This article was featured in WYDaily on Nov 28, 2025.
Nationwide, this year’s annual GivingTuesday is Dec. 2, and The Heritage Humane Society invites the Greater Williamsburg community to help create twice the lifesaving impact. Thanks to a generous $50,000 matching gift from North Carolina Furniture & Mattress and community pet supporters, every donation will be doubled, meaning $25 becomes $50, $100 becomes $200 and so on.
Founded in 2012, GivingTuesday is a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate and celebrate generosity. For The Heritage Humane Society, this is an opportunity for the local community to support a local issue of housing and caring for homeless pets at Greater Williamsburg’s largest animal shelter.
GivingTuesday Donations Allow for Critical Care for Both Pets and People
The Heritage Humane Society relies on its supporters to provide urgent medical care, safety and second chances to thousands of homeless pets every year. Now known as the “Most Generous Day of the Year,” this year’s GivingTuesday arrives with powerful reminders of why this support matters more than ever.
Pet Spotlight: Six Puppies, One Selfless Elderly Man and a Lesson in Compassion
Recently, shelter staff received a call about six young puppies whose elderly caregiver was doing everything in his power to keep them fed and safe. Living on a tight, fixed income, he began greatly sacrificing his own needs so the puppies wouldn’t go without. His adult daughter, recognizing the growing struggle, helped him make the compassionate decision to surrender them to The Heritage Humane Society, ensuring they could receive full medical care and the chance to thrive. While it was a difficult decision, it was made in love with the resource of the shelter to be able to take in, care for and find stable homes for each puppy.
The puppies happened to have arrived during one of the shelter’s popular Animal Camps for kids, where the next generation of animal lovers was actively learning about responsible pet care. The campers were able to see firsthand what happens when stray or surrendered pets enter the shelter, including the puppies’ first veterinary assessments, medical care and vaccinations, shelter provision and socialization, preparations for spay/neuter surgeries and ultimately pathways to adoption.
Together, the children unanimously voted on a theme to name the six siblings after Toy Story characters, proudly bestowing the names Buzz Lightyear, Andy, Forky, Little Bo Beep, and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.
As the pups toddled around their play space, campers learned that every joyful wiggle has a story behind it and a community of supporters who make that story possible. All six puppies found their fur-ever homes.
GivingTuesday donations also help support The Heritage Humane Society’s Animal Camps, and its Animal Aces Kids’ Club, where membership is a treasured gift for adults to give young pet lovers for the upcoming holidays. Membership for the 2026 season is open and will run through Dec. 31, 2026. The Kids’ Club is open to children ages 8 – 12 years old.
Pet Spotlight: Answering a Partner Shelter’s Urgent Plea that Saved 12 Cats from a Demolished Home
The Heritage Humane Society also recently answered a critical call from a partner shelter, SWAG Southern Welfare Animal Group, in Charlotte Court House, Virginia. A house scheduled for demolition was found to be overrun with dozens of abandoned cats who were frightened, hungry and fending for their lives. Even more heartbreaking, shelter partners reported that someone had been shooting at the cats, turning their struggle for survival into a daily fight against cruelty.
The Heritage Humane Society stepped up immediately, taking in 12 of these vulnerable cats. Many arrived with medical needs, dehydrated or sick. The shelter team worked tirelessly to provide veterinary care, treat infections and injuries, socialize terrified cats and prepare them for adoption.
One cat remains under medical care at the shelter, healing and receiving specialized treatment with hopes to soon become adoptable. The other 11 have all found compassionate, loving homes here in the Greater Williamsburg community.
Stories like these of rescue, hope and resilience are made possible by donors who understand that supporting The Heritage Humane Society makes for a safer, healthier, more compassionate, connected, and stronger community.
Donations to be Doubled this GivingTuesday
Thanks to the incredible $50,000 donation match, every gift made today goes twice as far. Every dollar becomes two dollars for twice the medical care, twice the food and shelter, twice the second chances and twice the love. Every gift is more than a donation, it allows for lives to be transformed like the Toy Story puppies and the Charlotte Court House cats.
Inside the General Fund That Keeps the Shelter Running
A common question donors ask is: “What does my money actually support?”
At The Heritage Humane Society, GivingTuesday contributions go directly to the General Fund, the lifeline that sustains nearly every aspect of shelter operations.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look of how the General Fund is vital to sustaining busy shelter, where more than 2,000 pets a year are supported:
- Life-saving medical care including emergency surgeries, diagnostic testing, spay and neuter procedures, vaccinations, and treatment for illness, injury or neglect. For many animals, this care is the difference between their final chapter or their next, much better, chapter in life.
- Daily shelter operations such as safe, clean and climate-controlled facilities; sanitation supplies; bedding, enrichment toys and kennel materials; utilities and maintenance and repairs. These essentials provide pets with comfort and dignity during their stay.
- Food, nutrition and specialized diets especially as many pets arrive malnourished or with medical dietary needs. Donations help the shelter provide high-quality food, prescription diets, kitten and puppy formula, and hydration and supplements.
- Behavioral care and socialization programs that build adoptable, emotionally healthy pets such as behavioral evaluations, training tools, socialization activities and enrichment programs.
- Community outreach and education including the shelter’s camps, humane education programs, and outreach events help create compassionate, responsible future pet owners like the campers who named the Toy Story puppies.
Here are some examples of how The Heritage Humane Society makes every donation count:
- $25 = provides a set of vaccines for one pet upon arrival to the shelter
- $50 = provides 10 enrichment activities for homeless pets for one day
- $100 = covers the spay/neuter cost for one pet before adoption
- $250 = sponsors food formost sheltered pets for three days
- $500 = sponsors the cost for one pet from intake to adoption
Ways to Participate in GivingTuesday at The Heritage Humane Society
The shelter continues feeling the stress and pressures of the nationwide pet crisis with an increasing number of stray and surrendered animals arriving multiple times each day, each with heartbreaking stories of their own, and often their human companions. This GivingTuesday is a lifeline for these pets in crisis, for the community that loves them and for the mission at the heart of The Heritage Humane Society.
- In person. 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. on Dec. 2 at 430 Waller Mill Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185.
- Anytime between now and Dec. 2 at donate.heritagehumane.org.
Every donation on GivingTuesday is matched dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000.
Adoptable Pets are Ready for Their Second Chances
Welcoming a new furry (or not-so-furry) friend is proven to enrich lives of both pets and people. Today, 222 dogs, cats and small pets are in the shelter’s care and hoping to find their forever homes. Adoptable pets are available to meet during The Heritage Humane Society’s visiting and adopting hours from noon to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
To learn more, visit HeritageHumane.org, call 757-221-0150, or visit The Heritage Humane Society located at 430 Waller Mill Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185.
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