Welcome to Little Beans'
Little Beans’ Hope Rescue exists to give the forgotten a chance to be seen, healed, and loved again. We champion cats who are too often overlooked; those on shelter euthanasia lists, living on the streets, or abandoned without a chance of survival. Through patient care, comprehensive veterinary treatment, and thoughtful family matching, we offer each cat a calm, dignified path to a forever home.
Founded in 2022, Little Beans’ Hope Rescue began as a grassroots response to the overwhelming stray cat crisis in Miami. In just three years, we have rescued over 700 cats, placed them into loving homes, and built a highly trained, deeply committed volunteer network. Our mission is to give a fighting chance to those deemed too old, too difficult, too sick, or too costly to save; while also working upstream to prevent neglect through community education and advocacy. We believe every life has value, and we exist to stand in the gap when no one else will.
We built LBHR on the lessons we learned when we tried to adopt and foster ourselves and hit wall after wall: unanswered forms, confusing steps, and no one to guide us. That problem is still the reality for many. We stepped in to fix it with a model that is equal parts compassionate rescue and preventative strategy.
- Foster-Based Care. Because we do not operate a facility, every cat heals in a home, not a kennel. This improves outcomes and lowers stress, but it also keeps our overhead remarkably low. Only 8% of our operational budget goes to overhead, meaning 92% of all funding we receive goes directly into rescue, medical care, TNVR, and education programs.
- Volunteer-Run. LBHR has no paid staff. Our 25+ active volunteers, supported by leadership and board members, are the heart of the organization. This lean structure is why we’ve been able to rescue nearly 700 cats in just three years with a budget far smaller than most rescues of our size.
- Adoption Model. We process applications in under seven days on average, thanks to a responsive adoption team. We prioritize fit over speed, ensuring fewer returns and higher adoption success rates. Every adopter has a lifetime safety net.
- TNVR & Education. We don’t just take cats in; we also stop the cycle of suffering. Our TNVR program sterilizes, vaccinates, and returns community cats, directly reducing intake pressure on shelters. Education multiplies this effect: we train residents to trap safely and create awareness campaigns, so communities understand the stakes.
- Transport to High-Demand States. Adoption demand in Miami lags far behind intake volume, leaving many cats without local placement options. To save more high-risk cats, we coordinate transport to shelters and adoption centers in the Northeast and other regions where adoption demand is higher. This strategy not only prevents euthanasia but also balances regional disparities in adoption markets.
Our team
Bruna araujo
President
Bruna holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Economics and Finance from Carleton and Cornell University and brings a strong analytical and operational mindset to her work with Little Beans’ Hope Rescue. Since founding the organization, she has helped the organization grow by securing grants, building meaningful partnerships, and developing the systems needed to support long-term sustainability and impact.
She oversees LBHR’s administration to ensure the organization remains transparent, responsible, and well-managed. Her leadership is both strategic and hands-on: she fosters some of the rescue’s most medically fragile cats, supports TNVR efforts in the field, and leads the rescue’s communications, outreach, and community engagement.
All of her work with the organization is performed in a volunteer, unpaid capacity.
Heidi grew up in northern Maine and moved to Miami to attend Barry University, where she initially studied marine biology before transitioning into biomedical and forensic photography.
After earning her Bachelor’s degree, Heidi began her career as a forensic photographer with the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Department, where she has worked for over 25 years. She later earned her Master’s degree from Florida International University in Disaster and Emergency Management. Through this work, she has participated in multiple hurricane response efforts and witnessed firsthand the profound impact disasters have on both human and animal communities.
Heidi is deeply involved in TNVR and community education programs, having lectured for veterinary professionals and supported initiatives such as the “Cat with No Name” necropsy program at the University of Florida.
She joined Little Beans’ Hope Rescue in early 2024 in a volunteer capacity. In her role, she supports the organization’s long-term strategy and operational effectiveness through organizational planning, logistics, and data management, while also remaining actively involved in fostering, rescue, and hands-on fieldwork.
Heidi Nichols
Vice President &
Operations Director
Lissa Goldstein
Adoption &
Intake Director
Lissa graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and later earned her medical degree. During her time at Oberlin, she was actively involved with a volunteer group dedicated to improving the lives of stray and feral cats in the surrounding community.
After relocating to Miami, Florida, Lissa was once again confronted with the needs of outdoor and homeless cats and began working with the Little Beans team as a foster and volunteer even before the organization was formally established. She joined Little Beans’ Hope Rescue in the second half of 2024 and now serves as the organization’s Adoption and Intake Director, overseeing the intake, medical coordination, and placement of rescued cats into appropriate foster and permanent homes.
In her role, Lissa combines her clinical training, organizational skills, and compassion for animals to ensure each cat receives appropriate care and a thoughtful placement. She serves in this role in a volunteer, unpaid capacity and is deeply committed to the organization’s mission of improving the lives of vulnerable animals by helping them find safe, loving homes and reducing the number of cats living on the streets.
Originally from Venezuela, Stephanie has lived in Miami for most of her life and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and an MBA from Florida International University. Her professional background in organizational management directly informs her role within Little Beans’ Hope Rescue.
Stephanie became involved in animal rescue in 2019, when she started being actively engaged with shelters, rescue groups, and community partners working to address the stray cat crisis in South Florida. Through this work, she developed practical experience in rescue coordination, intake support, and logistical planning.
Stephanie and Bruna collaborated on multiple community initiatives throughout Miami-Dade County before co-founding Little Beans’ Hope Rescue in October 2022 to consolidate and scale their efforts. Stephanie now serves as Secretary of the organization in a volunteer, unpaid capacity. In this role, she is responsible for organizational recordkeeping, compliance support, internal coordination, and operational logistics, helping ensure that the organization runs efficiently, transparently, and in alignment with its mission.
