5th Annual Calendar of Cute Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Calendar of Cute Contest is and who runs it

The 5th Annual Calendar of Cute Contest is a photo contest and fundraiser run by Intermountain Humane Society, a Colorado animal shelter, to help the animals at the shelter. The ballot's own description calls it "A photo contest and fundraiser to help the animals at Intermountain Humane", with only the cutest entries making it onto the shelter's prestigious printed calendar. Pet owners enter photos of their animals, and the wider public decides which of those pets appear in the shelter's calendar.

GoGo Photo Contest, the platform behind fundraiser photo ballots for shelters and nonprofits, hosts the Calendar of Cute ballot at gogophotocontest.com/intermountainhumane. That address is the live ballot for the Calendar of Cute, and it carries the navigation a supporter needs: Participate, View Entries, Contest Rules, Prizes, Rules and About Us, plus a Sign In link for supporters who hold accounts.

Within Colorado's public-vote ballot scene, this program belongs to the best-of family, the same group of public-vote programs as the state's readers choice contests, but with a shelter fundraiser rather than a business ranking at its center. The quick facts are below.

The dated record for the Calendar of Cute ballot

Confirmed editions of the Calendar of Cute ran in 2024 and 2026, which is what qualifies the program as an annual fixture on Intermountain Humane Society's calendar. The 2024 edition is the one with a fully dated window: voting ran through October and the contest closed at 9:00 PM Mountain Time on Sunday, October 6, 2024. A read of the ballot page taken in September 2026 showed the line "Contest has ended" against that year's edition, so the 2026 run had already concluded by late September.

The prize structure ties each edition to the following year's printed calendar. The pet with the greatest number of votes at the end of the contest is the 1st Place Winner and receives the coveted cover spot on the shelter's printed Calendar of Cute, in the wording the ballot itself uses.

Several details are not published ahead of each edition. Intermountain Humane Society prints no category list on the Calendar of Cute ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The Contest Rules link exists in the ballot navigation, but the per-supporter voting rule and any eligibility terms are stated on that rules page rather than announced in advance. The same is true of round dates: the shelter does not publish the next edition's opening day until that ballot goes live, so the October pattern from 2024 is the guide, not a promise.

How a supporter votes on the Calendar of Cute ballot today

Voting here is a straightforward public vote on a photo ballot. A supporter opens gogophotocontest.com/intermountainhumane, uses the View Entries link to browse the pets entered in the current Calendar of Cute edition, and casts a vote for the entry they want to see on the calendar cover. The ballot urges entrants to spread the word among friends and family so people vote for their fur-baby, which makes clear that the shelter expects and encourages each entry's own circle to drive the vote total.

The ballot navigation also carries a Sign In link, which means the platform supports supporter accounts. Whether the current edition requires a sign-in before a vote is counted, or accepts votes from unidentified visitors, is printed on the live page for that edition. The Contest Rules link in the same navigation is where the shelter states any per-supporter voting rule for the edition in question.

Timing matters on this ballot: the window is brief and the close is sharp. The 2024 edition ended at 9:00 PM Mountain Time on Sunday, October 6, and the ballot page carries a countdown or closing line for whichever edition is live. A vote cast after that moment counts toward nothing, so supporters backing a particular fur-baby should check the closing time printed on the ballot before they plan their visits during the October run.

How the Calendar of Cute sits beside its Colorado neighbours

Colorado's public-vote ballot scene is crowded, and the Calendar of Cute is the pet-shaped corner of it. The state's readers choice programs answer to publishers: Top of the Town is 5280's long-running city awards ballot, Best of Denver belongs to Westword, Best of NOCO covers the northern communities through NOCO Style, Best of the Springs runs through the Gazette, Best of Summit County serves the mountain resort corridor, and Best of the Boat covers Steamboat. Each of those ballots ranks businesses across many categories, and each answers to its own publisher's rules and window.

The Calendar of Cute differs in three ways. Its subject is animals, not businesses, so the entries are pets rather than shops and restaurants. Its organizer is a single shelter, Intermountain Humane Society, rather than a media company, and the money it raises goes back to the animals at the shelter. And its ballot is narrow: a supporter is choosing the cutest pet for a calendar cover, not working through a roster of categories.

For a supporter, that difference matters when comparing advice. Tactics written for a city readers choice ballot, where a business rallies customers for weeks, transfer only partly to a shelter photo contest, where the vote is driven by each pet's own friends and family circle. The sibling pages above cover the business ballots on their own terms.

Strengthening support for your fur-baby's entry

The shelter's own instruction is the starting point: spread the word among friends and family so people vote for your fur-baby. On a photo ballot like the Calendar of Cute, that means sharing your pet's entry link directly, because a supporter who lands on the entry page is a vote away from helping, while a supporter who has to search for the ballot may not get there at all. Send the link, post it where your circle already looks, and remind people before the closing time printed on the ballot.

Because the 2024 close came at 9:00 PM Mountain Time on a Sunday, the last hours of an October window are when reminders earn their keep. The shelter publishes its Contest Rules on the ballot, and reading them before rallying a crowd keeps every vote inside what the edition allows.

For tactics that go beyond your own circle, our guide to getting more votes online walks through methods that suit public-vote photo contests, and the award votes page explains the purchasing side for ballots in this format.