Cute cartoon character needed for a good cause ("Kawaii" Japanese style)

We are looking to work with a talented, passionate and compassionate artist to create a cute, engaging elephant character (i.e. campaign mascot) specifically in the Japanese kawaii style of cartoon, to appeal to Japanese audiences for an awareness campaign. (Campaign url: [login to view URL] - for more details and moodboard, please see the attached project brief) The work would involve working closely with our team on producing concepts for the character, and then submitting a final character. Specific deliverables can be decided upon in collaboration with project owner and artist but we would likely request in addition to the character design approximately 6-8 cartoons featuring the character. The concept and storyline for these would be creatively brainstormed with our team and the artist. This is a grassroots, non-profit campaign run by a small but very dedicated team of volunteers. We have come together to launch this initiative solely with the purpose of bringing more awareness to the plight of solitary captive elephants in Japan and elsewhere around the world. As a result our campaign has already received feature coverage in top media publications including The National Geographic, The Sunday Times and NPR (to name a few). Your work will have a high level of visibility across digital forums including our website and social media channels and will contribute to a greater cause. We will be happy to provide you reference for future work upon a satisfactory outcome with the project. Payment will be offered at $300-$400 US maximum, depending on final deliverable quantity and estimated time. Thank you!