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2024 Annual Report

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Pawsitive Perspectives

Assistance Dogs (PawPADs)

2024 Annual Report

This report showcases the impact of Pawsitive Perspectives Assistance Dogs in 2024, highlighting our mission to provide life-changing partnerships.

2024 ANNUAL REPORT

A Note from Linda Ball, PawPADs' Founder and Executive Director

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Thanks donors and supporters!

Dear Friends and Supporters,


As we celebrate the end of another year, our 18th , at Pawsitive Perspectives Assistance Dogs (PawPADs), I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the impact we’ve made together. For almost two decades we have empowered lives, fostered independence, and created lasting change through the human-canine bond. Thanks to your unwavering support, we continue to grow, innovate, and transform lives on both ends of the leashes.


At PawPADs, we train, we place, and we inspire. Our dogs provide life-changing assistance to individuals with physical disabilities, Type 1 diabetes and facilities such as schools and assisted living organizations. Every placement represents newfound independence and confidence.


This is not only a time to honor the dedication and hard work of our service dogs but also to recognize the incredible efforts of the trainers, volunteers, and supporters who make our mission possible. Whether you’ve helped train or care for the dogs, contributed financially, or shared our work with others, you are an essential part of the PawPADs family, and we are grateful for that continued support. As we continue to grow, our needs also continue to grow. Please consider joining the PawPADs’ team through one of the following opportunities:


Join our Board of Directors: We’re actively recruiting passionate individuals to join our

Board of Directors and committees to help drive our mission forward.


Volunteer: If you prefer hands-on work, becoming a K9 Kare Team or Puppy Raiser

volunteer is a powerful way to make a direct impact.


Support: Most critically, we rely on individual donors to keep our work moving

forward—each service dog requires an investment of $35,000 to train and place. Your

support fuels transformation.


Together, we are creating independence, building connections, and changing lives—one dog,

one person, and one act of generosity at a time. Thank you for being part of this journey!

Beyond placing dogs, we engage, educate, and heal by incorporating program participants into the training process. This unique experience builds life skills, resilience, and hope—for both humans and dogs alike.


With gratitude,


Linda

Linda Ball

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Our Mission

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Facilitating the power of the human-canine bond, and enhancing the lives of others, through the process of training assistance dogs and the outcome of placing them with people with disabilities.

Who We Serve

PawPADs dual-trains dogs for placement with people with physical/mobility challenges,Type-1 Diabetes or as Facility Dogs in schools, assisted living centers, the criminal justice field and health care facilities.

  • Applicants for placement and participants in our programs are considered without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, incomes, marital statuses.

  • PawPADs prioritizes placement with combat wounded veterans and often provides partial or full scholarships towards the client placement fee.

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  • Program Participants: PawPADs utilizes the training of the dogs in several different types of programs, such as The Assistance Dogs Education Program and Training (ADEPT) internship. ADEPT offers an experiential educational opportunity that allows participants such as college students or inmates to develop life skills through learning to train service dogs. This expands our training capacity while meeting our mission to "utilize the power of the human-canine bond as a therapeutic, educational, healing tool."

We place our dogs with those living within 200 miles of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.

Pawsitive Leadership

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Angie Diehl

Board President and Constituent

Abby Peterson

Board Treasurer

Linda Ball

Board Secretary

Audrey Bergstrom

Director

Board of Directors

As volunteers on PawPADs’ Board, we oversee finances and programs, drive fundraising, and provide governance. We advocate for the benefits of assistance dogs and raise awareness about our mission within the community.

4

Linda Ball

Founder and Executive Director

Randy Patrick

Director of Operations

Maddie Jensen

Program Manager

Key Employees

No matter how independent your job may be, you never truly work alone. And your individual commitment is only one part of the equation. Everyone’s work facilitates or disrupts a team’s ability to reach their goals and objectives.”

– Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Program Updates

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The PawPADs dogs are the core of any and all programs as they journey towards placement – many participate in multiple programs -- which makes financial breakdowns by specific programs difficult.

 

 

Training Program:  PawPADs’ dogs go through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training before they are placed between 2 ½ and 3 years of age. This includes basic skills, advanced task skills and public access.

 

Placement Program:  After an extensive and careful matching process, clients and dogs attend a 2-week Partner Training Camp (PTC) which helps to get the partnerships started off strongly.  Follow-up is provided for the life of the partnership.

 

Facility Dog/School Resource Dog Program: PawPADs’ Facility Dogs are fully trained as service dogs before they begin their careers working in schools, health care facilities, the legal justice system or assisted living centers.  PawPADs also facilitates annual School Resource Dog workshops with the Lakeville School District.

 

Assistance Dog Education Program and Training (ADEPT):  After a very successful 6+ years operating ADEPT at UW-River Falls, PawPADs made the difficult decision to discontinue the program due to the cost and distance.  We are excited to expand the ADEPT programs to new participants in 2025!

The PawPADs dogs are the core of any and all programs as they journey towards placement – many participate in multiple programs -- which makes financial breakdowns by specific programs difficult.

 

 

Training Program:  PawPADs’ dogs go through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training before they are placed between 2 ½ and 3 years of age. This includes basic skills, advanced task skills and public access.

 

Placement Program:  After an extensive and careful matching process, clients and dogs attend a 2-week Partner Training Camp (PTC) which helps to get the partnerships started off strongly.  Follow-up is provided for the life of the partnership.

 

Facility Dog/School Resource Dog Program: PawPADs’ Facility Dogs are fully trained as service dogs before they begin their careers working in schools, health care facilities, the legal justice system or assisted living centers.  PawPADs also facilitates annual School Resource Dog workshops with the Lakeville School District.

 

Assistance Dog Education Program and Training (ADEPT):  After a very successful 6+ years operating ADEPT at UW-River Falls, PawPADs made the difficult decision to discontinue the program due to the cost and distance.  We are excited to expand the ADEPT programs to new participants in 2025!

Created with Highcharts 11.4.8Contributions, Grants, and Gifts (90.83%)Fees for Service (8.62%)Events and other (0.56%)
Created with Highcharts 11.4.8$261,055$22,839$3,087Programs (90.97%)Administration (7.96%)Fundraising (1.08%)
Created with Highcharts 11.4.8Three Year AverageProgram Expenses (82.66%)Management Expenses (16%)Fundraising Expenses (1.35%)

According to the Charities Review Council, "nonprofits should strive to efficiently and effectively use funds to achieve its mission, balancing the needs to expend the majority of its funds on current programs with the need to invest in the infrastructure and administrative capacity necessary to carry out its mission over the long-term.

At least 65% of the organization’s 3-year average annual expenses are used to directly support programming.

The ideal range, averaged over three years, is approximately from 70-90%. If less than 70% of the organization's expenses are used to directly support programming, donors may question whether the organization's funds are being used efficiently and effectively. If greater than 90% of the organization's expenses are used to directly support programming, donors may question whether the organization is starving its infrastructure (i.e. not spending enough on administrative costs)."

Key Definitions


· Fundraising Expenses: $4,032(1%)

Costs incurred in soliciting contributions, gifts, grants, etc.



· Management & General Expenses: $47,873 (16%)

Costs for overall function and management of the organization.



· Program Expenses: $247,355 (83%)

Costs related to providing organization’s programs or services in accordance with its defined mission.

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Financial Health

Best practices established by the Charities Review Council is that "healthy nonprofits maintain a diverse revenue stream, ensuring they don't rely too heavily on any opportunities, but the organization's leadership should monitor this revenue breakdown and establish a base of funding that is reliable, flexible, and varied."

You can see PawPADs did a good job of balancing our income in 2024.

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PHONE

+001 612-643-5671

EMAIL

info@pawpads.org

ADDRESS

Lakeville, MN

Pawsitive Perspectives Assisitance Dog

PawPADs

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Pawsitive Perspectives Assistance Dogs (PawPADs) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota that provides highly trained assistance dogs to persons with disabilities.