What Is a Foster?
A foster is a caregiver who temporarily houses animals until they are ready for adoption, transfer, or return to your organization. Foster records store contact details, application answers, capacity, internal notes, documents, status history, and linked pet assignments.
Foster List
Open Fosters from the main navigation to review your foster roster. The list uses the standard PawPlacer table layout with search, status filtering, tag filtering, sorting, pagination, and an Add Foster action.
Each row can show:
- Name: The foster's name, avatar, and compact tag badges.
- Capacity: How many additional pets the foster can take. Inactive or restricted fosters show an inactive/assigned indicator instead.
- Fostered Pets: Avatars for pets currently assigned to the foster.
- Linked Roles: Adopter or volunteer roles connected to the same person.
- Tags: Organization-specific foster tags.
- Status: Active, Pending, Training, Inactive, Blocked, Suspended, or Denied.
- Custom Fields: Any synced custom fields from your foster form.
- Updated: When the record was last changed.
Use the search box to find a foster by name, use the status dropdown to isolate pending or archived records, and use the tag filter to narrow the roster by program, skill, region, or other labels your team uses.
Foster Profile
Click a foster's name to open the compact profile view. The profile starts with a hero section that includes the foster's avatar, contact shortcuts, status badge, tags, and summary metrics:
- Foster Since
- Currently Fostering
- Completed Fosters
- Average Duration Days
The status badge is clickable when the foster can be updated. Pending applications use the approval alert instead of the status-change dialog.
Profile Layout
The profile is split into a left information rail and a main work area.
The left rail includes:
- Contact: Email, phone, and current application/status value.
- Home: Address and capacity usage.
- Note: The foster's internal note, when present.
- Status Notes: Notes from the latest status change, when present.
- Activity Timeline: Recent status changes, foster assignment activity, documents, and profile creation.
- Documents: A compact document manager for foster agreements, IDs, reports, and other files.
- Team Notes: Internal notes for staff with the Foster Coordinator role.
The main area includes:
- Assignments: Active, pending, completed, and cancelled foster assignments with filters and action buttons.
- Custom Details: Custom form answers when your foster template has displayable fields.
- Email History: Emails sent to the foster from PawPlacer.
- AI Matches: Matching recommendations below the profile content when AI matching is enabled.
If the person also has adopter or volunteer records, a role switcher appears near the top of the profile so staff can move between the linked roles.
Profile Actions
The profile action menu contains the actions available for the foster's current state:
- Convert to Adopter or Convert to Volunteer: Available for active foster statuses when the linked role does not already exist.
- Send Email: Available when a relevant application or confirmation email can be sent.
- Archive: Moves the foster to Inactive. This is disabled while the foster has current fostered pets.
- Unarchive: Restores an archived foster, except for blocked records.
- Delete: Permanently removes the foster record.
The Edit button appears next to the action menu for active foster statuses and opens the foster form with the current values loaded.
Status Alerts
Profile alerts appear above the hero when the foster needs attention:
- Pending: Shows Approve and Decline actions.
- Training: Shows an informational training notice.
- Blocked: Shows a destructive alert and any saved reason.
- Suspended: Shows a warning notice.
- Denied: Shows a destructive alert and any saved reason.
Permissions
Managing fosters requires the Foster Coordinator role. Users without access should ask an organization owner to update their permissions in Settings > Members.