A passion for putting pets first — and for staying ahead of the curve — fuels the ASPCA’s innovative strategies, and kept it energized when Katrina-relief efforts, a rebranding campaign and the overhaul of its development department all converged.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

And in an organization that, legend has it, began when Harry Bergh stopped on a New York City street to physically prevent a man from beating his horse, innovative operations have come to be the norm.

There’s the whole Internet thing, for example. According to Sullivan, the ASPCA was putting dedicated URLs on all of its direct mail as far back as 2001 — maybe not the first to do it, but darn close. Same in 2004 with DRTV, which she says her organization pioneered as a fundraising channel for animal-welfare agencies in the United States. Even its recent rebranding, which took the emphasis off of traditional animal-welfare imagery, was a step in a new direction.