Canine Companions
Partnerships · Art Direction
Overview
Canine Companions is all about connection. Every effort across its army of volunteers, dogs, staff and donors goes into a partnership with a person with disabilities or a social worker. The not-for-profit is one of the most recognized leaders in its industry, able to provide service dogs to the public, at no cost to clients. Since 1975, Canine Companions has improved and changed the lives of children, adults and veterans with a disability.
When my brother, Devin received his first service dog in 2005, my life changed. I later formed a charitable and strategic partnership to promote Canine Companions, educating families and young readers across media and philanthropy with Laura Numeroff (author of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”), Barnes & Noble, Scholastic and educators nationwide.
Big Moves: A Short Film
Watch the promotional film I directed with Laura Numeroff and friends at Canine Companions’ campus.
Strategy
By 2013, Canine Companions launched its national signature event, DogFest, to generate revenue across the U.S., and Sesame Street introduced a new service dog Muppet, based on a Canine Companions dog.
In 2014, with more than 4,000 dogs placed with clients to-date, including Canine Companions’ first service dogs for veterans with PTSD, I started working with Laura Numeroff, the New York Times best-selling children’s author known for the series based on her 1985 book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Laura’s tenured ranking among top authors throughout the 1990s and 2000s continued with an available catalog of over 40 titles. Her best-selling “If You Give” series expanded across books and merchandise, and later adapted as an animated Amazon Prime episodic series.
In spite of all this success, Laura was very much disconnected from her once younger readers who were now having their own families. I saw an opportunity to connect Laura’s affinity for animals, children and philanthropy to a cause I knew personally. It was soon after I had organized an event at a children’s hospital with Laura, my brother Devin and his service dog, Ellie, that Laura shared with me a manuscript she had abandoned years before about service animals helping children in need. “The publishers didn’t know how to market it,” she explained.
Long story short, Laura and I revisited the manuscript, pivoting to a fictional narrative between a young boy learning to care for a puppy-in-training who might eventually help someone with a disability. “Raising a Hero” was produced by my company, Cleverkick, facilitating all aspects of production, sales, marketing and licensing across our direct-to-consumer and direct-to-retailer endeavor. Working with our design and print partners in South Korea and the U.S., I led creative and delivered the highest-quality consumer product of it’s kind on the market.
Rather than forgo revenue paid to a distributor, we crowdfunded our first edition to expand our initial run quantity which helped us build a community prior to a public “market title” release. This was crucial for retailer buy-in.
Impact
Our unique strategy worked. It allowed for more opportunities to reach new and existing audiences and drove sales through special events, promotional campaigns and outreach with our partners and retailers. As a result, Cleverkick donates a percentage of every sale to Canine Companions, and has donated hundreds of copies to its campuses to generate additional revenue.
Released in 2016, “Raising a Hero” became a bestseller and educational tool for educators, parents, puppy raisers and volunteers. The hardcover was distributed across national retailers including Barnes & Noble and Amazon sparking a national 20-city book tour. I accompanied Laura to book signings and charitable events in-store and across schools and libraries between 2017-2018. Each stop of the way, we were joined by a team of local Canine Companions graduate teams, puppy raisers and volunteers. A second hardcover edition was released in 2020 with a digital edition available for educators. In 2023, Scholastic purchased the licensing rights to produce a paperback edition for its book clubs and fairs nationwide.
It’s never lost on me how fortunate I am to have played a small part in this larger story.
Background
Devin lived life with cerebral palsy which severely limited his motor skills – he’d never had the ability to walk or speak. After being selected and completing a required two week training program at Canine Companions’ campus in California, Devin and his new canine partner, Ellie, came home. Ellie’s story involved many humans by the time she turned 3 years old. The partnership with my brother was the culmination of a team of volunteer and donor efforts – a shared mission often unseen and unrecognized to provide exceptional service dogs to children, adults and veterans with disabilities. Ellie passed away after a decade of service with Devin. And in 2015, Devin was partnered with a new companion, Kingston.
My best memories of Devin include Ellie and Kingston – they went everywhere with him. They were trained to know how to navigate the lights, doors, elevators, powered wheelchairs, a crowded subway station, even an airplane. As someone who was responsible for Devin and his companion when taking on one of these challenges, I was intrigued by how a dog could respond to specific needs of someone for whom I was still solving for. The design of this four-legged animal goes beyond the utility of navigation or retrieval to support someone in need. I witnessed the impact these partnerships had on Devin’s sociability with others, especially children. With Ellie and Kingston bridging us together, Devin was approachable, exciting and familiar. It was simple moments – meeting strangers on the street, playing in the park or waiting in a hospital room – when the magic happened and everyone was connected, even without words.
