Courageous Connections
Healing, learning, and growing through experiences with horses.
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Mission
Our mission is to promote the physical and emotional development of people of all ages and unique abilities through safe, therapeutic outdoor activities. We exist to bring humans and horses together to empower participants with diverse challenges towards personal growth. Our focus is on designing classes and workshops that can benefit participants depending on their individual goals and objectives.
Ruling year
2017
Vice President
Barb Pardee
Main address
9114 131st Ave NE
Lake Stevens, WA 98258-8837 USA
EIN
82-1718242
NTEE code
Animal Related Activities N.E.C. (D99)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2023 and 2022.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Courageous Connections is a Therapeutic Horsemanship Program that provides classes to people with challenges such as Down's syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder, anxiety, and other challenges. The horses are our respected partners and the equine-assisted activities improve mental health, foster independence and self-confidence, and provide interactions between people with diverse challenges and those who are committed to helping them overcome those challenges. Many of our families also face financial challenges and we provide as much scholarship funding as we can afford in order to provide these classes at a reduced rate to anyone who might benefit, regardless of their ability to pay.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Equine Encounters
These classes involve a dynamic partnership between the participant, the horse, and an equine specialist. Equine Encounters is not a horsemanship class, but instead a safe place for the participant to experience personal growth and self-discovery. Equine Encounters provides a nontraditional and effective method to help process and overcome unwanted individual situations. The focus is on interaction with the horses and learning through observation. Generally it does not involve actual horseback riding.
Sensational Seniors
Our Sensational Seniors program has dual purposes: First, to provide seniors with an opportunity to interact with our unique young participants as volunteers. Today many young people are not able to enjoy the benefit of grandparents. We believe this cross-generational learning and perspective is hugely beneficial not only to those directly involved but also to those who are fortunate enough to observe. Second, to offer an opportunity for seniors to take part as a participant. Perhaps trying something completely new and gaining insight, confidence and energy through interaction with the horses and the great outdoors.
Where we work
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Snohomish (Washington, United States)
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Snohomish County (Washington, United States)
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Stanwood (Washington, United States)
Affiliations & memberships
PATH Certified Center 2019
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total Number of Workshop Participants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Cancer Lifeline, Continuum Hospice, Denny Juvenile Justice Center
Number of job skills training courses/workshops conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Horsemanship and Trauma Informed Care Training for staff and volunteers
Number of children with a disability supported to live at home
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of youth service participants who have involvement in juvenile justice system
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total number of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Total Number of Donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This includes both Individual Donors and Corporate Donors
Total number of volunteer hours contributed to the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our volunteers work in the classes as assistants as well as helping with administrative tasks such as social media, scheduling volunteers, and fundraisers.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We strongly encourage seniors to volunteers with our organiztion. Our volunteers range in age from 14-82 years.
Total Number of Participants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Equine Encounters
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Participants who attend at least one individual or group class
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?
Equine Therapy is a particularly compelling educational experience for developing life skills such as effective communication, developing the ability to focus on the task at hand, resilience in anxiety-provoking situations, appropriate boundary setting, and building healthy relationships. We would like to continue to grow our programs in order to offer these experiences to more individuals in our community.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We are partnering with other community organizations to help those in need. We are building a large ADA accessible garden with raised beds and will offer our produce to the Lake Stevens Food Bank. We have contracts with the Denny Juvenile Justice Center, Cancer Lifeline, and Bridge Receiving Home for Foster Children among others to provide services to their clients. We are actively recruiting new board members and leaders to ensure sustainability when the current leaders finish their terms. We are seeking grants to upgrade our volunteer tracking and other administrative tasks to improve efficiency as we grow. We will continue to expand our volunteer base to provide the help we need with programs and animal care, but also to offer seniors a role in helping make our local community stronger by reaching out to those who need our services.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
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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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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 share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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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, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently
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
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- 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
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Courageous Connections
Board of directorsas of 4/16/2025
Sue Eulau
Courageous Connections
Term: 2025 - 2027
Julia Wilson-Legace
Courageous Connections
Kathy Sanders
Courageous Connections
Lisa Hillis
Courageous Connections
Marguerite Flanagan
Courageous Connections
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 ? Not applicable -
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? Not applicable
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:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
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