Operations
Intake forms
Fosterling provides public-facing forms for surrender, adoptions, foster interest, volunteer sign-up, and lost & found reports. Each form feeds directly into the corresponding part of your workflow -- no manual copying required.
Available forms
| Form | What it creates | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Surrender / Relinquishment | Inbox submission + contact | For owners giving up an animal. Lands in your Inbox linked to a contact record -- creating the actual intake is a manual step once you're ready to take the animal in. |
| Adoption application | Adoption application | General adoption interest form. Can also be linked to a specific animal from the gallery. |
| Foster interest | Foster home (on Accept) | For people who want to foster. Lands in your Inbox; clicking Accept creates a real, already-active foster home record you can place animals with right away -- there's no separate approval step after Accept. |
| Volunteer application | Volunteer record (on Accept) | For people who want to volunteer. Lands in your Inbox; clicking Accept creates a real, already-active volunteer roster record -- there's no separate approval step after Accept. |
| Found-animal report | Inbox submission + contact | For members of the public who found a stray. Lands in your Inbox linked to a contact record -- creating the found-animal draft is a manual step from there. |
| Lost-pet report | Inbox submission + contact | For owners of lost pets. Lands in your Inbox linked to a contact record -- opening the lost-pet case in Lost & found is a manual step from there. |
Fosterling also ships five more form kinds you can turn on from Settings > Intake & programs: sanctuary intake, animal record, donor/sponsor inquiry, grant application, and a fully custom form.
| Form | What it creates |
|---|---|
| Sanctuary intake | Lifetime-placement request for an animal unlikely to be adopted out. |
| Animal record | A minimal scaffold you customize -- not tied to a specific workflow. |
| Donor / sponsor inquiry | Auto-converts the submission into a donor row in your Giving hub -- no manual copying. |
| Grant application | An assistance-request form for medical-fund or grant-style requests. |
| Custom form | A blank form you build from scratch with your own questions. |
Finding your form links
Go to Forms in the main nav. Each form type has a shareable URL you can copy and post anywhere -- your website, social media, Linktree, etc.
The Share link button on each form card generates a URL in the pattern fosterling.io/forms/[org-id]/[form-type]. They're public -- no login required.
Enabling and disabling forms
Each form has an enable/disable toggle in Settings > Intake & programs. Disabled forms return a friendly "Not currently accepting submissions" message to visitors. Use this to pause surrender intake during a transport week, for example.
Customizing form questions
- 1Go to Settings > Intake & programs and click the form you want to edit.
- 2Click Edit questions. A builder shows all current questions.
- 3Drag to reorder, click the pencil to rename, or click Add question to add a new one. Choose from: short text, long text, dropdown, checkbox, date, phone, file upload, or signature.
- 4Mark questions as required or optional using the toggle on each question.
- 5Click Save. Changes are live immediately.
Drafting a form with AI
Go to Forms in the main nav and use the AI panel at the top instead of starting from a template. You've got two options:
- Describe it -- type what the form should ask (or paste your existing questions) and AI turns that into editable fields.
- Recreate an existing form -- upload a screenshot, photo, or PDF of a paper form you already use, and AI rebuilds it as an editable Fosterling form, including file-upload and signature fields where the original had them.
Either way, the draft opens in the same builder as a manually-created form -- review the fields, adjust anything that's off, and publish when you're ready.
Importing forms from other tools
Already collecting submissions somewhere else? Go to Forms > Imported and connect one of:
- Jotform -- connect with your Jotform API key and form ID.
- Google Forms -- sign in with Google and pick the form from a picker.
- Typeform -- connect with a Typeform API token.
Promote an imported form and Fosterling backfills the applications you've already received, then checks for new ones every 15 minutes. From that point on they behave exactly like responses to a native Fosterling form -- same inbox, same accept-into-a-record flow. Files people attached are copied into Fosterling too, so vet records and photos survive cancelling your old account.
Jotform can also push each submission the moment it arrives instead of waiting for the next check -- click Turn on instant on the imported form (this one action requires Admin access; the rest of forms setup is open to Coordinators too). The 15-minute check keeps running underneath it, so nothing is lost if a push goes missing. You can switch automatic syncing off per form with the Auto-sync checkbox.
Some question types have no Fosterling equivalent -- matrix grids, payment fields, and third-party widgets. Those are listed on the imported form so you can add them by hand rather than discovering the gap later.
Embedding a form on your website
There are two ways to put a Fosterling form on your website:
- Direct link -- copy the form URL and link to it from a button on your site. Visitors land on a Fosterling-hosted page styled with your org's colors.
- iFrame embed -- copy the embed snippet from Settings and paste it into your website's HTML. The form renders inline on your page.
- Can someone submit a surrender form for a specific animal they want to give up?
- Yes -- the surrender form asks for a description of the animal. Your team reviews it in the Inbox (linked to a contact record for the surrendering owner) and can then run intake from there.
- Do I get notified when a form is submitted?
- Yes -- admins and coordinators receive an email notification for each submission. You can adjust notification preferences in Settings > Notifications.
- Can I use my own adoption application form instead of Fosterling's?
- Yes -- import it from Jotform, Google Forms, or Typeform (or rebuild it from a PDF or screenshot with AI), then promote it as an Adoption application. It creates applications that flow into the Adoptions hub exactly like the built-in form. You can also just add your own questions to Fosterling's form if that's simpler.
- What happens to applications still sitting in Jotform?
- Promoting an imported form pulls in the responses you've already received, including any files people attached. After that, new ones arrive on their own -- so you can keep the old form live during the changeover and switch it off whenever you're ready.
- Are form responses stored somewhere I can export?
- Yes -- go to the relevant hub (Adoptions, Volunteers, Lost & found) and use the CSV export button to download all responses.