It's almost time to start the voting in the Tiny Dog Calendar contest for 2021!  Each summer we duck out of the heat and spend some days photographing dogs in  the studio for an annual fundraising event for Artists for Animals. You can view last year's grant winners on the AFA website. 

How is it a fundraiser?  We raise money for homeless animals by selling votes online! Each vote costs $1 and all the voting proceeds go to the Artists for Animals Community Grant program.  Local animal rescue groups can fill out a form telling AFA what they need the money for, and the Board votes and sends out checks. This program was born out of the realization that there are many many animal rescue organizations in our area and they all need help.  Most are too small to even have time and volunteers to run effective fundraising programs.  Yet they are all out there every single day saving lives.  The bigger groups like the SPCA and ASPCA have a staff of experts that do nothing but raise money -- but it takes more than one or two organizations to save all the homeless pets in our area. 

So we started selling votes!  Only 13 dogs can win, so we take the top 13 vote getters  and publish our calendar every fall.  Last year we raised a hair short of $20,000.  This year, the need is even greater as so many of the other fundraising activities that normally take place have been canceled due to the Corona virus.