Pawsitivity Service Dogs for Veterans

Pawsitivity's short-term goal is to provide trained service dogs with a 100% satisfaction rate. Pawsitivity is one of the few service dog organizations to have an independent, third-party Impact Evaluation completed. See "Additional Documents": https://www.guidestar.org/ViewEdoc.aspx?eDocId=1941843

Our long-term goal is to provide service dogs to families with no regard to ability to contribute to a fee. This goal has been attained, and as of mid-2019, Pawsitivity's service dogs are provided at no cost to the recipient.

Pawsitivity's programs and activities are threefold:

Service Dog Placement Program (primary program):
Adopt unwanted dogs and train them as service or therapy dogs for individuals with developmental, psychological, and/or physical disabilities.
What we are measuring:
- Number of service dogs trained and placed
- Number of families who report that service and support staff/providers are available and capable of meeting family needs
- Number of service dogs provided to veterans

Public Education Program (secondary program):
Raise public awareness through informational and educational activities regarding the purpose and function of service dogs, the benefits they provide to their handlers, the needs of people with disabilities that can be addressed with a service dog, and the rights and responsibilities of service dog partners under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The target group is local school children who have expressed an interest to their teachers about the work of service dogs.
What we are measuring:
- Number of briefings or presentations held

Family Dog Program (program is developed as needed):
Ensure that any Pawsitivity Dog candidate who is deemed unsuitable for service dog work, or that any returned or retired Pawsitivity Dog, is adopted to a good home. The families who adopt these dogs benefit from the training the dogs have already received, not only by way of emotional support, but also by adopting an adult dog that does not have major behavioral or health issues but didn't meet the very high level of standards a service dog requires.
What we are measuring:
- Number of dogs adopted to families as a Pawsitivity Family Dog.

Pawsitivity has four staff members with a combined total of over 20 years of service dog training.

Pawsitivity Service Dogs, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul, MN, spends 82.18% of gifts on programs, thus exceeding the Charities Review Council's top rating standard. Pawsitivity has an angel donor who covers the rest of the costs (so all public donations go directly to the programs).

Your donation is effective.
Pawsitivity has used a grant to hire an independent evaluator to create a third-party Impact Evaluation so you can know how your donations impact people in need (see "Additional Documents"). Pawsitivity is the only service dog organization to conduct an independent Impact Evaluation to prove that your donations are providing a high Return on Investment.

Your donation is tracked.
Pawsitivity has been business since 2012, receiving 501(c)(3) status in 2014. We keep our last three years of annual reports, financials, 990s, and CPA reviews available online. All Pawsitivity's annual reports include detailed financials such as SOP, SOA, and SFE. The following is a summary of the key elements of the 2019 report:

Your donation is wisely used.
While some financial experts think that the best metric to judge a nonprofit is their program spending percentage (and Pawsitivity scores an “A” rating in that department with 82.18%), other experts think that different financial metrics are more appropriate for this purpose. In the interest of transparency, here are other metrics that are alternately thought of as quality markers.

Pawsitivity has a 33.2% Operating Reserve, which is over three months of liquid unreserved net assets (LUNA). This high Primary Reserve Ratio confirms that the organization’s resources are flexible enough to support its mission.

Pawsitivity consistently keeps a remarkable 0% Debt Ratio (zero liabilities and no interest expenses), which contributes to a high Viability Ratio. In other words, the nonprofit’s finances have a great deal of resiliency.

We have expanded from training one dog at a time, to training two dogs (and evaluating a third) at all times. Since 2012, we have rescued and evaluated over 100 dogs, paired and trained 28 service dog/families, delivered 28 community visits and presentations, and completed over 300 hours in staff professional development training.

Last year, in 2021, Pawsitivity Service Dogs was able to accomplish these activities:
• 6 dogs rescued and evaluated
• 3 service dog/families paired and trained
• 28 families received ongoing support services
• 3 community visits and presentations delivered
• 40 hours in staff professional development trainings completed.