Kia America announced that 22,422 shelter animals nationwide have been placed in their forever homes thanks to the brand’s year-long partnership with The Petfinder Foundation. Launched in February 2022 as part of Kia’s Super Bowl ad starring “Robo Dog,” Kia’s $500,000 donation helped cover adoption costs.
“Kia is dedicated to giving back and helping more than 22,000 shelter animals find new homes is proof that initiatives like this work and improve local communities, in this instance by easing the burden of overcrowding on local animal shelters nationwide,” said Russell Wager, vice president, marketing, Kia America.
In a first for the brand, Kia also developed a series of NFTs based on “Robo Dog”, the robot puppy and star of Kia’s Super Bowl spot for the all-electric Kia EV6. In addition to making 10,000 NFTs available for free, the brand also released an additional 10,000 generative NFTs. These unique designs were available for purchase with 90-percent of all primary sales proceeds benefiting The Petfinder Foundation to help animals in need find their forever homes. In addition, a 10-percent royalty was written into the smart contract on the blockchain, so whenever a Robo Dog NFT across the series was resold on a participating secondary market, The Petfinder Foundation once again benefitted. Sales of Kia’s NFTs amounted to an additional $100,000 donation for The Petfinder Foundation.
“We are so honored to partner with Kia America. Their generous donation helped countless animals find loving and forever homes in 2022,” said Toni Morgan, Executive Director, The Petfinder Foundation.
Kia’s Accelerate The Good charitable initiative has donated more than $14 million to various causes since 2019. Most recently, Kia announced a minimum donation of $1 million1 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, marking the third act of giving to St. Jude’s this year. Previous donations to the organization were announced as part of the 10 millionth Kia vehicle sold in the U.S., and again as part of the groundbreaking announcement for a new assembly plant in the state of Georgia.
