KANAB — Best Friends Animal Society, the only national animal welfare organization based in Utah, has been named a Brand of the Year in the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend® study in the nonprofit industry.
Measuring brands’ health over time, the EquiTrend Brand Equity Index comprises three factors – familiarity, quality and purchase consideration – that result in a brand equity rating for each brand.
Brands ranking highest in equity receive the Harris Poll EquiTrend “Brand of the Year” award for their respective categories. According to a press release from Best Friends, for nonprofits the purchase consideration correlates to likely donation.
“This is an extraordinary time in the animal welfare movement,” Greta Palmer, Best Friends Animal Society chief brand and communications officer, said in the release. “For the first time on record, the total number of dogs and cats killed in America’s shelters for a given year has dropped below the 1 million mark – to about 800,000 for the 2017 calendar year – and the national save rate rose from 70 percent to 77 percent.”
Established in 1984, Best Friends Animal Society has been leading efforts to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters. Best Friends has launched an initiative with rescue and shelter leaders from across the country to end the killing of dogs and cats in the nation’s shelters by 2025.
The goal is to save the nearly 2,200 dogs and cats who are killed in shelters every day just because they don’t have safe places to call home, the press release stated.
The initiative is founded on the principle that collaboration within animal welfare and on the community level is essential to achieving no-kill across the country. It challenges communities across the country to pursue policies and strategies that increase the number of animals adopted from shelters and decrease the number of animals entering shelters.
To reduce the number of animals killed in shelters, Best Friends advocates nationally to keep community cats safe, fight breed discrimination of pit-bull-terrier-like dogs and end puppy mills, while working to build and connect collaborative, community-based no-kill programs around the country.
In Utah, Best Friends has created a statewide coalition of animal rescue and shelter partners who, together, have already made Utah a no-kill state for dogs and are on the verge of doing the same for cats. Other work being carried out by Best Friends includes the following:
- In Los Angeles, Best Friends is leading No-Kill Los Angeles (NKLA), a citywide initiative aimed at transforming the nation’s second largest and most diverse city into a no-kill community.
- In New York, Best Friends has established critical partnerships with local animal shelters and rescue organizations to help them pave the way for a no-kill community in New York City.
- In Atlanta, Best Friends has joined with dedicated local partners to help the metropolitan area reach and sustain no-kill.
- In Houston Best Friends is working collaboratively with city shelters, local animal welfare organizations and passionate individuals to save the lives of pets in shelters.
In addition to these regional programs, Best Friends maintains lifesaving partnerships with thousands of animal rescue organizations and animal shelters throughout the country — all of them working to help homeless pets and create no-kill communities where they live.
Network partners receive opportunities to participate in fundraising and adoption events, marketing help, expert resources and more from Best Friends to help reduce the number of animals killed in their local shelters. Best Friends has more than 2,600 network partners in all 50 states.
For more information on Best Friends Animal Society, visit the organization’s website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter (@BestFriends) or Instagram (@BestFriendsAnimalSociety).
The complete list of Harris Poll EquiTrend Brands of the Year can be found here.
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