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 over 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.
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 and 2026 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 the continued oversight of a well-respected accounting firm. Certified Public Accountants (CPA) reconcile our income/expenses and have for over 20 years.
- 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
The Ohio Pet Fund's total spay-neuter grants to shelters and 501c3 organizations exceeds the license plate income. With over 200 grant applications, and given the rising costs for veterinary surgeries, our current grants just don't go far enough to help the dog and cats currently in shelters!
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.
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!
Our 990 tax form for 2025 is available online at the link below. Note that "expenses" are primarily spay-neuter grants. Our board members do not receive salaries. While we were able to give a large amount in 2025 due to 20 years of planning and a maturing annuity, grants for 2026 will sadly be much smaller. We are working hard for our counties in attempts to increase their funding.
https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/ohio-pet-fund,202289216/