A little while ago, we wrote about sponsoring a chimp over at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. His name is Burrito, and he was previously being used to experiment with vaccines.

We just got word that Burrito is now safe and sound in the sanctuary (hooray!).

He actually sounds a lot like MailChimp. Here’s an update from the sanctuary:

“Burrito is doing great! He’s a very goofy guy and I’m learning that he likes just about any food. We made guacamole wraps for the chimpanzees the other night and Burrito was the only one who was really into them.”

This is the sort of news that’s perfect for non-profit email marketing. Quick, simple updates of whatever cause you’re supporting just make you feel good.

Do constituents really need big long email newsletters detailing every little thing your organization is doing? Maybe once a quarter. Maybe the week before you ask them for donations. But sending quick, regular emails with photos of what you’re helping with is gold. Grab a digital camera, and snap some photos of dogs, girls, or rainforest trees that remind subscribers, “this is why you’re helping.”

We’ve inducted a new member into our MailChimp family. We’re sponsoring a little chimpanzee named “Burritto.” He and his friends were used for hepatitis B vaccine testing, and soon they will all be moved to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest to live a much happier life.

If you’re a chimp fanatic like we are, you can sponsor a chimp too.

Otherwise, you might want to just check out these really cool t-shirts in their store. We bought one for everybody here in the office. I’ve seen similar “98% chimp” t-shirts before, but much prefer 98.76%. It’s nerdier, and has 0.76% more chimp. And as we all know, “more chimp is always better.” If you have no idea what any of the 98% stuff means, here’s an explanation.

An anonymous user sent me this article about a “Big Brother” style contest in China, where participants have to live with monkeys for 6 days to win about $1500. I’d actually watch that.

This looks promising:

“Any Chinese from 18 to 60 years old, in good psychological condition with wild animal protection and survival knowledge may participate.”

It’s really nice when a MailChimp customer stops by with free gifts. Especially when that free gift is a radio-controlled, animatronic robo-chimpanzee head with advanced artificial intelligence (that means it screams at you when you walk past it). If you call up tech support, and you hear screaming in the background, that’s the chimp-head. Here’s more information, in case you want one too. Thanks to Jared from IceDesignGroup!

We recently celebrated MailChimp’s 5th birthday, and the launch of our new agency time-tracking product, PunchyTime. The folks at Blade Creative Branding sent us this nice birthday e-card with chimps, kangaroos, beer, and boxing gloves. I like how one of the chimps is blinking, too. Thanks guys! You’re the first, so look for a kooky monkey-related gift in the mail real soon.