Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin Inc.
Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin Inc.
Madison WI | IRS ruling year: 2012 | EIN: 45-4808363
Organization Mission
Pet Rescue and Adoption, Veterinary Services
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Madison WI | IRS ruling year: 2012 | EIN: 45-4808363
Organization Mission
Pet Rescue and Adoption, Veterinary Services
Great
This charity's score is 91%, earning it a Four-Star rating. If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.
This overall score is calculated from multiple beacon scores, weighted as follows: 35% Accountability & Finance, 50% Impact & Results, 10% Leadership & Adaptability, 5% Culture & Community. Learn more about our criteria and methodology.
We recognize that not all metrics and beacons equally predict a charity’s success. The percentage each beacon contributes to the organization’s overall rating depends on the number of beacons an organization has earned.
Use the tool below to select different beacons to see how the weighting shifts when only one, two, or three beacons are earned.
Rating histories are available for a growing number of rated organizations. Check back later to see if this organization has a rating history!
Score
Most Recent Fiscal Year:
FY 2021
This beacon provides an assessment of a charity's financial health (financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness) and its commitment to governance practices and policies.
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Industry professionals strongly recommend an independent governing body to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters. We check to see if at least 50% of board members are indentified as independent on their tax form.
Source: IRS Form 990
Industry professionals strongly recommend an independent governing body to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters. For most organizations, we check to see if the organization has at least three board members. For large, donor-funded organizations, we check to see if the organization has at least five independent board members
Source: IRS Form 990
An Audit, Review, or Compilation provides important information about financial accountability and accuracy. Organizations are scored based on their Total Revenue Amount:
Total Revenue Amount | Expectation to Receive Credit |
$2 million or higher and 40% or higher donor support | Expected to complete an audit and have an audit oversight committee |
$1 million or higher | Expected to complete an audit |
$500,000 - $1 million | Expected to complete an audit, review, or compilation |
Less than $500,000 | No expectation (removed from scoring methodology) |
Source: IRS Form 990
A diversion of assets — any unauthorized conversion or use of the organization's assets other than for the organization's authorized purposes, including but not limited to embezzlement or theft — also can seriously call into question a charity's financial integrity. We review the charity's most recent IRS Form 990 to see if the charity has reported any diversion of assets.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for a website on the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency metric.
Nonprofits act in the public trust and reporting publicly on activities is an important component.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a conflict of interest policy on the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy protects the organization and by extension those it serves, when it is considering entering into a transaction that may benefit the private interest of an officer, director and/or key employee of the organization.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a whistleblower policy per the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy outlines procedures for handling employee complaints, as well as a confidential way for employees to report financial or other types of mismanagement.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a document retention and destruction policy per the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy establishes guidelines for the handling, backing up, archiving and destruction of documents. These guidelines foster good record keeping procedures that promote data integrity.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the IRS Form 990 that the organization has this process in place as an accountability and transparency measure.
An official record of the events that take place during a board meeting ensures that a contemporaneous document exists for future reference.
Source: IRS Form 990
For almost all charities, we check the charity's IRS Form 990 to see if it discloses that the Form 990 is available on the charity's website. As with the audited financial statement, donors need easy access to this financial report to help determine if the organization is managing its financial resources well.
Source: IRS Form 990
The Liabilities to Assets Ratio is determined by Total Liabilities divided by Total Assets (most recent IRS Form 990). This ratio is an indicator of an organization's solvency and/or long-term sustainability.
Source: IRS Form 990
The Program Expense Ratio is determined by Program Expenses divided by Total Expense (average of most recent three IRS Forms 990). This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver.
Source: IRS Form 990
This chart displays the trend of revenue and expenses over the past several years for this organization, as reported on their IRS Form 990.
No Data Available
Salary data is coming soon.
Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File (BMF) for this organization. Learn more about the BMF on the IRS website
Foundation Status:
Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) (BMF foundation code: 15)
Affiliation:
Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations). (BMF affiliation code: 3)
The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Click here to search for this organization's Forms 990 on the IRS website (if any are available). Simply enter the organization's name (Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin Inc.) or EIN (454808363) in the 'Search Term' field.
Score
This beacon estimates the actual impact a charity has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.
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Program
Underdog Veterinary Services
Activities
The nonprofit provides low-cost sterilizations to animals that otherwise give birth to stray offspring.
Program Type
Low-Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic
Beneficiaries Served
(No data collected)
Program Geography
Dane County
Time Period of Data
1/1/22 to 12/31/22
Outcomes: Changes in the lives of those served by a nonprofit. They can be caused by the nonprofit.
Costs: The money spent by a nonprofit and its partners and beneficiaries.
Impact: Outcome caused by a nonprofit relative to its cost.
Cost-effectiveness: A judgment as to whether the cost was a good use of resources to cause the outcome.
Outcome Metric
number of stray animals averted
Outcome Data Source
Ratings are based on data the nonprofit itself collects on its work. We use the most recent year with sufficient data. Typically, this data allows us to calculate direct changes in participants' lives, such as increased income.
The nonprofit submitted data on how many animals it sterilized.
Method for Attributing Outcomes
We don't know if the observed changes were caused by the nonprofit's program or something else happening at the same time (e.g., a participant got a raise). To determine causation, we take the outcomes we observe and subtract an estimate of the outcomes that would have happened even without the program (i.e., counterfactual outcomes).
We assume that the provision of free or low-cost sterilization by one nonprofit does not diminish the provision of services by any other (neighboring) nonprofit. We also assume there is, in general, no slack capacity in the low-cost spay and neuter network.
Cost Data Source
After estimating the program's outcomes, we need to determine how much it cost to achieve those outcomes. All monetary costs are counted, whether they are borne by a nonprofit service deliverer or by the nonprofit’s public and private partners.
Program cost data reported by the nonprofit. Partner and beneficiary costs reported by the nonprofit or estimated by Charity Navigator.
Cost Calculation
$57,866 program costs + $0 partner costs + $34,720 beneficiary costs = $92,586 total costs
We calculate impact, defined as the change in outcomes attributable to a program divided by the cost to achieve those outcomes.
Impact Calculation
$92,586 total costs / 36,752 stray births averted = roughly $2.52 prevents a stray animal birth. [2021 USD]
Benchmark for Rating
Impact & Results scores of spay and neuter programs are based on the cost a household spends on lifesaving care for a pet. Programs receive an Impact & Results score of 100 if they are less than 75% of the cost and a score of 80 if they are less than 125%. If a nonprofit reports impact but doesn't meet the benchmark for cost-effectiveness, it earns a score of 65.
Determination
Highly cost-effective
Score
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's culture and connectedness to the community it serves.
Learn more
100% of beacon score
This organization reported that it is collecting feedback from the constituents and/or communities it serves. The methodology leveraged for Constituent Feedback is based on The Core Principles of Constituent Feedback, which describes listening and responding well to feedback. Charity Navigator participates in a consortium with other feedback experts and leading nonprofit infrastructure platforms to drive Constituent Feedback's advancement, promotion, and data collection.
Who are the people you serve with your mission? Describe briefly.
Our volunteers, adopters, and low cost vet clinic clients come mostly from our general area of Dane County, Wisconsin.
How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings or town halls, Suggestion box/email
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
With whom does your organization share the feedback you got from the people you serve?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board
How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship with them or shifted power - over decisions, resources, rules or in other ways - to them?
When we ask our volunteers, adopters, or clients how we can improve, and create change, we find we are able to help more animals, people, and make more of an impact in our community.
What challenges does your organization face in collecting feedback from the people you serve?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to get honest feedback from our clients
Briefly describe a recent change that your organization made in response to feedback from the people you serve.
Our foster volunteers and community clients felt that our veterinary clinic only being open 4 days a week was not enough, so we took the feedback and found a way to facilitate being open every other Friday.
This organization has not provided information regarding the Equity Practices it is presently implementing. As such, the organization has not earned a score on this metric. This assessment demonstrates the importance of implementing practices that contribute positively to an organization's overall culture, both internally and with respect to community engagement. Furthermore, equity centered frameworks and similar approaches have drawn much attention from donors, experts, and sector leaders who underscore its value to the nonprofit's overall health and capacity for mission success. Currently, the Equity Strategies Checklist assessment consists of practices and policies that promote racial equity in their operations and programs (per the Equity Strategies checklist administered by Candid). As we refine our DEI assessment, Charity Navigator partners with DEI consultants and field experts to broaden and deepen this work.
Score
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's leadership capacity, strategic thinking and planning, and ability to innovate or respond to changes in constituent demand/need or other relevant social and economic conditions to achieve the organization's mission.
Learn more
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization's mission
Note: The organization did not respond to this question.
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization’s vision.
Helping true underdogs (and cats) find their way to loving homes!
Source: Nonprofit submitted responses
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking and goal setting through sharing their most important strategic goals.
Goal One: Each year, we have the goal of recruiting additional foster parents, adopters, and donors so we can increase our lifesaving efforts. We work to make improvements each year to keep current volunteers.
Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.
Goal Two: We are working to be able to move to a larger facility so we can offer additional veterinary services to our internal animals, as well as to publicly owned pets who need us in our community.
Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).
The nonprofit provides evidence of investment in leadership development
Describe an investment in leadership
Leaders have been encouraged to attend conferences to always be improving. The pandemic has required us to utilize virtual webinars, and many of them have been more economical than in-person events. We offer our vet staff training on fear-free pet handling, pet nutrition, and topics related to shelter veterinary medicine. Our rescue leaders have virtually attended online conferences like HSUS's Animal Care Expo, and the Best Friends National Conference. Our director is a member of AAWA, which offers ongoing webinars and twice a year conferences on how to continuously improve what we can do for our community.
The nonprofit provides evidence of leadership through focusing externally and mobilizing resources for the mission.
This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:
Networks of Collective Impact Efforts
Thought Leadership
Raising Awareness
Community Building
What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?
We've partnered with other local rescue groups to share ideas, and provide veterinary services for the animals in their care (at a discount). We remain engaged with our local humane society as well as other shelters in our state to help whenever needed. We have a healthy presence on social media (focus on FB), and our director has spoken at conferences in the past.
The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
During the pandemic, we worried we'd need to shut down our rescue operations. We worked with national experts in Animal Welfare and adjusted our surgical program to use less PPE. We added safety protocols to allow those volunteers and staff members who needed to work together in person to keep doing their lifesaving. Many rescues and humane societies were shutting down operations for a period of time due to COVID, but we were able to find a way to keep on going. We helped the bottlenecked rescue process by recruiting more foster homes, and marketing to adopters who were stuck working from home. We provided information to help these adopters transition their pets so they'd avoid separation anxiety when people went back to work outside the home. We started curbside drop off and pickup for appointments at our vet clinic, and moved to Zoom adoption meetings. Some of these things will stay with us as an organization, allowing us to have better communication and streamlined processes.
Impact & Results
Accountability & Finance
Culture & Community
Leadership & Adaptability
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