Good Friends, Good Cause

Contributed by:
Dubuque Humane Society
175 Menard Court
Dubuque, IA 52003
http://www.dbqhumane.org

“Good Friends, Good Cause” is a fundraising promotion featured by the Dubuque Humane Society. The Society was approached by a local car dealership with the following idea: for a one-month period, the dealership would offer to take $100 off the price of a car (new or used) to anyone bringing in a bag of food for the animals at the animal shelter. Additionally, the dealership would donate $100 to the Society for each car sold. The owner stated that the dealership normally sold about 100 cars a month. The Dubuque Humane Society arranged for their local feed store to bring a supply of food to the car dealership so that potential car purchasers didn’t have to leave the dealership to buy a bag of food. The shelter actually took the food back to the feed store for future credit.

What You’ll Do

• Find a sympathetic car dealer to sponsor the promotion. The dealership that worked with the Dubuque Humane Society is willing to talk to other dealerships to help promote the idea. He is hoping that the idea will spread to other areas.
• Locate a sympathetic feed store/pet supply store that will work with you. The store that worked with the shelter delivered the food to the dealership at no cost.
• Promotion
  The dealer paid for full-color, full-page advertisements in EACH of the Sunday newspapers featuring employee’s pets and available cars for sale.
• The dealer also paid for two 30 second spots for television.
• The shelter promoted the program in their regular radio and TV appearances.

Cost

• NO COST!
• Some minor labor, primarily by the director promoting the program on their regular radio and TV spots.
• They received $10,200 from the dealership and an additional $2,238 worth of credit for food and litter at their local feed store.

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Idea Number 29 from 101 More Great Shelter Ideas compiled by the ASPCA and American Humane Association, ©2003