America's Favorite Animal Shelter Contest

I can't find my favorite shelter or group, why? How do I get my animal shelter or rescue group added to the contest list?

In order to be eligible to participate in this contest, all shelters and groups need to be registered with our partner Adopt-a-Pet.com, a nonprofit homeless pet adoption website.

Getting your favorite shelter or group registered with Adopt-a-Pet.com is very simple. We need a representative from that group to fill out a simple registration form on Adopt-a-Pet.com's site: http://www.adoptapet.com/shelter/terms_conditions_signup.html

Typically a group can be live on Adopt-a-Pet.com's site then on our site within a week. Adopt-a-Pet.com will verify that all group are real rescue groups or animal shelters. Groups do NOT need to be registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

Why is my shelter listed in the Adopt-a-Pet.com website but not in "America's Favorite Animal Shelter" contest?

If your group registered with Adopt-a-Pet.com within the last week, then you should see your group on our site soon. It can take up to a week between when you submit your registration and when you see your group on the contest site (possibly more if you submit your registration late on a Friday).

If you see your group on Adopt-a-Pet.com but don't have a login for their website, then your group probably is not formally registered with Adopt-a-Pet.com. Please follow the steps above to register your group with Adopt-a-Pet.com. If you still don't see your shelter listed after a week, send us an email at animalsheltercontest@care2team.com and we can help you.

Can groups that are specific to animals other than dogs and cats join the contest?

Yes, Adopt-a-Pet.com is open to rescue groups for animals other than cats and dogs.

How can small shelters and groups win when larger groups are also competing?

We want to ensure all groups, no matter how small, have a chance to win a much-needed donation. That's why we are awarding a donation of $500 to a random participating group every week. All shelters with at least twenty-five votes that week are eligible to win the weekly prize.

I want to invite more friends to participate, how can I ensure I am getting credited for those referrals?

We encourage you to use the "Tell-a-Friend" tool included in the contest's website to contact your friends. All messages sent from that tool will include a link that will allow us to credit your friends' votes towards your total tally.

You can also copy your unique promotion link and paste that link into your own email message through your email client. Once you have voted you will find this link on your shelter's contest page and in the Thank You email you received after voting.

To get to our Tell-a-Friend tool, click the "email your friends" button on your shelter's page.

I tried to send an email to my friends using your "Tell-a-friend" tool but wasn't able to or got an error message. What should I do now?

Make sure you are only including your friends' email addresses separated by commas and avoid including special characters. If that doesn't work, try to send your message to one friend first and then to two friends. Then try sending more.

You can also copy your unique promotion link and paste that link into your own email message through your email client. You will find this link on your shelter's contest page once you have voted and also in the "thank you for voting" you received from Care2.com.

What are you doing to prevent people from 'gaming' the voting system?

We share your concern. That's why we have implemented an industrial-strength CAPTCHA security field on our ballot request form to ensure that only real people can vote, not computer scripts.

Our vote-by-email system stops cheaters from using fake email addresses.

We log all the votes, so we know where they're coming from.

We have other processes on the backend checking for duplicate records to prevent anyone from trying to game the system and vote multiple times.

We also watch the voting, and we'll investigate anything that looks like cheating.

We want to make sure that we respect the hard work of everyone promoting this contest and ensure that the rules are followed and we can award prizes fairly. If at any time you are concerned, please feel free to contact us at animalsheltercontest@care2team.com.

I am a reporter or a blogger and would like to get more information about the contest. Do you have a media contact?

Yes, please send all your media requests to contestmedia@care2team.com.

Didn't find the answer to your question?

Please email us at animalsheltercontest@care2team.com.