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

“We didn’t test it; we didn’t wait around. We didn’t ask whether an e-mail ask on a reply depressed response rates. We didn’t test any of it,” she continues. “It became very evident early on that the Internet was a channel that was going to explode and if we spent time testing around the margins, we would miss the opportunity to engage these people in an integrated, multi-channel program.”