Humane Society Raises $12,000 With Badly Drawn Pets

Most people will pay good money for a quality work of art. However, very few individuals feel the same about poorly drawn pieces. At least, that’s what it seemed like before the Wisconsin Humane Society launched their unique fundraiser. The humane society decided to create badly drawn portraits of dogs, cats, and even birds with just a $15 donation. It seems silly, but they ended up raising over $12,000 to help animals in need!

What was the Fundraiser?

The humane society made it very clear from the start that these drawings were not going to be worthy of an art museum. All they promised was $15 for a drawing of your animal. They admit that they’re much better at caring for animals than drawing them, and that’s apparent in most of the results.

Staff and volunteers worked together to create the masterpieces. They admitted that the results would vary from professional work to the style of a 7-year-old. What you got was completely random. So, they hoped everyone would have a great sense of humor!

“We have a pool of staff and volunteers standing by, eager to turn your animal into a timeless work of art (or at least make you laugh). You *might* get one of our extremely talented artists, but we’ll be honest… you’ll probably get someone who can’t draw their way out of a paper bag,” posted the Wisconsin Humane Society.

To get one of these unusual works of art, all you had to do was donate the $15 and then respond to the humane society’s Facebook post with a photo of your furry friend. From there, someone on the team would create a work of art and respond to your comment with a photo of it. The staff thought this would just be a fun way to raise some extra money, but as it turns out, the fundraiser was much more successful than they thought!

Within only a day, the humane society had to close submissions due to the insane amount of responses. Over 700 people sent in photos of their animals! The staff hadn’t expected so many people to respond, so they were suddenly overwhelmed with the number of drawings they had to do.

The Results

It took longer than they expected, but they eventually completed all the drawings successfully. As promised, some of the drawings are fairly detailed while others are the complete opposite. No matter what the result was though, everyone adored their personalized drawings.

“It’s February in Wisconsin. It’s cold. I think anything fun and new is welcome this time of year,” said Angela Speed, vice president of communications at the Wisconsin Humane Society. “It’s also fun to see someone interpret your animal.”

The staff at the humane society hope to do another fundraiser like this in the future, but they’ll need some time to prepare. Ever since word spread about these fabulous drawings, more shelters and rescues have decided to try it. Who knew badly drawn animals would be the key to successful donations?

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s harder than I thought it would be though. I thought, well how hard is it to draw a dog?” said Jan Niec with the Wisconsin Humane Society.

Thanks to amazing fundraisers like this, the Wisconsin Humane Society is able to help 40,000 animals every year. If you want to see some of the other hilarious drawings, check out the comments on the Wisconsin Humane Society’s Facebook post.