Life-saving, Shelter-emptying, Business-scaling MEGA Training Platform

Mega Adoption Events

Mega Adoption Events are large scale, single-location events held over a two or three day period where multiple municipal agencies and private shelters across a region bring in adoptable animals. The goal is to find homes for all of the available shelter dogs and cats across a community and literally empty the shelters.

A New Standard

The team at First Coast No More Homeless Pets (FCNMHP), led by Rick DuCharme, introduced the concept of MEGA Adoptions into Northeast Florida in 2012. At this first MEGA Adoption event, nearly 1,000 animals were adopted in a 3 day period, setting a record for the most animals adopted in a single event in the US.

Following the success of this event, the team at First Coast No More Homeless Pets continued to hold shelter-emptying MEGA Adoption events 3 to 4 times annually, setting its all-time record of 1,164 adoptions in July 2014. News of the MEGA Adoption successes caught fire and quickly established Jacksonville, FL as the model for the country.

Rick DuCharme, and team, began traveling to other communities to help train shelters how to hold a successful MEGA Adoption events. While efforts in Brandywine, PA and elsewhere were wildly successful, it was quickly evident the small team was faced with limitations on their reach and speed of socializing the concept and providing training.

The Challenge

Increase MEGA Adoption training nationwide and reduce the time investment required by the First Coast No More Homeless Pets team…essentially scale the training effort, while maintaining the principles that deliver successful high-impact, life-saving adoption events.

The Solution

The solution is the Mega Mentoring Initiative where MEGA Adoption training and certification (for the initial phase of the program) takes place through on automated, online process. In order to do this, there was a collaboration between several parties:

Rick DuCharme and his team began documenting the details of the MEGA Adoption program and process gathering
Petco Foundation came forward with financial support
Canvasblu Digital designed the application architecture, taxonomy and user experience as well as oversaw imagery creation, video creation and built the digital platform.

The Results

The Mega Mentoring digital platform went live in Spring 2018
Participation has been steadily growing since introduction
Mega Adoptions are being embraced nationwide, accounting for thousands more pet adoptions annually in the communities that hold them.