With many of its facilities in ruins, and its employees, customers, volunteers and donors scattered by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ Audubon Nature Institute turned to the Web to raise the money needed to get back to its mission.

By Abny Santicola

One of the first online fundraising campaigns ANI ran was a virtual adoption where people could adopt an animal for a set donation amount. A second campaign in early 2006 called Bring Back Our Fish centered around raising funds to restock the aquarium. It included a contest for supporters to send in stories of their favorite aquarium memories, with the winner earning a free trip to the aquarium. And ANI recently launched another campaign in conjunction with the release of “Hurricane on the Bayou,” in which it asked constituents to send e-cards to friends and family to build awareness of the movie and ANI’s continuing need.