In 2021, when COVID put an end to all in-person fundraisers, dog shelters across the country lost their main source of donations. In the middle of building a state-of-the-art canine hospital, PAWS Chicago was desperate to find new donors and reinvent how they raised funds.

With zero production budget and only weeks to act, PAWS Chicago searched outside their donor base for a new group of affluent dog lovers who could help raise enough capital to fund their operations and save countless dogs in need.

PAWS Chicago introduced The Dog Wallet: A digital cryptocurrency wallet integrated into our website to let investors donate their Dogecoin. Our ads featured real shelter dogs alongside a QR code that automatically connected the cryptocurrency wallets of humans to The Dog Wallet, creating a method of donating effortlessly.

Millennials have overtaken Baby Boomers as the largest pet-owning cohort of Americans; by some estimates, more than half of them have a dog. To engage this generation of tech-savvy potential donors, key messaging for this campaign focused on meaningful ways to spend digital coins for philanthropy. Meanwhile, trending conversations on social media – some 78B view of #DogsofTikTok as of August 2021 – provided great visibility for earned media outreach.

Key messaging focused not only on the digital innovation via The Dog Wallet but the real-world advancement of PAWS Chicago Medical Center, a state-of-the-art hospital for homeless pets. This provided broad appeal for existing donors, who are aware that PAWS Chicago is 100% reliant on community support, alongside tech-savvy supporters.

Social posts across Twitter and Reddit, along with out-of-home boards across Chicago featured real shelter dogs alongside a QR code that automatically connected the cryptocurrency wallets of humans to The Dog Wallet, creating a method of effortless donating.

With zero production budget and only donated media, The Dog Wallet made a major impact at a crucial moment. Over 228,000 Dogecoin were donated in just weeks with one anonymous donor giving more than $10k worth. Immediately, crypto proved itself as an effective digital revenue stream, giving people a new way to donate at the very moment a dog tugged at their heart strings.

The campaign penetrated the niche crypto subculture across all platforms and inspired animal rescues all over the world to make crypto-donating a new revenue stream to save animals in need.