Mission
Pet Helpers’ is a 501(c)3 Adoption Center and Spay/Neuter Clinic that serves communities across the Lowcountry. Our mission is to end the euthanasia of all adoptable cats and dogs by keeping all animals until adopted; providing low cost spay/neuter surgeries; offering humane education programs; pursuing animal-cruelty prosecution; and initiating animal-welfare legislation.
Ruling year
1986
President
Carol Linville
Main address
1447 Folly Rd
Charleston, SC 29412 USA
EIN
57-0802283
NTEE code
Animal Protection and Welfare (includes Humane Societies and SPCAs) (D20)
Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution (D12)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Pet Helpers’ is a 501(c)3 Adoption Center and Spay/Neuter Clinic that serves communities across the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Our mission is to end the euthanasia of all adoptable cats and dogs by keeping all animals until adopted; providing low cost spay/neuter surgeries; offering humane education programs; pursuing animal-cruelty prosecution; and initiating animal-welfare legislation.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Low Cost Spay/Neuter & Vaccine Clinics
Low cost spay and neuter and vaccine clinics
Special Forces Foster Program
This imaginative foster care program organizes our volunteers into five categories. Volunteers select the program that they feel best suits their interests. The five areas are: 1) training and assistance with behavior management ,2) shelter respite, 3) recuperation from surgery of illness, 4) care for puppies and kittens that are too young for a shelter environment, and 5) hospice care to allow pets to complete their life cycles in safe, comfortable homes.
Unchain Charleston
This program is designed to improve the quality of life for dogs that spend their lives tethered outside to a stationary object. The first of its kind in the Lowcountry, the volunteer based program spreads awareness of the hazards of chaining animals and builds enclosures for animals that allow ample space for protection and exercise.
Trap/Neuter/Release and Community Cats
Pet Helpers has a core group of volunteers that have been trained to trap and transport community cats to our facility. With donations and grant funds we provide free spay and neuter surgeries to control cat populations which results in healthier cat populations.
Levi's Legacy
Levi's Legacy was established to help provide financial support for pet owners in the Lowcountry whose pets are facing serious illness or injury, and who cannot seek initial diagnostic veterinary treatment without assistance.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of animal adoptions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Our goal is to continue to increase the number of animal adoptions made through our shelter every year.
Number of sheltered animals
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Providing all cats and dogs of the Lowcountry, despite their medical needs, a safe and loving environment to stay until they are adopted by their family has been our primary focus.
Number of animals vaccinated
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Low Cost Spay/Neuter & Vaccine Clinics
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
By providing Lowcountry pet owners access to low cost vaccines, we are proudly making great strides toward a healthier pet population.
Average number of days of shelter stay for dogs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our ultimate goal is to help find loving homes for all of the dogs that pass through our doors while keeping the number of days that they are sheltered to a minimum.
Average number of days of shelter stay for cats and small animals
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
Our ultimate goal is to help find loving homes for all of the cats that pass through our doors while keeping the number of days that they are sheltered to a minimum.
Number of animals spayed and neutered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Low Cost Spay/Neuter & Vaccine Clinics
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
By providing Lowcountry pet owners access to low cost spay and neuter surgeries, we are proudly making great strides toward a controlled and sustainable pet population.
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?
Our mission is to end the euthanasia of all adoptable cats and dogs by keeping all animals safe and healthy until they are adopted by their family; providing low cost spay/neuter surgeries and vaccine clinic; offering humane education programs; community outreach and engagement; pursuing animal-cruelty prosecution; and initiating animal-welfare legislation.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
ADOPTIONS
Our adoption counselors work closely with our animal care staff to make sure that they know every one of our adoptable animals and take the time to understand the needs of the potential adopters as well. For us at Pet Helpers, it is all about “the match”. After all, our goal is to make sure that the adoption is to the “right” family who will provide a FOREVER home.
SPAY/NEUTER
Our mission is to provide high quality spay/neuter surgeries at an affordable price to all families in the Lowcountry. This is the most effective way to reduce the overpopulation of companion animals. Besides offering these services to the general population, we are also aggressively working to increase accessibility to areas of the Lowcountry with high rates of pet reproduction.
LOW COST VACCINE CLINIC
Our low cost vaccine clinic provides preventive care services such as heartworm testing, flea control, microchipping, and nail trims.
UNCHAIN CHARLESTON
Unchain Charleston is “breaking the chains and improving the lives of dogs in the Lowcountry. Fences give freedom!” Unchain Charleston is a concerted effort to spread awareness about the plight of chained dogs and to build fences for chained dogs in the Lowcountry. By providing an alternative to chaining, Unchain Charleston keeps dogs out of the shelter system and in their loving homes. Please send us an email with Name, Address, Phone Number, Breed and Age of Dog.
TRAP-NEUTER-RELEASE
The Lowcountry has a large population of feral, semi-feral, and free roaming cats. Both feral cat colonies and community cats can be managed in a nonlethal method of population control through TNR. These cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, and returned to their colony sites where in many cases, volunteer caregivers provide them food, water, and limited shelter. Please contact the shelter for assistance on our TNR program at 843-795-1110.
PET FOOD BANK
The food bank provides a monthly food supply for families in need. We welcome pet owners in need to use this resource to obtain food for your pet by visiting our Adoption Center at 1447 Folly Road. Please bring a photo ID and proof of spay/neuter at the time of your visit. Proof of government assistance is required. Please send an email with Name, Address, Phone Number, and Number of Cats/Dogs.
ReTAIL Resale Store
Animal Helpers ReTail Resale Store accepts donations of gently used furniture, appliances, decorative pieces, household items, and much more. Donations are tax-deductible. All proceeds from the sale of these items go to Pet Helpers to use to save animals in the Lowcountry
TRAINING
Pet Helpers is happy to bring on their very own professional dog trainer, Heather Szasz. Heather has over 9 years of professional dog training experience as well as being a life coach for a world wide company. Both of these professions combined together allow her to be very successful with working with Dog Owners and the behavior issues with their dogs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
At Pet Helpers, we are dedicated to our goals and address meeting our goals with:
A low cost spay/neuter clinic, a low cost vaccination clinic that encourages and assists the community with having healthy pets and prevents the overpopulation of animals.
A full time animal behavior specialist on staff to work with our animals that may need some additional training and enrichment.
Highly trained employees that are able to effectively match our shelter animals to their fur-ever homes.
Unchain Charleston program is a community outreach program that builds fences for freedom and keeps dogs off chains.
No cost pet food bank has provided countless pounds of pet food to families that are struggling financially.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
All shelters in the SC Lowcountry are now no-kill, Pet Helpers was at the forefront of this movement. Now our goal is to keep all adoptable pets out of shelters and healthy by offering; low cost vaccines, spays/neuters; an income based program that covers a portion of spay/neuter surgeries and vaccine costs in our clinic; a community food bank and a grant program that covers emergency medical care for their pets so that families don't have to bring their beloved pets to shelters.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Pet Helpers serves all animal owners in the LowCountry and provides much needed services such as low cost spay/neuter and vaccine's to help keep their pets healthy.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
SMS text surveys, Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Pet Helpers developed an income based program to assist economically disadvantaged families with the cost of spay/neuters and vaccinations. We also developed a much needed grant that provides grant funding for emergency veterinary care for families that need to provide unexpected emergency veterinary care to their pets.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
Our staff, Our board, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Our community feels empowered to share with us what their needs are and we feel so fortunate to be able to provide the resources that they need.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,
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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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
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PET HELPERS INC
Board of directorsas of 07/08/2022
Carol Linville
Pet Helpers
Term: 1978 -
Frederick Baker
Motley Rice
Henri Bianucci
Veterinary Surgical Care, LLC
Cari Auger
Amy Novek
McLeod Williamson
Nancy McGinley
Michelle McCarthy
Blackbaud, Inc.
James Beall
Joanna Hoiles
Elliott Davis
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? No -
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? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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