The Pet Fund
Someone's Best Friend Needs Your Help
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The costs of veterinary care for companion animals continue to climb. One of the primary driving forces behind this increase is the increase in cancer cases requiring expensive medical care. The Pet Fund has increased partnership with university teaching hospitals and with biotech firms to recruit for clinical trials for innovative cancer therapies to increase access to needed veterinary care for pet owners. In addition, we continue to grow our outreach to pet owners in terms of education and providing resources for financial assistance for medical care, including orthopedic surgery, medication, treatment for common diseases such as heart disease, and other veterinary expenses. Our goal is help increase access to care, while providing education about preventative care and resources for assistance.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
The Pet Fund Assistance with Veterinary Care
The Pet Fund provides grants for pet owners in need of assistance with veterinary bills. These grants enable pets to receive needed medical care and enable pet owners to keep their animals out of shelters.
Where we work
External reviews
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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?
The purpose of the Pet Fund is to work towards a future where decisions about companion animal medical care need never be made on the basis of cost.
Thousands of animals are sent to shelters and euthanized each year, many because of treatable medical conditions. While the law regards companion animals as property, The Pet Fund regards these animals instead as family members who do not qualify for human medical insurance. Pet insurance programs are available, but often even these programs cannot cover the total cost of necessary medical care. Free spay and neuter clinics as well as vaccination clinics are common, but these are largely the only free or low cost veterinary services available. The Pet Fund seeks to bridge this gap to make companion animal medical care available to all who need it.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Pet Fund works to provide grants for veterinary care for those who cannot afford it, but also functions as an education resource providing information about preventative care, financial resources, and veterinary assistance to pet owners nationwide. The goal of the organization is not just to provide grant assistance, but to help each pet owner become more skilled at preventative care and more informed about available resources. The goal in educating one pet owner at a time about these resources is to make pet owners' circumstances more sustainable, which will keep animals out of shelters and together with the people who need and love them. In addition, funding care for just 50 animals is the equivalent of emptying an average-size shelter, so even a fraction of the animals we assist remain out of shelters and saved from economic euthanasia.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Pet Fund is the largest national nonprofit that focuses on providing assistance with veterinary care. In addition, because The Pet Fund is focused on education and outreach as well as granting assistance, we are able to provide pet owners with information that will enable them to care for their animals long term. We are uniquely capable of providing this outreach because our focus is kept exclusively on funding and education. Unlike organizations that must divert both funding and attention to spay/neuter operations or rescue work, The Pet Fund is able to make significant progress towards our goal by focusing on our mission, which is keeping animals out of shelters in the first place. While rescue work and spay/neuter resources are critically important, these services by themselves do not in any way keep animals out of shelters or free from economic euthanasia. Our focus on education, preventative care, and developing resources for financial independence ensures that the grants our organization makes to pet owners are given to sustainable situations and not just temporary fixes. Our organization's long term experience with nonprofit development enables us to focus on these sustainable goals, rather than responding only to crises. The requirements for our volunteers include a much higher education and experience threshold for qualification than is normally expected for nonprofit volunteer opportunities, and our training is also more focused and more demanding. Consequently, the result of our long term management experience, focus on sustainable results, and volunteer excellence produce measurable results.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Pet Fund has made significant impact in a short period of time, but the problem of economic euthanasia for companion animals is still an ongoing issue. Our nonprofit has long been the primary source for media information about this issue, and The Pet Fund continues to be very proactive about bringing attention to this problem as both an economic and public health issue. In addition, our website is able to reach over 350,000 visitors yearly with education resources for preventative care, financial assistance resources, and veterinary care assistance links that help to ensure that out outreach and education efforts are furthered by our website. We also receive over 200 calls from pet owners daily asking for assistance, so our nonprofit works on an ongoing and intensive path towards providing education and assistance. However, additional resources for preventing economic euthanasia for companion animals still need to be increased, since the need for help is always greater than available funding. The level of assistance needed to provide help for every pet owner who qualifies for our fund will require much larger endowment funding, which is a goal towards which we work as well.
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.
The Pet Fund
Board of directorsas of 11/05/2022
Ms. Erin Havey
No Affiliation
Term: 2000 -
Jill MacCartney
No Affiliation
Dana Ness
No Affiliation
Karen Leslie
No Affiliation
Linda Wallace
No Affiliation
Erin Havey
No Affiliation
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
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/02/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.