shy cats, and cats with medical conditions that require special care.
Through behavioral support, foster families, medical care, and community effort, the organization has helped reduce the euthanasia rate for shelter cats in Oakland by more than 70 percent.
At the heart of that work is connection. As Quinn White, Cat Town’s development director and deputy director explains, her role is helping people connect with the organization’s mission by telling stories about individual cats and showing supporters how they can help.
But as the organization grew, Cat Town’s systems weren’t able to keep up with its mission.
Eliminating manual work to speed up processes
Like many nonprofits, Cat Town initially relied on a combination of spreadsheets, email, and Google Forms to manage its information collection and workflows. That worked OK at first, but staff quickly realized the limitations of their processes.
In particular, the process for fielding adoption inquiries had become overwhelming.
“Everything was coming in through email, and it was chaotic and stressful. So stressful,” says White.
For a small team managing over 200 volunteers — alongside foster placements, donations, adoptions, and events — having disorganized workflows wasn’t just inconvenient. It was taking time and energy away from the mission itself.
Prior to Jotform, the organization also lacked an effective way to collect recurring monthly donations, a critical need for nonprofits like Cat Town that depend heavily on ongoing individual support.
That’s when staff turned to Jotform.
It’s been a game changer.
Quinn White, Development & Deputy Director, Cat Town
A flexible, scalable platform that nonprofits can actually afford
Cat Town’s introduction to Jotform came through a staff member who had used the platform at another organization.
“The price point was right,” explains White.
For many nonprofits, affordability matters as much if not more than functionality. Budgets are tight, and organizations need tech tools that create value without putting the nonprofit under financial strain.
White puts it simply: “We’re a small nonprofit, we don’t have a giant budget — and Jotform fits in our budget.”
That balance between accessibility and functionality helped Cat Town embrace the platform quickly. White described Jotform as having an “easy user interface,” both for the staff who create the forms and for the adopters, fosters, and community members who fill them out.
The team also appreciates the ability to easily customize forms and embed them in the organization’s website. By adding Cat Town’s unique branding, fonts, and colors, they’re able to give supporters a seamless, cohesive online experience.
“We became big Jotform fans pretty much right away,” says White.
Streamlined workflows with a human touch
One of the biggest benefits of Jotform is the ability to simplify admin work while preserving meaningful human connection. And at Cat Town, that benefit became especially clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before COVID-19, adoptions were primarily handled through individual conversations between adoption coordinators and potential adopters. But when shelter-in-place restrictions hit and pet adoptions began to surge, the team needed a scalable solution fast.
“We were getting so many inquiries that we couldn’t handle it,” recalls White. “We’re a tiny team.”
With Jotform, Cat Town created an adoption interest form to organize applicant information and make it easier to identify the best matches between cats and their adopters. Staff could quickly review the potential adopter’s pet experience, living situation, and preferences to make more thoughtful placement decisions.
The results were powerful. Because the organization was able to make strong matches, fewer cats were returned after adoption.
“We’re saving more lives, and I know we’re doing it more quickly and efficiently [with Jotform],” says White.
Empowering volunteers, fosters, and donors
As Cat Town expanded its use of Jotform, the platform became deeply integrated into nearly every part of the organization’s operations.
“We use it in every possible way,” says White.
The nonprofit now relies on Jotform to collect recurring donations using its Stripe integration, as well as for event RSVPs, volunteer coordination, cat foster applications and supply requests, online auction donations, reimbursements, legal documentation, and e-signatures.
“It’s been a game changer,” says White.
A great example is its foster program. About half of Cat Town’s cats live in foster homes in the Oakland area, and the nonprofit uses Jotform to collect applications, understand each applicants’ environment and preferences, and identify ideal placements.
“It helps us make a good match for our fosters,” White says.
They also use supply request forms, so foster families can quickly and easily request food, medication, toys, and other fostering essentials. This helps Cat Town’s team stay organized while ensuring fosters can spend their time focusing on the cats in their care — rather than trying to navigate logistical hurdles.
Every time I run into trouble, Jotform is there to make it easy again.
Quinn White, Development & Deputy Director, Cat Town
As Cat Town staff continued to implement Jotform, their use cases continued to grow. Most recently, Cat Town implemented Jotform Sign to collect e-signatures for the conflict-of-interest forms required for its board of directors.
“The applications were just so broad,” says White. “It was like, “Oh let’s just use Jotform, let’s just use Jotform,’ and pretty soon we’re using it for everything.”
Helping small teams make a big impact
In addition to its ease-of-use and broad application potential, Jotform’s customer service experience became another key advantage of the platform.
“[Jotform’s support team] is so thorough and friendly, and it’s obvious that it’s a person helping, which is really nice,” says White.
Access to support forums and hands-on assistance helped the organization continue to build new workflows as its needs evolved.
White sums it up like this: “Every time I run into trouble, Jotform is there to make it easy again.”
Amplifying mission impact with technology
Since implementing Jotform, Cat Town has not only improved data collection and management processes — it’s also freed up more time and space for community engagement and mission-driven work.
According to White, Jotform has helped Cat Town strengthen relationships with adopters, fosters, donors, volunteers and community members while simplifying the administrative work that happens behind the scenes.
It supports the Legacy of Love program, which helps ensure cats are cared for after an owner dies. It powers reimbursements for the In It For Life program, which helps hospice cats receive lifelong care and support after adoption. It also helps organize donor support, event management, legal compliance, and community outreach.
Most importantly, it gives Cat Town’s small team more time and energy to focus on finding hard-to-place cats their forever homes, and, as a result, saving more lives.
If your nonprofit is searching for ways to speed up workflows, save time, and expand your impact, sign up for a free Jotform account today to explore how the platform can support your mission.
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