Black Cat Friday helps save black cats in need by shopping on Amazon
The retail frenzy of Black Friday has come and gone, but Black Cat Friday is still going, on a mission to save the darkest of kittens.
Black Cat Friday helps black cats in need
BlackCatFriday.shop was launched by two cat lovers – Dominic Al-Samarraie, a group creative director, and Christina Pitsinos, an associate creative director, both at Wunderman Thompson New York – as a side project, pro bono effort to help animals in need.
It’s a simple site that routes people to Amazon through Amazon Smile (Amazon’s donation program) and donates a percentage of purchases to help black cats in need. The site states that black cats take longer to adopt and have higher euthanasia rates than other cats in shelters.
The site features a video introducing Black Cat Friday as well as facts and information about black cat adoption issues. When consumers click the ‘Shop on Amazon’ button, they’re redirected to a specific Amazon Smile link, which means Brooklyn Animal Action get a percentage of the purchase price of every item bought through that page.
Brooklyn Animal Action is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to saving and housing all cats in need, but have a particular program called Little Panthers dedicated to helping black cats.
There is also an accompanying Instagram account that features cat content that is both cute and informative, with the intention of converting people to purchase through the Black Cat Friday Amazon link.
Al-Samarraie and Pitsinios invented Black Cat Friday as a simple way to turn existing consumer behavior into donations, without the person having to pay anything extra themselves. People just buy the items they were going to buy anyway, and Amazon Smile takes care of the donation.
With Cyber Monday sales and deals still being announced, and 3 December being Giving Tuesday, the links to Amazon on Black Cat Friday are still open and will remain so indefinitely, so essentially Black Cat Friday is never over.
“Black Friday is always about saving money. We thought it would be interesting if you could save more than just money. What if you could help save some animals in need at the same time. Black Cat Friday is a simple idea that turns existing consumer behavior into help for a charitable organization without requiring any extra money from the user. They just need to buy the stuff they were going to buy anyway,” said Al-Samarraie.
“We loved the idea of turning this annual day of savings into something more meaningful. Amazon Smile is a great program, but one that a lot of people overlook. Black Cat Friday brings all these pieces together,” added Pitsinos.
