Pawsible Incorporated

Assistance Dog nonprofits commonly rely on volunteer puppy raisers to raise and train future service dogs. Puppy raising transforms the lives of not just those receiving the service dog, but also the volunteers through this intensive, expensive, but rewarding volunteer experience. Pawsible supports puppy raisers by partnering with puppy raising groups and assistance dog organizations to provide supplemental financial support and community development. The Elevate Prize will allow Pawsible the ability to compensate our team of volunteers so that they may put more effort into growing our nonprofit and helping volunteer puppy raisers.

I can’t imagine my life without puppy raising. Puppy raising gave me a purpose and a community when I was struggling to make social connections. I poured my love of puppy raising into growing my university group and later did the same with Pawsible. I have seen firsthand how volunteer puppy raising operates largely on a flawed volunteering model that disproportionately benefits assistance dog organizations at the expense of volunteer puppy raisers. This model also leaves little room for inclusion from those not privileged enough to access volunteer puppy raising due to financial, community, and even cultural barriers. At the end of the day, puppy raising is extremely important to me and I want to continue to raise as long as I am able, in part because it allows me to see and predict new challenges within puppy raising that Pawsible can work to address. Pawsible is also the only organization addressing issues and inequities within puppy raising and I am excited by the opportunities we can provide the puppy raising and assistance dog community through our work.

Our first solution to alleviating the financial barriers involved in puppy raising was the creation of our Financial Assistance program. Through our founding program, puppy raisers apply for financial assistance on an as-needed basis and Pawsible allocates funds or supplies to them. In the last year, Pawsible has grown from providing one puppy raising group with financial assistance to 15 groups and counting. While this program continues to help puppy raisers every day, we always knew it was not enough. Early in Pawsible’s formation we discovered many long term volunteer puppy sitters did not commit to raising due to the financial requirements. We are excited to expand our financial support to include full sponsorship opportunities for volunteers that can not afford the cost of puppy raising, a new initiative that gets more volunteers involved in raising and changing lives. On the surface, our financial support programs relieve financial stress and attempt to address the racial inequities that stem from an expensive and time-consuming volunteer position. Long term, creating partnerships and long-lasting relationships with assistance dog nonprofits will help us multiply our impact in coming years. 

Our organization is one of a kind; we are the only nonprofit dedicated to supporting volunteer puppy raisers in the United States. The only other organizations working to support volunteer puppy raisers are the assistance dog organizations themselves and most are putting their funds and time into other parts of their organization. We believe that by building a financial support program for volunteer puppy raisers and fostering a community we will diversify puppy raising and eventually also diversify those who are receiving assistance dogs. We originally based our flagship program on an Emergency Support Fund model that was being used at our university. However, we’ve grown to understand that this model is a band-aid rather than a full solution. Volunteer models across the nonprofit industry commonly disregard the financial and other expenses required to take part in the experience. In order to propel our organization and leave a transformative impact, we need to get to the root of the problem and work directly with Assistance Dog Organizations and their volunteer puppy raising programs.

Our long-term goal at Pawsible is to change the inequitable volunteer puppy raising structure. In typical experiences volunteers give their time to an organization; however, volunteer puppy raisers give their time and their money to make a difference in one person's life through raising a future assistance dog that will work directly with an individual with a disability. The fact that volunteer puppy raisers have to give both time and money makes this an almost impossible opportunity for someone who is already struggling to make ends meet. We will work with Assistance Dog Organizations in recognizing the inequities in their volunteer programs and help them make a change. Our ultimate goal is to consult these organizations on how to improve their funding and attention to this area, and even provide grants and insight ourselves.