Our Philosophy
At the Ohio Pet Fund, we believe that every cat and dog should have a home.
Our Expertise
We have been helping shelters and nonprofit organizations with spay-neuter programs for 20 years.
The Future
More help is needed! We are working on legislation (HB 148) to obtain voluntary spay-neuter donations for dogs and cats.
The Ohio Pet Fund has an all-volunteer board
Did you know? About 3/4 of the nonprofit board members in the United States serve on an average of three to four other boards because they have traits like passion, empathy, collaborative skills, and creative thinking. Our board members have experience with humane societies, other nonprofit boards and animal shelters and include a physician and veterinarian. We also have an advisory board that includes an attorney and an additional veterinarian, and have engaged a legal consortium with expertise in nonprofit corporations. We have the assistance of two respected accounting firms. Do you have a question about this organization? 795-0090. We are transparent and more than happy to answer your questions. (Use the 614 area code.)
Oversight of the Ohio Pet Fund
Multiple Methods of Oversight of the Ohio Pet Fund:
- The Ohio Pet Fund provides a yearly report of income and expenditures to the Ohio Attorney General, as it has for twenty years.
- The Ohio Pet Fund files a 990 tax report with the IRS each year, available on many online sites, including candid.org and causeiq.com. See a link to our report under Financial Information.
- The first page of the Ohio Pet Fund website shows our 2025 grant disbursements. See the Gratitude page to review all the groups we've helped over the last 20 years!
- The Ohio Pet Fund has a six-member board, containing a physician and a veterinarian, and an advisory board containing an additional veterinarian and an attorney. We are also pleased to announce the engagement of a legal consortium with expertise in non-profit law. In addition, the Ohio Pet Fund has oversight from two respected accounting firms.
- With passage of House Bill 148, the Ohio Pet Fund "shall report to the Ohio General Assembly as to the effectiveness of the tax refund contribution fund, and include the amount of money contributed and purposes for which money was expended." This requirement is included in the language of HB 148 that passed the House Committee 9-0, and passed the full House vote 92-1, and is currently under consideration in Senate committee.
Financial Information
For the ten year period 2016-2025, the Ohio Pet Fund's total spay-neuter grants to shelters and 501c3 organizations exceeded the license plate income. We take in a little more than $275,000 per year with the pet license plate, but with over 200 grant applications, it just doesn't go far enough!
We need to be able to support the dog wardens, especially those from smaller counties, who don't have the funds to spay/neuter pets before adoption. If those pets aren't neutered, the revolving door cycle will just continue, and staff will be forced to euthanize tail-wagging puppies due to lack of space. We can't let that continue. We support the shelters directly via grants and indirectly by supporting the 501c3 non-profits around them to reduce shelter intakes, facilitate adoptions and to save money for our counties, so that counties are better able to support their shelters.
At the end of 2025, we only had about $250,000 available to fund the 200 applications expected in 2026! Please keep spreading the news about pet license plates while we work on legislative opportunities to garner more support for this effort. We continue to plan for the future of cats, dogs, and people in Ohio. Any delay in passing our spay-neuter bill threatens the lives of approximately 40 cats and dogs per day!
Thank you for all you do to help find a home for every dog and cat!
Link to the latest published Ohio Pet Fund 990:
Please note that the December/January figures will be the highest figures of the year, as grant disbursements for 2025 began in February. Over $800,000 was granted for spay-neuter in 2025. Our 990 tax form (available online at the link below) will show a snapshot of accrued end-of-the-year amounts, before over $800,000 in grant disbursements began in February 2025.
https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/ohio-pet-fund,202289216/