Coastal Pet Rescue Announces CoastalPetRescue.org 6.0

(Savannah, GA) - October 30, 2009

Getting in front of potential volunteers, donors and adopters just got a little easier for Coastal Pet Rescue.

For six years, the driving force of Coastal Pet Rescue’s adoptions and volunteer management has been their website, CoastalPetRescue.org.

“We don’t have a brick and mortar shelter, so we have to have a good way for people to find our adoptable pets,” says Lisa Scarbrough, Coastal Pet Rescue president and founder. “Our website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is what yields 90% of our adoptions each year.”

After six years, Scarbrough, who also works full time as a web developer and webmaster for Paula Deen Enterprises, decided it was time for a change. Development began back in April, and the new site was fully released today.

“Our website may look the same, but we’ve updated the software and made it more social media friendly,” says Scarbrough.

The site is now running on Expression Engine software, which Coastal Pet Rescue adoption managers have found easier to use for adding and updating new pets and information.

User feedback over the last year led Scarbrough to create separate pages listing canines and felines for adoption.

“Potential adopters now have a choice directly on the homepage to link to a full list of cats or a full list of dogs,” says Scarbrough. “The listings page now shows more information about each pet much like a roster to help families narrow down their choices.”

CoastalPetRescue.org now also features two RSS feeds, one for their latest news and one for newly added pets. Both feeds also automatically send out tweets so anyone following the organization on Twitter will see the updates.

Volunteers now have a more dynamic message board to help them plan and execute the organization’s events, and the site’s Frequently Asked Questions has had a complete overhaul with categories and more answers to help visitors more immediately.

“It’s been six months of hard work, both from the development side of the site as well as reorganizing and adding content,” says Scarbrough. “But ultimately, it was a change we needed, and I think visitors will be impressed.”

For more information, visit coastalpetrescue.org.

Coastal Pet Rescue is a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal rescue organization dedicated to saving the lives of homeless, abused and neglected dogs and cats in Savannah and surrounding areas. Founded in February 2003, Coastal Pet Rescue changes the lives of homeless pets in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham Counties through its foster home program and small capacity shelter, Camp Pawsawhile Retreat.

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