GOLDEN, Colo. (KDVR) — The late Betty White’s advocacy and love for animals helped raise more than $123,000 for animal shelters and organizations on Monday — the day White would have turned 100 years old.
Joan Thielen, marketing and community engagement manager for Foothills Animal Shelter, told FOX31 that yesterday was the biggest individual day of giving outside of Colorado Gives Day. The shelter received more than $29,000.
At the Denver Dumb Friends League, donations totaling over $24,000 poured in online and through the mail in memory of Betty White.
In Colorado Springs, people donated over $28,000 on Facebook and online (and the total doesn’t even include walk-in donations) to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region.
Other Colorado donation sites that received money from the Betty White Challenge:
- Humane Society of Fremont County: $4,480.50
- Angels with Paws: $5,000
- Mile High Canine Rescue: $3,596
- National Mill Dog Rescue: $14,193
- Intermountain Humane Society: $7,000
- Mile High Canine Rescue: $3,596
- Angels with Paws: $5,000
The wave of generosity was sparked by the #BettyWhiteChallenge, a social media drive to get people to donate to animal welfare charities and shelters in honor of White, who passed away on Dec. 31.
“I’ve had many conversations with Betty about animal welfare, and I know she’s looking down from heaven and really smiling,” Robin Ganzert, who leads American Humane, an animal welfare organization that White was involved with for more than 60 years, told the Associated Press.
“She’ll be smiling on her birthday,” she said. “And she’ll be smiling about the lives she’s changed.”
It isn’t exactly clear who started the #BettyWhiteChallenge on social media shortly after White’s death. However it began, the idea — to donate $5 to a local animal rescue organization in White’s name on her birthday — quickly took off and drew support from celebrities like actors Mark Hamill and George Takei on Twitter.
Traffic to American Humane’s website spiked after White’s passing. Ganzert said donations, too, have increased. The nonprofit is waiting to reveal by how much until more gifts flood in, including sizable donations it’s expecting from some donors.
During the decades in which White was involved with the organization, she made fundraising appeals and served on its board and as a presenter and judge on its televised show featuring “hero” dogs. During tapings of “The Pet Set” in the early 1970s, Ganzert said, White would have American Humane representatives on set to ensure that animals were safe. In 2012, the nonprofit honored her with its highest award, the National Humanitarian Medal.
Ganzert would also give White a photo book each year of the animals the organization helped.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.