Testimonials

As Seen With - Cathy Rosenthal

Encourage Kindness to Animals!

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Kind words from past clients...

Bonnie Hill

I have utilized Cathy’s keen writing skills for major grants for over 15 years. Not only is Cathy a great writer, but she has challenged me, my organization and our ideas to be sure that the programs we are developing not only move us forward but meet funding guidelines before making a request. Nothing frustrates a funder more than an organization that is uneducated about what they fund. Her writing skills are not only detailed and precise, but make the programs come alive for the reader. Her years of experience in the animal welfare field and knowledge of what grant funders want helped us received 10’s of millions of dollars to help to achieve our mission.

Bonnie Hill

Founder, Spay Neuter Network

Patty Finch Dewey

It was a delight to work with Cathy Rosenthal as a planner and facilitator for our multi-national conference. She went above and beyond what was expected, time and time again, and offered additional help, which I gladly accepted! I needed her more than I even realized at the time of contacting her. Had it not been for her setting timelines and holding me to them, as well as the other speakers, working with our designer, working with the hotel on prices and a demanding menu, putting together the communications that all speakers and participants received as well as the conference packets, thereby greatly increasing the professionalism of the entire conference, and creating the PowerPoint shows for both days, as well as the evaluation form, I don't know what we would have done! And of course, she did a fabulous job facilitating, and went way above and beyond what she had to do. A failure in the AV equipment provided by the hotel was dealt with quickly and professionally, with Cathy making on the fly effective adjustments to the entire opening program. I was not surprised to see that in the anonymous evaluations, 94% of participants rated the overall organization of the conference as excellent, and the remaining 6% as above average. Thank you Cathy Rosenthal! I cannot recommend her highly enough, and the participants all want her back as the facilitator for our next conference!

Patty Finch Dewey

Philanthropic Advisor for Foundations, Parrot Conservationist

KarenFroehlich1

All of our animal welfare organizations have struggled and survived over the last 21 months. But is surviving enough? The SPCA of Texas surveyed their staff on how they were feeling to give us a road map of what needed tending to. What we learned was invaluable and is informing all of our decisions in 2022. One of the areas we needed to tend to immediately was burnout and compassion fatigue. Cathy Rosenthal’s approachable and relevant training on Compassion Fatigue for staff and a separate session for managers kicked off our first all-staff meeting Day of Care for 2022. I would highly recommend Cathy’s approach, which included a pre-training survey to give her the best opportunity to tailor the training to our specific needs. The classes were fun and enlightening to lead staff to understand, “is it compassion fatigue or is it burnout” and what they can do to mitigate. We can’t take care of our animals if we don’t tend to our staff's needs. If your organization needs compassion fatigue and burnout training, I highly recommend Cathy's workshop. Thanks again for your insight and words of wisdom!

Karen Froehlich

CAWA, President/CEO, SPCA of Texas

Patty Finch Dewey

It was a delight to work with Cathy Rosenthal as a planner and facilitator for our multi-national conference. She went above and beyond what was expected, time and time again, and offered additional help, which I gladly accepted! I needed her more than I even realized at the time of contacting her. Had it not been for her setting timelines and holding me to them, as well as the other speakers, working with our designer, working with the hotel on prices and a demanding menu, putting together the communications that all speakers and participants received as well as the conference packets, thereby greatly increasing the professionalism of the entire conference, and creating the PowerPoint shows for both days, as well as the evaluation form, I don't know what we would have done! And of course, she did a fabulous job facilitating, and went way above and beyond what she had to do. A failure in the AV equipment provided by the hotel was dealt with quickly and professionally, with Cathy making on the fly effective adjustments to the entire opening program. I was not surprised to see that in the anonymous evaluations, 94% of participants rated the overall organization of the conference as excellent, and the remaining 6% as above average. Thank you Cathy Rosenthal! I cannot recommend her highly enough, and the participants all want her back as the facilitator for our next conference!

Patty Finch Dewey

Philanthropic Advisor for Foundations, Parrot Conservationist

Sherry Derdak

San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition asked Cathy to give her talk on Compassion Fatigue at our annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon. Throughout the 45-minute talk you could see many nodding heads and even a few tears. Given the subject matter, it was surprisingly entertaining, and considering the rave reviews, others agreed. Cathy is not only an excellent speaker, she has a down-to-earth approach that connects with her audience. We are circulating her excellent handout among rescuers who could not attend. We highly recommend Cathy as a motivational speaker!

Sherry Derdak

President San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition

Chelsea Kidd

Our organization, the Humane Society of Charlotte, had the pleasure of hosting Cathy for the Customer Service for Animal Welfare Professionals Workshop. Cathy delivered sound and relatable advice and tools that can be utilized by all areas of our staff- not just those working directly with the public. Cathy engaged staff members throughout the day, asking questions and encouraging participation in group activities that all found both fun and enlightening. Examples given were tailored specifically to the departments in attendance, which gave the workshops a personal touch that helped resonate with attendees. Overall, our staff confirmed that Cathy did an outstanding job with the workshops and staff members came away with a better understanding of how to handle tough customer service situations, as well as maintaining positive client relations on a day-to-day basis.

Chelsea Kidd

(Former) Human Resources Director, Humane Society of Charlotte

Fantastic outlook; loved how this session gave me something to think about, and made me more aware of how I can do better with language.

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016 (The Power of Words: How What We Say Impacts Public Perceptions and Customer Service Strategies for Animal Welfare Professionals)

StevePawlowski

As media relations manager for PetSmart Charities, I've worked with Cathy in her role as a consultant for more than three years. However, she's been counseling and coaching our animal welfare partner groups long before I joined the organization. She's been a tremendous asset to me and PetSmart Charities, but her true value lies in the support and expertise she brings to animal shelters, large and small, across the country. As a journalist and lifelong advocate for animals, she's earned the respect of the rescue groups she counsels and helps them share their stories with audiences nationwide. Cathy is a true professional in every respect. She's an exceptional writer, a stickler for detail and an invaluable resource of knowledge. Whether it's developing a successful PR campaign, writing a blog post, or preparing a spokesperson for a media interview, she never disappoints. I highly recommend Cathy as a communications consultant. Her experience, skill and passion would be a welcome addition to any organization.

Steve Pawlowski

(Former) Media Relations Manager, PetSmart Charities, Phoenix, Arizona

CarolMoulton

“Whether you have 100 or 1,000 people in the audience for your conference's opening session, they want to see something entertaining and meaningful. I've relied on Cathy to make that happen many times at conferences I have planned at the American Humane Association and PetSmart Charities. She works with the speakers to sharpen their presentations, scripts the introductions, determines the order of events, and transitions everything smoothly from one presenter to another. Then she rehearses every part of the session and times it down to the minute to help you build to a "standing ovation" finish. All of that and she is fun to work with! I couldn't recommend her more highly.”

Carol Moulton

Moulton Consulting, (former Director of Animal Protection, American Humane Association, and Senior Program Manager, PetSmart Charities)

CathyMcCoy

“Cathy has assisted SpaySA with grant writing for more than six years. With her knowledge of grants and experience in the animal welfare field, she continually helps us identify the best grants for our clinic needs, does research, if necessary, and makes sure that all details are taken care of. She is an indispensable addition to our grant writing team.”

Cathy McCoy

(Former) Executive Director, SpaySA, San Antonio, Texas

"We hired Cathy to organize our SNIP Summit with more than 800 attendees flying into Asheville, North Carolina. Thanks to her attention to details, the event was highly-organized and beautifully executed. She managed speakers, writing their bios and workshop information for the conference program, and coordinated their travel to the event. She handled registration logistics for all the attendees, ensuring the process was smooth and easy for everyone. Cathy was extremely professional in all aspects of project delivery and ensured that everyone felt welcome and had a good experience. She was also one of our workshop presenters and received high marks from attendees. We couldn't have been happier with her services."

Quita Mazzina

(Former) Executive Director, Humane Alliance, Asheville, North Carolina

“LOVED listening to true life shelter examples.”

- “Covered basics to advanced [in 90 minutes].”

- “Kept audience engaged and outdid herself.”

- Fantastic outlook, loved how it gave me more options & made me aware of some flaws.”

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016

Mark

I have heard many positive comments today from staff that attended yesterday and I solicited some feedback today while making my rounds. I think you are an amazing presenter that welcomes your audience to participate while sharing insight and laughter. You are very down to earth and use words and phrases that are so relatable. Thank you for sharing the electronic handout and power point for us to share with everyone that attended, so they may go back and use it as a refresher. Our most sincere appreciation for delivering such a well done program.

Mark A. Balestra

Division Director, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Animal Care & Control Division, Charlotte, North Carolina

"Very applicable information to take back to my organization.”

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016

Bonnie Hill

I have utilized Cathy’s keen writing skills for major grants for over 15 years. Not only is Cathy a great writer, but she has challenged me, my organization and our ideas to be sure that the programs we are developing not only move us forward but meet funding guidelines before making a request. Nothing frustrates a funder more than an organization that is uneducated about what they fund. Her writing skills are not only detailed and precise, but make the programs come alive for the reader. Her years of experience in the animal welfare field and knowledge of what grant funders want helped us received 10’s of millions of dollars to help to achieve our mission.

Bonnie Hill

Founder, Spay Neuter Network

Tracy Elliott

Cathy provided an all-day session on customer service for the entire staff of Asheville Humane Society. She is a gifted teacher and connects strongly with her audience. She held everyone’s attention, inspired us to think differently about our customers and how to serve them. It was a valuable experience for us.

Tracy Elliott

(Former) Executive Director, Asheville Humane Society

Monica Celizic

Cathy was a presenter at the Georgia Companion Animal Partnership Conference, speaking on both Customer Service Strategies and the Power of Words. Her audiences loved her and her presentations, saying things like "super informative", "great speaker", and "can't say enough nice things about Cathy." I would highly recommend her for YOUR next event!

Monica Celizic

Vice President of Administrators and Strategic Initiatives, Atlanta Humane Society

Great attitude and energy! Lots of insights on things I would never have thought of before.

Anonymous

Feedback from Texas Federation of Animal Care Services Conference 2015

Katie Broaddus DVM

We asked Cathy to hold a workshop on customer service for our staff, and it was fantastic! Cathy worked closely with us leading up to the workshop to ensure that the content was tailored to our needs, which was perfect. Our staff really enjoyed learning about diffusing difficult situations, body language techniques, and how to better engage our customers. We will all use this information every day to better serve our visitors. Thank you, Cathy!

Katie Broaddus

DVM, Chief Operating Officer, Austin Humane Society

Valuable information and tips on how to positively portray pit bulls to everyone.

Conference Feedback

Aimee

I worked on a project with Cathy, which involved providing one-hour media consultations to more than 60 animal shelters and spay/neuter clinics for a grant-funded project. Her job was to listen to their marketing ideas for the special project and then offer strategies for helping them achieve their media and marketing goals. The feedback I got from these groups was impressive. Cathy helped them learn how to negotiate and buy radio spots, how to develop multiple media and marketing strategies to maximize their exposure, and how to use media and marketing throughout the entire project to ensure they met their grant goals. Groups told me their phones were ringing off the hook. Cathy has a unique talent for helping animal groups tell their stories.

Aimee St. Arnaud

(Former) Extreme Project Manager, Humane Alliance, Ohio

GavinNichols

"Cathy Rosenthal has been a major factor for the no-kill effort in San Antonio. She helped form Talk About It!, a program of the San Antonio Area Foundation, and continuously keeps San Antonio connected with what is happening in the humane arena around the country. Cathy accomplished bringing Bonney Brown, formerly of the Nevada Humane Society, and Mitch Schneider of the Washoe County Regional Animal Services to San Antonio for a series of animal welfare workshops and a public “community conversation” about no-kill—an event that is still paying dividends today.”

Gavin Nichols

Program Officer - Community Initiatives San Antonio Area Foundation, San Antonio, Texas

SusannaDellaMaddalena

"During my time at PetSmart Charities, Cathy supported us in a broad range of areas including conference planning and support, production of marketing materials and media training/mentoring for animal welfare organizations. She is the consummate professional and was a very valuable resource for us."

Susana Della Maddalena

(Former) Executive Director for Oklahoma Humane Society, Oklahoma

"Customer Service is very important to us and as a result we have used many training tools and attended many workshops. Cathy Rosenthal’s workshop has by far been the best. She managed to engage a room full of people with 20 different job descriptions and make her training relevant to them. No small feat in animal welfare. I highly recommend this course to anyone who needs or wants an excellent customer service program for all areas of animal welfare.”

Cynthia Martinez

Director of Operations, San Antonio Humane Society, San Antonio, Texas

“Most engaging speaker at the conference.”

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016

“Great attitude and energy! Lots of insights on things I would never have thought of before.”

- “Great interaction with audience. High-energy speaker.”

- “Great enthusiasm for topic. Knows her stuff.”

- “Can’t wait to try out the body language info.”

Feedback from Texas Federation of Animal Care Services Conference 2015

JamieHealy

“On behalf of all of us at Charleston Animal Society, I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful two days you spent with us in delivering the Customer Service Workshop. The time you took to personalize the training to our shelter’s needs and experiences was unmatched in any other trainings we have had. It’s hard to get staff excited in advance about a mandatory training session, but I will definitely say that afterwards, everyone was complimenting on how much they enjoyed it and how they learned so much from your expertise. We are looking forward to implementing your tools in our everyday work to continue improving upon our services and being the best that we can. Thank you for being your amazing, personable, entertaining, and knowledgeable self. You certainly delivered!”

Jamie Healy, M.S.

(Former) Grants Administration, Program Management, Charleston Animal Society, Charleston, South Carolina

“Couldn’t wait for her next session.”

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016

KarenFroehlich1

All of our animal welfare organizations have struggled and survived over the last 21 months. But is surviving enough? The SPCA of Texas surveyed their staff on how they were feeling to give us a road map of what needed tending to. What we learned was invaluable and is informing all of our decisions in 2022. One of the areas we needed to tend to immediately was burnout and compassion fatigue. Cathy Rosenthal’s approachable and relevant training on Compassion Fatigue for staff and a separate session for managers kicked off our first all-staff meeting Day of Care for 2022. I would highly recommend Cathy’s approach, which included a pre-training survey to give her the best opportunity to tailor the training to our specific needs. The classes were fun and enlightening to lead staff to understand, “is it compassion fatigue or is it burnout” and what they can do to mitigate. We can’t take care of our animals if we don’t tend to our staff's needs. If your organization needs compassion fatigue and burnout training, I highly recommend Cathy's workshop. Thanks again for your insight and words of wisdom!

Karen Froehlich

CAWA, President/CEO, SPCA of Texas

Cathie Myers

Cathy Rosenthal has been a speaker at our yearly national conference since 2011 and is consistently one of our top-rated presenters. From a conference organizer’s perspective, I have found Cathy to be professional and responsive at all times. She meets all deadlines and goes above and beyond to be sure that we have what we need from her. As far as her presentation skills, here are a few quotes from attendees at her sessions: ‘Smart, savvy expert. Outstanding presentation packed with excellent strategies’, ‘Informative, comprehensive, lively, humorous presentation’, ‘Dynamic; kept the audience engaged the whole time’, ‘So many great ideas – and she really got me thinking about the WHYS!’ I can’t recommend Cathy highly enough. She is a consummate professional, incredibly knowledgeable in her field and an engaging presenter.

Cathie Myers

Senior Manager, Learning Advancement Best Friends Animal Society

Shelly Moore

I have had the pleasure of attending Cathy's workshops on Working the Room and Customer Service. She is one of the best presenters that I have ever worked with. She is warm, funny and makes it easy to learn. Recently she facilitated her Customer Service workshop for the Charlotte Animal Care and Control and Humane Society of Charlotte staff. Everyone raved about how much of an impact it had on how they perceived their interactions with customers and now have easy to implement tools to provide a better experience for them. Because Cathy knows the Animal Welfare field so well, this is the perfect workshop for shelter personnel.

Shelly Moore

President/CEO, Humane Society of Charlotte

Stacey Schumacher

Cathy is a real asset to our nonprofit organization! She has helped make grant writing easy and seamless. Her submissions are complete, and her turnaround time is awesome. I am so glad that we found Cathy and that she's part of our TCAP team. As many other nonprofits, we are busy with our day to day. Cathy's help has taken pressure off of our administrative team. Cathy has given us the freedom to accomplish our mission, while still writing the grants we need to operate. I would highly recommend Cathy to any nonprofit that needs a professional grant writer!

Stacey Schumacher

Executive Director, Texas Coalition for Animal Protection

CindySharpley

Thank you for being so patient with my novice skill level in advertising! Your help in developing our marketing and public relations program has been invaluable! From the very beginning, I was excited about building awareness for our clinic. Your tutelage has given us the exposure we need to make a difference.

Cindy Sharpley

Executive Director, Last Chance Animal Rescue

One of my most favorite speakers, ever.

Conference Feedback

Kappy

“We wanted to express our appreciation to you for coming to CAP and presenting such a wonderful Customer Service workshop. We have heard nothing but compliments from the staff on how much they enjoyed your presentation. Your interaction with everyone really made it fun and informative. Your knowledge of the types of situations that occur in an animal shelter really made the employees feel that you knew exactly what they encounter. Your solutions and suggestions on how to resolve issues was invaluable.”

Kappy Muenzer

(Former) Executive Director and Jo Anne Jackson, Director of Operations Citizens for Animal Protection, Houston, Texas

NancyMay

“Wow! What a great experience. I have been involved in many customer service training workshops during my career… but Cathy Rosenthal’s workshop moves to the top of the list! Cathy did a wonderful job of engaging 60 people with different skill sets, keeping them engaged and bringing meaning and importance to each job description and the necessity for good customer service. Many employees came by the next day to thank us for having her on campus and providing training…that says it all!”

Nancy May

President,/CEO, San Antonio Humane Society, San Antonio, Texas

Ledy

“Cathy Rosenthal has sage advice on how to quell the many media myths surrounding pit bull terriers. She helps animal advocates think, reflect and take control. It's a must for anyone dealing with hysteria surrounding the dogs or hoping to increase adoptions of short haired muscular mutts.”

Ledy VanKavage, Esq.

Sr. Legislative Attorney, Best Friends Animal Society

LaDonna

“Thank you so much for speaking at our annual banquet last night. You added so much to the event that we can never say thank you enough. You really picked the right topic and touched our hearts, both individually and collectively. Anyone who was not a faithful reader of your pet column will certainly be so from now on.”

La Donna Moment

Dog Trainer, Paws for Service Therapy Dogs, Certified AKC-CGC Evaluator, member of the International, Association of Canine Professionals

“LOVED listening to true life shelter examples.”

Feedback from Texas Unites Conference 2016 (The Power of Words: How What We Say Impacts Public Perceptions and Customer Service Strategies for Animal Welfare Professionals)

- “Great workshop. Every animal welfare employee"

- “Great information. We don’t have a shelter, but the information is applicable to our adoption events.”

- “She made the time fly! She was just wonderful!”

- “One of the best presentations in my opinion.”

- “Great class, entertaining & informative, kept my attention.”

Feedback from Customer Service workshop, Texas Unites for Animals, 2014

Frances

“Thank you for providing such a valuable customer service training to our staff. It was truly an enjoyable training session and was way more fun than expected! I think more of the information will stay with me (and hopefully the staff) because we were all having so much fun.”

Frances Jonan

Executive Director, Austin Humane Society, Austin, Texas

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