Fall 2009 ARS $100,000 Shelter⁺ Challenge

The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter⁺ Challenge for Petfinder.com members is back. This is a new opportunity for your organization to win grants of $1,000 to $20,000 to help you do what you do best: help rescue, care for, and find loving homes for animals.

The Challenge also creates an opportunity to start the conversation with your current supporters about what you need to carry out your mission and create even greater awareness of your work.

We've tried to answer the most frequently asked questions here and we'll be updating this page on a regular basis. Keep checking back!

Q: My group wants to enter the “Most Touching Story” for the Shelter⁺ Challenge. How do we do that?

A: Enter by using the web story tool here.

Q: I entered a rescue story and it disappeared! What happened?

A: Most likely the name of your organization and its location were not included in the story or your signature. If we can’t identify a story as coming from a shelter or an animal rescue organization in the Shelter+ Challenge, The Animal Rescue Site will remove it from the page to ensure that eligible stories stay in the spotlight.

Q: How many stories can I submit for my group?

A: Just one. Make it your best story and take time to polish. Have somebody proof it for you. You have until December 20 to enter your story. Please submit a story with a happy ending (The Animal Rescue Site's readers love to hear about how a pet found a forever home!). Stories about animal abuse that are too graphic in nature will be removed. (We do recognize the value of these stories; they just are not the goal for this initiative.)

Q: Why isn’t our shelter or rescue group in the current Shelter⁺ Challenge? I’m sure that we were in the last one.

A: The list of Petfinder members sent from Petfinder.com to The Animal Rescue Site to be included in the Shelter+ Challenge included all Petfinder members that were actively posting on Petfinder through early September. If an account is/was inactive, that group was not listed.

Q: OK, we were inactive but can’t you activate us now?

A: No. Petfinder.com had to “freeze” the data at the time it is submitted to The Animal Rescue Site, and for legal reasons, we cannot add any groups once a Challenge starts. However, when you become an active account again, you will be eligible for future Challenges.

Q: I know we are getting votes, so why doesn't our ranking change significantly each day? And how can we be in the top 10 in our state or province and not in the top 100 overall?

A: People all over the U.S. and Canada are voting in increasing numbers for their favorite shelters and rescue groups. Your state/regional ranking is your total votes compared to other groups in your state only. Your overall ranking is in comparison to all shelters and rescues in the Challenge. Rankings can and do often change dramatically overnight as one group or another gets a surge of voting (often because they've just received a write-up in their local press or just sent out an email reminder to supporters). Like a marathon race, you'll see some people spurt ahead and then fall behind and then spurt ahead again, while others steadily move up in position.

Q: I got an e-mail from another group about ways to cheat. My group would never do anything like this! What are you doing to stop cheating?

A: Every time an e-mail, blog post, Twitter comment, or other communication goes out about cheating, at least 10 people automatically forward it to The Animal Rescue Site. There are NO secrets on the Internet. All such complaints are thoroughly reviewed and also passed to Petfinder.com so that they can communicate with the original sender. The Animal Rescue Site has many unseen security measures, and we remain confident that invalid votes are being eliminated or blocked. Regular audits occur each week prior to announcing the weekly winner. Be assured that prior to the announcement of the final winners, a very thorough audit will take place.

Q: I am a small, rural rescue group. How can I possibly win against a group located in a big city?

A: It is not the size of your town that counts. It is the enthusiasm of your supporters. More than half of the winners in the last two Shelter⁺ Challenges were located in smaller communities, including the 2008 Grand Prize winner. Small communities tend to be more enthusiastic about spreading the word and reminding friends to vote. Local media in smaller towns can also be more responsive to requests to help than in some of the big cities. Consider these techniques which have worked for small groups:

• Send a weekly reminder to your e-mail list and ask everyone to enlist at least one other person (or ten) to vote.
• Go to your local business group (such as Rotary or Kiwanis) and ask members to get everyone in their businesses to vote.
• Do a presentation in your local school to get the kids to vote for your shelter or rescue (This too would be a good chance to remind children about the importance of caring for pets).

Q: What if we ask everyone to vote and we do not win?

A: Our Iowa state winner from the spring $100,000 Shelter⁺ Challenge reported that when their entire town got caught up in the voting frenzy, adoptions from their shelter also increased. Think about ways to combine a voting campaign with other donation drives, such as asking for food donations or finding more foster homes. Maybe every time somebody casts a vote, they could pledge to drop a penny or other spare change in a jar by their computer. At the end of the campaign, they could cash in their pennies as a donation to your group. That way, even if you do not win a grant, you can still gain more donations.

Q: Last time, you had some buttons and other material we could put on our Web site to remind people to vote. Do you have these for this challenge?

A: Yes! Those resources are available at The Animal Rescue Site, along with more information about the Most Touching Story part of the Challenge.