About

RLD Consulting is here to help you achieve your mission and overcome any obstacles that you face along the way. We are experienced in all aspects of nonprofit management, from founding an organization to managing growth and ensuring effectiveness throughout its lifecycle.
"Rick is one of those visionary leaders who sees possibilities where others do not and knows how to make those things happen to have the biggest lifesaving impact. He's created programs that are now a model in the field and he can assess what your organization needs and give you a roadmap to get there."

Aimee St Arnaud
Business Partner at Open Door Veterinary Clinic
Formerly with Humane Alliance, Asheville, NC
"I have followed Rick DuCharme's career from the early days of First Coast No More Homeless Pets and I have been continually inspired by his innovative thinking, his savvy business sense, and his collaborative spirit. Naturally, I was among the first to call him when he opened RLD Consulting and it was one of the best moves I've made for my organization. I simply cannot say enough about his talent and skill set and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from him."

Karen Slomba
Executive Director, Animal Welfare League of Charlotte County
"Rick DuCharme’s guidance and mentorship has been an asset to our not-for-profit organization for years. He takes challenges head on and his passion for helping the community cannot be overstated – his footprint has and always will be a positive one. This combined with his extensive business knowledge makes him a powerhouse. You cannot go wrong in choosing Mr. DuCharme to help you with whatever your needs may be."

Amy Wetzel
Executive Director, Operation Spay Bay, Inc.
Animal welfare organizations, regardless of size, are almost always challenged with more demand for their services then they can possibly provide and this requires an intense focus on effectiveness and targeting to maximize the benefits of limited resources.

Access to veterinary care, both spay/neuter and general practice, is quickly becoming recognized throughout animal welfare as an issue that impacts animals in shelters and in homes.

When access to care for pet owners is limited and beyond the reach of pet owners of all income levels this often results in economic euthanasia or shelter relinquishment, either of which is an unacceptable outcome for a humane community.
With 20+ years working to provide access to veterinary care for pets of all pet owners, we are uniquely experienced to help you work through the challenges of ensuring access to veterinary care for pet owners in your community.

There are creative ways to overcome challenges; let’s have a phone discussion and begin to unlock solutions. Initial phone calls are always at no charge and you will never receive a surprise invoice.

Man behind the mission

There is no doubt that two key words come to mind when describing Rick DuCharme: "passion" and "vision".
How Rick moved from a passionate local animal welfare volunteer to a leading national No-Kill advocate and visionary is a story that is both compelling and inspiring. It was his passion, borne from his days as a child bringing stray pets home from the streets of Waterloo, Iowa with his mother, that launched his lifelong commitment to animal welfare. It was when his mother told him that some of those animals would not make it out of the shelter alive that perhaps spurred the earliest vision for his work to make this a No-Kill nation.

While employed in the heavy equipment industry, Rick fused his passion and his professional skills as he became an active volunteer in the animal welfare category. Bringing his business experience to the movement, he came to understand that an effective spay/neuter program was a vital first step and he became a member of the Mayor’s Task Force for Animal Control in Jacksonville, and the driving force behind the city’s eventual drive to become a no-kill community.

His passion and vision came together when he founded First Coast No More Homeless Pets in 2002, a non-profit dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in Duval County and beyond. Rick grew the organization into a national thought leader in the No-Kill movement, a key partner for local shelters across two states, and became a lifesaving driver to bring the First Coast Community to No-Kill.
In 2013, while at FCNMHP, Rick was one of three founders of the Target Zero Institute, a program that has helped dozens of communities in their evolution to higher live release rates.

When Rick left First Coast No More Homeless Pets in July 2019 he had built it to a $10+ million a year organization with 165 paid team members including 20+ veterinarians operating two large safety net hospitals with a combined 20,000 square feet of hospital space. FCNMHP also operated other lifesaving programs, including a regional Pet Food Bank, Shelter/Neuter/Return Programs and Mega Adoption Events.

Rick has now founded RLD Consulting Group to bring this experience to other organizations working to save more dogs and cats. The group specializes in Access to Veterinary Care, Spay/Neuter clinics, nonprofit start-ups along with other issues of need to animal welfare nonprofit organizations and for-profit hospitals providing low cost services.