Written by Debbie Gebhardt – Managing Director, Starlight Media
An animal-loving team of a mom and daughter and two tech-savvy brothers who wanted to do some good in the world decided to create an opportunity for people to showcase what’s precious to them – their pets – while giving back to causes that are dear to them. StarPet is, well, our pet project!
All animals welcome
StarPet is a monthly online competition open to ANY pets, with a total of R22,500 in Absolute Pets vouchers up for grabs to monthly winners. Entry is free, with four ways to win, and we rely on entrants and their network spreading a little starlight of their own by submitting paid votes to benefit a pet-related charity! From dogs and cats, and bunnies and birds, to reptiles and horses – any pet is welcome.
The four categories are People’s Choice, Angel’s Choice, StarPet Pic of the Month and Weekly winners. Each winner receives an Absolute Pets voucher of varying amounts, depending on the category and position. StarPet of the Week votes are measured over a seven-day period measured at midnight on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of the month. Monthly People’s Choice are voted for by the public, and the winner of the first prize gets to choose the charity recipient for the following month.
Monthly Angel’s Choice winners are selected by the previous month’s nominated charity, and StarPet Pic of the Month is selected by the StarPet team and must have accumulated at least 20 votes during the month to be eligible. To see how it all works, click here
We donate 50% of our profits or a minimum of R2,500 to a nominated registered animal-related charity (whichever is greater). Plus, each month, the overall winner gets to pick the next charity that benefits.
Benefitting animal welfares
Some of our charity recipients have included Peke Haven (R11,538), Knysna Animal Welfare Society (R8,415) and Hermanus & Overberg Vet Clinic (R8,020). We’ve even helped bird and horse sanctuaries too. You can view all the past winners on the StarPets website.
Not only do the charities benefit from the donation, but they also get to pick their three favourite entrants, who also win prizes (Angel’s Choice), along with those who’ve received the most votes (People’s Choice).
To date, we’ve helped 28 animal welfare organisations and raised R120,000 in donations. But we’d love to add zeros on to both of these numbers. By comparison, our StarBaby competition has raised R700,000 for charity over the same period, and we think StarPet can do as much, if not more, good!
Feedback from the charities is positive:
“Thank you so much, we really appreciate all you are doing for us and all the other organisations.” – Herman van der Sluis, Ops Manager at Potch PAWS.
“Aaahhh, it was a really fun competition and we are blessed to have been part of it indeed, thank you so much for inviting us and every single cent is important to us, this pandemic has really messed so many people and organisations up, we’re just very glad to have that chance to make something out of it.” – Dee Hendrix, Brainy Birds Parrot Rescue
“We are SO beyond grateful because this is a HUGE donation for us!” – Taylar Callaway, Mazarat Animal Rescue
Treasuring our supporters
What makes our competition extra special are our entrants and the relationships we build with our loyal followers. One very special lady, Sanette Meiring, is a regular entrant with her various pets. Her little treasured dog, Bowtie (so named because of his love of dress-up), was one of our previous winners, so we were devastated to hear news that he’d crossed the rainbow bridge due to stomach cancer. We immediately contacted A Peace Of Me and had a beautiful mosaic memorial plaque made in Bowtie’s honour to help Sanette through her grieving process.
At StarPet we really treasure all our supporters and love to hear how our winners have spent their vouchers and how our charities have used their donations.
So, if you too have a shining star at home and would like to spread a little starlight yourself, enter your precious best friend by clicking here
