Orvis Cover Dog Contest Takes Highest Honor for a Good Cause

We love dogs.

So six years ago we began our Orvis Cover Dog Contest, partnering with Morris Animal Foundation to help fight canine cancer and giving families the chance to have their family pooch featured on our Orvis Dog Book.

It’s good work and the right work, and it has raised over $1.1 million for Morris Animal Foundation’s canine cancer research initiatives since 2009.

Yesterday, our Director of Branding and Corporate Marketing, Bill Eyre, accepted the Golden Halo Award for Best Environmental or Animal Campaign at Cause Marketing Forum’s annual conference in Chicago.

The Forum’s Halo Awards are North America’s highest honor in the cause marketing field. We are honored to have been nominated and more so to have been named a winner among a field of for-profit and non-profit organizations doing amazing work for the greater good.

It was fun and humbling to watch some of the chatter on Twitter during the awards ceremony.

Well done @OrvisDogs on the #coverdog campaign to raise money for canine cancers research! #CMF2015 pic.twitter.com/REY3qxr57J

— Grant Garrison (@garrisongrant) May 28, 2015

Suddenly the room fills with a plethora of "awes." CC @OrvisDogs #CMF2015 pic.twitter.com/umrfrZRwkr

— Crossroads (@crossroadsus) May 28, 2015

Of course, the contest would be all for naught without the support of our customers, who have submitted over 100,000 images and have made generous donations by voting for their favorites. As Bill has said, “It’s truly gratifying that our business has been a conduit for our customers to make such a meaningful difference in the lives of dogs everywhere.”

Through this generosity, Morris has been able to develop college training programs, more reliable predictive tests of the spread of cancer, new treatment options for tumors that improve the quality and length of a dog’s life, and technology that will replace invasive issue sampling and improve brain tumor management.

To all who have participated, thank you for making a difference in a dog’s life and a family’s life.

If you haven’t yet, it’s easy to participate. Simply visit our Orvis Cover Dog Contest page and upload a photo of your pooch or vote for your favorite in the gallery. Each vote costs a dollar and goes directly to Morris and this great cause.