Most shelter software is built for well-funded organisations in the US and UK — the kind with a full-time admin team and a budget line for donor management tools. That's not most of the animal welfare sector in South Africa. It's volunteer-run rescues coordinating over WhatsApp groups. It's a small SPCA branch doing donor receipts by hand at the kitchen table. It's people doing extraordinary work with none of the tooling that would make it easier.
Paws Chommie is part of the Chommie family of tools — the same team behind Hustle Chommie, built on the same idea: small operations in South Africa deserve software that actually fits how they work, not a scaled-down version of something built for someone else's budget and someone else's country.
What we actually built
One place to manage the animals in your care, take donations straight into your own PayFast account with Section 18A certificates handled automatically, get discovered by donors and adopters through a shared directory, and receive stray reports the way people already communicate — on WhatsApp, not through an app nobody downloads.
All of it free to start. The parts that cost money stay optional, and never get in the way of a small rescue just trying to get online.
What we believe
South Africa First
Built around PayFast, POPIA, and Section 18A — not retrofitted from a US product.
Free to Start
The smallest volunteer-run rescue gets the same core tools as a funded SPCA branch.
Money Goes Straight to You
Donations flow directly into each center's own PayFast account. We're never in the middle.
WhatsApp-Native
Built around how people already communicate, not how software wishes they did.
Part of the chommie.site family. Paws Chommie shares its foundations with Hustle Chommie, built for South African small businesses running on WhatsApp and Instagram. Same philosophy, different mission.
Where this is headed
South Africa first — we'd rather get it right for one country than get it half-right for many. If it works here, expanding further is a "when," not an "if." Every feature we build starts from a conversation with an actual shelter, not a guess about what one might want.