ASPCA--meet your match: going online to help donors connect pets and pals.

Just as Web sites began promising singles the perfect love match, one private nonprofit animal shelter in Kansas made a similar pledge--to find adopters their perfect pet match.

Four years later, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (ASPCA) Meet Your Match Canine-ality Adoption Program is being utilized by at least 65 nonprofit and for-profit animal shelters and ASPCAs across the country (those that reported back).Adoption rates of adult dogs--a notoriously difficult group to adopt out--are collectively up. Adoption return rates are down; and two more initiatives, one for puppies and a second for felines, are on the way.

"We developed (the Canine-ality) program because there was a need for finding a better way to communicate with the adopter, to assess the animal, and make a better match," said Emily Weiss, Ph.D., CAAB, the program's founder and senior director of shelter behavior programs for the ASPCA. In 2000, then a consultant to the ASPCA, Weiss developed the program and performed a test run at the Kansas Humane Society, the state's largest private nonprofit animal shelter that In 2005 took in nearly 15,000 animals.

"Within a few months, our adoption return rate (for adult dogs) decreased significantly," said Jennifer Campbell, the humane society's director of communications. The shelter went from running at an adult dog adoption return rate of 15 percent to 20 percent to its current 7 to 9 percent, she said. "And that's a huge drop, and that's because we're getting the right dogs matched with the right people."

According to Weiss, some of the language in the program has been changed in order for it to work across shelters, "but it has really remained the same." The ASPCA now holds regional Meet Your Match training sessions throughout the year, and offers a how-to guide on its Web site (www.aspca.org), both of which are free to shelters, courtesy of program sponsor Iams Company. The charity is currently wrapping up a how-to video that it plans to distribute via the organization's Web site, with all proceeds going toward the making of the video and other program costs.

While the New York City-based ASPCA is not using this program as a fundraising initiative--"The idea of this program is part of our national outreach program," said Weiss--many facilities across the country are Incorporating the program into their fundraisers.

"There's lots of facilities that have 'Meet Your Match Singles Night.' We've heard of dog walks. So organizations are definitely finding fun ways to build this program into their fundraising," said Weiss. Another pet food company, Pedigree, recently sponsored its first-ever "For the Love of Dogs" adoption event in New York City, hosted by actress Minnie Driver. The free event was part of Pedigree's annual Adoption Drive, and had the dual mission of finding good homes for shelter dogs and raising $1 million to support the nation's animal shelters and breed rescues, according to a press release.

"In shelters, so many animals are adopted into homes because, 'Oh, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen,' or, 'I had one of those kind when I was a kid!' But, in reality, those are two really loose criteria to use to put something into your life that's going to be there for 10 to 15 years," said Campbell. "With this tool, we can look at that quiet dog sitting in the kennel and know that the minute he gets out and is in a home environment, he's going to run 90 miles-an-hour and want to play ball all day. And so we can tell the adopter that with confidence, so they know what to expect."

An offshoot of the program, added Campbell, is the effect it's had on the way donors view the nonprofit animal shelter. "It helps us adopt the adult dogs out. And of course, it helps with our bottom line, too. We get more animals through the shelter. We get more animals adopted, and we get more revenue because of it," she said. "It has helped donors not only understand the animal that they may be adopting, but also to see us in a more proactive light."

According to Weiss, the ASPCA Meet Your Match Puppy-ality program will soon be available to shelters nationwide, followed by an unprecedented Feline-ality program.