SERENITY FARM EQUESTRIAN CENTER
On Step At A Time
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Serenity Farm Equestrian Center is a seasonal nonprofit, offering services from April through November each year. The cost of using horses for our programs comes with the cost of feeding/caring for those horses all 12 months per year. Serenity Farm relies on volunteers to fill positions on the board level, programs, and fundraising efforts. Most volunteers work in the programs for an average of two years and then move on. However, we do enjoy those volunteers who have stayed dedicated to Serenity for over 10 years! Bringing on new volunteers each year as others move on results in training and administrative cost to the organization. Keeping up with fundraising efforts is truly a work of hard work and dedication accomplish all year long, every year to ensure our events/donors and results are equal to the needs of Serenity Farm.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Lucky Riders
Therapeutic riding and activities serving clients with physical, cognitive, learning delays, speech/hearing, low self-esteem, vision impairment, autism, cerebral palsy, building confidence, anger management, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder to name a few.
Team Thunder
Our team of miniature horses visits hospice clients, senior citizen locations and public events to bring forth many smiles and love. Specifically trained to enter into buildings, elevators and bedside visits, our team of mini horses has produced hours of motivation for students to learn, and many hours of bed side/wheel chair visits for therapy. 15 locations in 2015 to seniors, memory care, and hospice for a total of 1,400 community members served.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy services offered to ages 2 and up using Hippotherapy as a treatment tool on the farm. Our licensed OT serves patients all day long, all the while using a horse/pony as part of her appointment strategy to reach positive results.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association 2000
Center for Nonprofit Management Excellence Network 2011
External reviews
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Providing therapy to our community utilizing the highest safety standards, caring professional staff and volunteers, and excellent horses to set up the most successful goals available to each visitor to the farm. Adding an Occupational Therapy program for ages 2 and up at our farm will provide results for spring/summer/fall months each year to program 28 weeks of quality therapy services.
Increasing therapeutic riding to three days per week will allow more families the opportunity to work through varying challenges their children and family member may be experiencing.
Increasing volunteers to work in the Team Thunder program will allow our 4 mini therapy horses to visit inside more facilities. Presently we visit Northwest Ohio Hospice, 2 locations, Ronald McDonald House, 12 Senior Care facilities and several school settings.
Increasing fundraising and grant writing opportunities for the organization by using a carefully scheduled board approved budget as we yearly strive to improve our financial picture for complete sustainability with a stronger operating reserve.
Creating a volunteer campaign to be launched yearly as we strive to ensure the right number of volunteers for each program.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our success in strategies has come from extensive planning, continued professional staff members and examine the strength of current programs. Carefully reviewing the history of each program, along with community needs and phone request provides ongoing information to provide the programs for therapy that are most needed for the current business year. We enjoy the fact that our programs are sought after and clients enroll early to secure their spot in programming here at the farm.
Monthly board meetings are actively planned with full reporting and forward action plans.
Volunteers needed at Serenity! Using Facebook, Instagram, press releases and word of mouth, we strive to invite volunteers to join our teams of dedicated, passion-filled volunteers as we serve our community.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Our growth for programming has been steady throughout the past 18 years, allowing the organization to provide and add more options with requests on the farm.
Hard work, monthly attention to details and inviting visitors to the farm for a very warm experience to get involved is the best strategy for new volunteers, fundraising and new clients!
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our progress is measured by the percentage of clients per program or professional pieces of training for staff and volunteers.
We are blessed to have 100% attendance for volunteer and staff training!
Building our therapy programs to 100% will take more community awareness and marketing than we currently accomplish.
We have grown steadily over the past several years and are proud of the results.
As we grow, we must grow the budget and number of volunteers, still working on both of those!
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SERENITY FARM EQUESTRIAN CENTER
Board of directorsas of 04/15/2020
Emily Isbel
Serenity Farm Equestrian Center
Term: 2017 - 2022
Gonzalos Castillo
Serenity Farm Equestrian Center
Term: 2018 - 2021
Mindy E. Yap
Serenity Farm Equestrian Center
Joel E. Yeasting
Serenity Farm Equestrian Center
Linda Bombrys
Serenity Farm Equestrian Cente
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes