When animals around the world need assistance, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) springs into action. The global nonprofit has headquarters in Washington, D.C., and runs an international operations center in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

"For over half a century, IFAW has led conservation and rescue efforts affecting individual animals as well as whole species," explains John Kluza, group treasurer for the organization. "We take a collaborative approach to addressing both animal rescue and conservation, engaging with everyone from the grassroots community up to the highest levels of global policymaking to deliver long-term change.

"Here on Cape Cod, we are well-known for responding to a wide array of marine mammal strandings," he adds. "However, we also implement diverse programs supporting animal welfare and conservation across the globe. This includes on-the-ground response to natural disasters—such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes—and manmade disasters anywhere in the world. For example, we recently had a team in Poland for two months assisting refugees and their pets in distress as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. We established and continue to support a post manned by Ukrainian veterinarians to provide services during the crisis—as long as it takes. We are also providing food and supplies directly to struggling animal shelters in Ukraine."