In addition to individual donations, HT received three awards during the competition. For securing the greatest number of donors for the overall competition, HT was awarded a prize of $15,000. For securing the most donors by noon on day one of the competition, HT was awarded a $5,000 prize. And for raising the most money in the “Animal Welfare and Environment” category, HT received an additional award of $2,000. Thus, the total HT raised was $54,387.

The Do More competition kicked off at 12:01 a.m. on June 6th and was scheduled to conclude at 11:59 on June 7th. However, participating organizations and donors quickly discovered that the UWNCA servers were failing to accommodate for the high volume of traffic, making it difficult and sometimes impossible for donors to contribute. As a result, UWNCA decided to extend the competition an additional 24 hours.  The campaign generated over $1.2 million for 1,000 local charities working in a variety of sectors, from education and the arts to health and human services.

“In the end, we cannot be more proud and more grateful for the results, ” says Bell. “To think that out little organization could come out on top is beyond exciting. It says wonderful things about our supporters and their love for animals. I want to give extra thanks to our wonderful Do More business sponsors: Medalase, Urban Pace, Wag More Dogs, Jamie Nicholas Printing, PetMAC, The Dog Stay, the Arlington Dog Nanny, and Loyalty Pet Care. These supportive businesses were key in our success! We believe that animal lovers are some of the most loyal generous people out there and given the strong finish by several animal rescue groups in the area, we now know it! I only hope this helps all of us in animal welfare do more for the thousands of homeless animals out there who need us.”

The close nature of the competition which had local groups moving up and back on the Leaderboard all day as donor and money poured in will lead to some new friendships, at least as far as HT is involved. “We were very close in number of donors to the Little Lights Urban Ministries and had some very friendly communication with them throughout the competition. I’m thrilled to announce that HT and Little Lights has decided to do a post Do More event together bringing our homeless animals to their site for a visit with the children they serve. And we hope to explore if we can work together on a regular basis, ” says Bell. “I truly believe that our organizations brought out the best in each other during this competition and we’re excited to meet them and see how we might collaborate. That’s what this is all about at the end of the day!”

HT rescues an average of 1,600 homeless dogs and cats annually, working mostly with under served, rural communities whose shelters have euthanasia rates as high as 95%. HT relies on foster volunteers to provide temporary homes for their rescued animals until forever homes are found. HT relies solely on adoption fees and donations, with an annual budget in 2012 of just over $550,000.