2027 Fidelco Guide Dogs Calendar Photo Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Fidelco calendar contest is and who runs it

The 2027 Fidelco Guide Dogs Calendar Photo Contest is a charity photo vote run by the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, a Connecticut organization that breeds and trains guide dogs. Each year the foundation invites supporters to submit photos of Fidelco dogs and then vote for the ones they want to see in the foundation's printed calendar. The ballot runs on GoGo Photo Contest, the paid-entry photo contest service the foundation has chosen, at gogophotocontest.com/fidelco.

The contest sits in the pet vertical rather than the business-award world. Nobody is nominating a restaurant or a plumber here; the "contestants" are dogs connected to Fidelco's program. That shapes every rule on the ballot: photos must show a Fidelco dog, which the rules define as a puppy, a working or retired guide dog, a breed dog, or a career changed dog, and photos can only contain dogs, no people. The entry form also asks for a visual description of the photo.

For a supporter, the practical effect is simple. You browse the entries, pick the dog you love, and vote. Every vote costs $1, and the money flows to the foundation's guide dog work, so the contest doubles as a fundraiser. The table below pulls the confirmed facts into one place.

The dated record for this calendar contest

Two editions of the Fidelco calendar contest are confirmed: 2025 and 2026. The foundation has also titled its upcoming cycle the 2027 contest, which is why the program carries that year in its name, but the 2027 edition has not run yet. The recurrence is annual, and the July window is the pattern both confirmed editions fit.

The 2026 window is dated to the day. Voting began at 12:00 AM Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 1, 2026 and ended at 6:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday, July 31, 2026. Entry submissions ran on exactly the same dates, so this is a single combined entry-and-voting month rather than a nomination round followed by a separate vote. The contest page urges entrants to submit early, because a photo posted on July 1 has the whole month to collect votes.

One thing the ballot does not print is the category structure. Unlike a best-of survey that splits into dining, retail and services, this ballot is a flat field of dog photos, and Fidelco has not published a list of calendar categories or how many calendar spots are up for grabs; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Beyond the published no-limit vote structure, which is the one rule the page states plainly, no other per-supporter rule is printed either.

How a supporter votes on the Fidelco ballot today

Supporters cast a straightforward public vote with a price tag attached. You open the ballot at gogophotocontest.com/fidelco, view the entries, and select the Fidelco dog you want to back. Each vote costs $1, and the contest's own rules state there is no limit on how many times people can vote. That makes this ballot unusual among public votes: most community surveys cap or throttle repeat voting, while this one treats every extra vote as a donation.

Entering works the same way during the same window. A supporter who has a Fidelco dog, whether a puppy from the breeding program, a working or retired guide dog, a breed dog, or a career changed dog, submits the photo through the entry form. The rules are strict about content: dogs only, no people in the frame, and a visual description accompanies the submission. Once the photo is live, the entrant's job shifts from photographing to campaigning.

The page itself gives the timing advice: the vote opens at midnight Eastern on the first of July, so take advantage of early submissions to collect votes early. A photo that enters on day one and campaigns all month has a structural advantage over one that appears in the final week, because the $1 vote model rewards accumulated support rather than a single late surge.

How this ballot sits beside its Connecticut neighbours

Connecticut readers who search for local voting contests will find this page next to a family of best-of ballots, and the differences matter. The Best of Connecticut survey, Best of Hartford and Best of New Haven from the Hartford Courant, Best of the Gold Coast from Moffly Media, Best of West Hartford and CommunityVotes Bridgeport are all business surveys: readers nominate and vote for local companies across many categories.

The Fidelco contest answers to a single charity instead. Its ballot has one subject, dogs, one prize, the calendar, and one funding model, the $1 vote. A business owner cannot enter it; only photos of Fidelco dogs qualify. That makes the competitive field smaller and the campaign more personal: supporters rally around a specific animal rather than a storefront.

It also changes what outside help means. In a best-of survey, campaigns revolve around customers and category placement. Here, the published no-limit rule means a supporter's real advantage comes from repeat $1 votes and from how many people they can reach, which is why the outreach advice in the next section matters more than any ballot trick.

Building support for a Fidelco calendar entry

Because every vote costs $1 and repeats are unlimited, a campaign for a Fidelco dog is a fundraising-and-reach exercise. The organizer's own page sets the tone: submit early, collect votes early. An entrant who posts on July 1 and shares the link steadily through the month accumulates votes a late entrant cannot match.

On the subject of outside help, Fidelco's printed rules are permissive on volume: no limit on how many times people can vote. There is no printed statement about third party vote services, so anyone considering purchased support should read the award-votes overview and weigh it against the fact that direct $1 votes are already unlimited and tax-deductible in spirit, since the money funds the foundation.

The honest playbook is the one the format rewards: a strong dog photo, a clear visual description, early entry, and a supporter base asked to vote often. That is what wins a calendar spot on this ballot.