About RescueSync
Origin Story
I've been volunteering with Greater Houston German Shepherd Dog Rescue since 2020. I've fostered dogs, served on the board, led technology projects, and watched our volunteers pour everything they have into saving animals. What I noticed, over and over, was that the hardest part wasn't the rescue work itself. It was everything around it. The fundraising. The admin. The technology that never quite worked, or cost too much, or fell apart the moment the one person who understood it stepped away.
A few years ago, I built a merchandise store for GHGSDR. Branded products with print-on-demand, no inventory. Supporters could buy a hat or a t-shirt and a portion of every sale went back to the rescue. It worked. People loved it. And then I left my board role, nobody wanted to take it over, and it quietly went offline.
That stuck with me.
The problem isn't willingness. It's bandwidth.
Rescue volunteers are some of the most dedicated people I've ever met. But they're also stretched impossibly thin. Nobody has time to manage an online store, manage how their animals looks on their website, answer customer emails, or figure out what "print-on-demand" even means. Technology that requires ongoing maintenance is technology that eventually gets abandoned.
So I built RescueSync to solve exactly that: a platform that gives rescues the tools and revenue streams they actually need, with zero operational burden on their end. I handle everything. They just say yes.
What we do
RescueSync creates and manages branded merchandise storefronts for animal rescue organizations, completely free of charge. Every rescue gets their own store, their own products, and their own payout. When a supporter buys something, it goes straight to a printer who handles production and shipping. The rescue never touches inventory, never talks to a customer, never worries about a return.
We split the revenue from every sale. The more a rescue's supporters shop, the bigger their cut. Payouts go out quarterly, with no fees, no contracts, and no strings attached. If a rescue ever wants to walk away, we take it all down, no questions asked.
Who's behind it
Kathryn Herod
Founder, RescueSync
I'm a software engineer, a mom, and a lifelong animal lover. I've built and sold a business before: a cooking school, of all things. I know what it takes to build something that actually works, and I know the difference between a tool built for users and a tool built around a concept.
RescueSync is built around one question: what would actually make a rescue's life easier? Everything else follows from there.
I live in Houston, Texas, and I currently volunteer with GHGSDR, the rescue that inspired all of this and our first official partner.
