Jennifer Aniston Launches Fund to Support Animal Rescue Groups (Exclusive)

Jennifer Aniston wants to do her part to save animals in need.

To celebrate the debut of her children's book, Clydeo takes a bite out of lifeout October 1, Aniston, 55, is now launching the Clydeo Fund to support animal rescue organizations around the world.

The actress, producer and entrepreneur wanted to “create a fund where we can donate to these animals around the world and inspire people to just throw in a dollar. It all adds up,” she tells PEOPLE. “We can raise awareness and help shelters.”

With every dollar donated, the fund helps organizations rescue, rehabilitate and find forever homes for animals. “We can help these animals, raise awareness and help the animal shelters that are in dire need of maintenance because they are falling apart,” explains the former Friends Star. “They can’t keep up. And all you see is us euthanizing innocent, beautiful, perfectly, perfectly good two-year-old dogs or a puppy or a litter. I can't. “It’s too much.” There are too many.”

The morning show The star and executive producer wrote her new picture book, inspired by one of her rescue dogs, Clyde, to motivate children to pursue their interests. “They're so focused on these phones and they just disappear into the void of scrolling,” she says. “They don’t really spend time being stimulated by the world and figuring out what they want to do.”

Clydeo was first introduced as an animated dog on Aniston's Instagram account in 2021 and now has his own four-book children's series. “When they came to me with the idea, it was like, 'Of course I'm going to do something that I absolutely love and adore, which is my rescued animals,'” she says.

The actress' rescue puppies (she has two, including Lord Chesterfield) “have brought so much joy into my life,” she said. “I hope that my book, the Clydeo Fund and all the future work I will do to support these animals will inspire people around the world to consider adopting, fostering or supporting animals in need, wherever they may be they can.”

For more information and ways to donate, visit www.theclydeofund.org.