Rescue Brew - a collaboration between NoDa Brewing Company and the Humane Society of Charlotte: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Rescue Brew and who runs it?

The Humane Society of Charlotte, an animal welfare organization based at 1348 Parker Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina, runs Rescue Brew jointly with NoDa Brewing Company, the Charlotte brewery whose name sits inside the program's own title. The ballot frames the whole thing as a collaboration between the two, and it operates as a fundraiser with the shelter as the named beneficiary.

Where the ballot lives

Voting happens on GoGo Photo Contest, a photo-ballot service, at the address gogophotocontest.com/hscrescuebrew-2021. Its navigation splits into seven destinations: two entry-side tabs named Participate and View Entries, a pair of rule tabs labelled Contest Rules and Rules, a Prizes section holding the reward structure, an About the Artist credit and a Sign In link. That artist credit names Robert Wildermuth, and the footer carries a Copyright line naming GGPC, LLC with the year 2026.

On this site the program files under the food and drink vertical, a nod to the brewing half of the pairing, yet what a supporter actually votes on is photography of pets. A beer brand, a shelter and a dog-and-cat photo ballot make an unusual trio, and that trio is what keeps Rescue Brew apart from every conventional best-of list in North Carolina.

Which Rescue Brew editions are settled, and what dates govern the ballot?

Three editions are pinned down for this program: 2021, 2025 and 2026. The 2021 ballot is the address still serving visitors, and GoGo Photo Contest has kept that same hscrescuebrew-2021 path alive across later cycles instead of minting a fresh web address every summer.

The organizer's own pet-palooza page supplies the connective tissue between those years. In its words, "Rescue Brew is HSC's annual collaboration with NoDa Brewing Co. here in Charlotte, and 2026 will mark the sixth consecutive year of this popular campaign."

The calendar in plain terms

The live calendar is unusually explicit for a charity photo ballot. Nominations open July 1 and end July 25. Voting ends July 31 at 9 pm EST, and the ballot conducts its business on Eastern Time. The current posting also carries a "Contest has ended" notice, meaning the cycle visible at the address has wrapped and the next one replaces it in place.

Several things a careful supporter would want remain off the surface. The published text omits the day the voting phase starts, prints no roster of categories, says nothing about how frequently one person may cast a vote and carries no eligibility line; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter cast a vote in the Rescue Brew photo ballot?

Mechanically the ballot splits into two stretches. During the nomination stretch, which opens the campaign, a supporter submits a photo of their pet with a line on why that dog or cat is the "paw-fect face of Rescue Brew," the phrasing the ballot itself uses. After nominations close, attention shifts to View Entries, where the accumulated dog and cat photos sit waiting for public votes.

A Sign In tab sits in the navigation, but the published text never says an account is mandatory for casting a vote, so the practical move is simply to open the page and follow whatever prompt the ballot puts in front of you. Repeat-vote handling, if any exists, is governed by the Contest Rules and Rules tabs rather than by anything summarized on the surface.

Two housekeeping points close the loop. Because the ballot runs on Eastern Time, a supporter well west of Charlotte should convert the closing hour before planning a final-evening push. And the Prizes tab holds whatever reward structure the shelter attached to the campaign, which matters to anyone weighing how much energy an entry deserves.

How does Rescue Brew sit beside Charlotte's other public ballots?

The neighboring North Carolina programs on this site's map lean toward publisher-run recognition polling. They include a statewide best-of list, the Bob Awards printed by Charlotte Magazine, a Daily Reflector survey covering Pitt County, a community-choice ballot out of Fayetteville, the Diamond Awards and a fans' choice soccer honor that 910Preps hands to boys' high school players. Each of those is aimed at businesses, institutions or student athletes, and the Bob Awards from Charlotte Magazine is the closest neighbor by geography.

Rescue Brew departs from that template in four ways at once. Its subject is not a business category but individual dogs and cats. Its promoter is a shelter rather than a media outlet. Its platform is GoGo Photo Contest rather than a newspaper's poll tool. And its payoff is charitable, since the campaign raises money and visibility for the Humane Society of Charlotte instead of crowning a local merchant.

That difference changes the calculus for anyone in Charlotte deciding where their click goes. Voting here is a low-stakes act of animal-welfare enthusiasm, not a civic duty toward a favorite restaurant or plumber, and the emotional pull of a pet's photograph tends to travel further on social channels than a business endorsement does.

What lifts a Rescue Brew entry above the rest?

The ballot hands every entrant a storytelling hook: say why your dog or cat is the "paw-fect face of Rescue Brew." Lead with that story rather than a bare plea, because a photograph paired with a genuine reason gives supporters something worth passing along while the nomination stretch runs from July 1 to July 25.

Timing matters just as much. Votes shut at 9 pm EST on July 31, so spread reminders across the whole stretch instead of compressing them into the final evening. Our guide to getting more votes online collects tactics suited to a pet-photo ballot of this shape, and the award-vote service overview explains what purchased support involves for anyone considering it. Whichever route you pick, the Contest Rules tab remains the final word on what the Humane Society of Charlotte permits.