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Research Grant Deadline: January 1, 2012
HRC is working closely with the first two grant recipients through our Grassroots Research Fund, which provides pro bono research projects to small animal groups. Right now we’re helping the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies study the impact of owner surrender policy changes and also assisting the Animal Rights Coalition by evaluating consumers’ opinions about foie gras.
What can HRC do for you? Our Grassroots Research Fund supports at least two pro bono projects per year. The next opportunity for a grant is coming up soon! Please submit applications by January 1, 2012 to be considered for the next grant cycle. More information and the grant application can be found on HRC’s website.
If your organization does not qualify for the Grassroots Research Fund, HRC offers already-discounted services and a sliding fee scale to meet the needs of animal groups of all sizes. Learn more about our services and how we can help you evaluate and improve your efforts to save more animals.
HRC Honored by VegNews Magazine
As you might know, today is World Vegan Day and marks the beginning of World Vegan Month. It’s therefore apropos to mention that HRC is currently featured as one of “Ten Nonprofits You Need to Know” by VegNews Magazine! Our huge thanks go to the VegNews editors for recognizing HRC and helping more veg advocates learn about our resources and services.
HRC works hard to serve all animal advocates, including those involved in vegan and vegetarian outreach. We offer a wide variety of resources (for instance, have you seen our new webinar?) specifically tailored to veg advocates and we’re currently working with several clients to evaluate different forms of vegan/vegetarian outreach.
Thanks again to VegNews! Check them out at www.vegnews.com.
What Works: Spay/Neuter Advertising
HRC’s Anthony Bellotti recently started a new series of blogs to evaluate, from a research perspective, a wide variety of print advertisements designed to help animals. The first of the series covers print ads promoting spay/neuter – see below for an excerpt and a link to the full article reviewing five spay/neuter ads.
“(Advertising guru David) Ogilvy’s brother once asked the editor of London’s Daily Mirror about the type of photos that are most interesting to readers. The editor famously replied: ‘Babies with an 'eart-throb, animals with an 'eart-throb, and what you might call sex.’ Thus, our third piece ‘Abstinence Education,’ from the Los Angeles SPCA begins with a seemingly promising start: cute animals, a controversial hook, and a strong brand. However, this ad falls short because these disparate elements accidentally project the opposite of the intended message, in other words, that new litters of baby animals are a good thing!”
“Here’s how ‘Abstinence Education’ provokes this undesired response. Our audience is supposed to understand that it’s a fundamentally bad thing for a companion animal to bring a litter into the world. But when asked to respond to similar ads during the HSUS Gulf Coast study, it turned out that animals who are too good looking also worked against the message. In testing, respondents questioned why one would get such beautiful animals fixed. ‘Abstinence Education,’ which directly highlights the beautiful byproduct of not fixing your pets, amplifies this line of thinking.”
Continue reading on HRC’s blog, Humane Thinking…
You Really “Like” Us!
Like many nonprofits, Facebook has become one of HRC’s most popular methods of communicating with supporters. We now have well over 4,000 Facebook fans, but we want your help to get to 5,000 by the end of the year!
If you haven’t “liked” HRC yet, please take a couple of seconds to do it right now.
If you’re already a fan, thank you! Please take a moment to encourage at least three of your friends and colleagues to like us as well. HRC offers social networking with a purpose – all of our new research items are posted to Facebook, along with other articles that are informative and useful for animal advocates.
Spread the word and help HRC get to 5,000 Facebook fans by December 31st!
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