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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY

DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY (Wisconsin) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,958,463 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY INC ($1,116,744). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$32M
Funders on record
79
Grants received
$5.0M
Net assets
$38M
43/79 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 13%
01What it does

What Dane County Humane Society does

Mission

Our mission is to foster compassionate human and animal connections; forge safe, healthy, and thriving communities for animals; provide care and transitional sheltering to animals; provide leadership and guidance to the animal sheltering community and the public.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Dchs's animal services include open-admission animal intake, customer service, daily care, and behavioral support of animals, medical treatment, spay/neuter and other surgical services, humane euthanasia, and participation in the sheltering animals of abuse victims (saav) program. In addition, dchs worked with madison and dane county animal services to ensure it properly fulfills the services outlined in its contracts with these municipalities. In 2025, medical staff and volunteer veterinarians performed 3,998 surgeries.

    $2,749,386 spentof which $14,256 as grants$970,877 earned by the program
    55% of program spending
  2. Dchs's wildlife center is a specialized program that aims to promote the health and welfare of wildlife through rehabilitation, professional training, and public education. Licensed rehabilitators care for sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals found in southern wisconsin year-round. In 2025, dchs staff and volunteers helped 3,158 wild animals of 154 different species, including songbirds, mammals, raptors, waterfowl, reptiles, and amphibians.

    $785,987 spent$16,540 earned by the program
    16% of program spending
  3. Dchs's adoption and reception services include customer service and animal adoptions at dchs's main location and dchs's thrift stores. The main adoption center also offers pet supplies and various dchs branded merchandise for sale to individuals adopting animals as well as to other patrons. In 2025, 3,302 animals were adopted. Dchs's 2025 animal save rate was 91%.

    $718,794 spent$544,299 earned by the program
    14% of program spending
  4. Dchs's humane education and outreach services include youth and adult education programs such as camp pawprint, camp wildside, scout badge workshops, school field trips, shelter tours, educational presentations and public speaking engagements, and dog training classes. Outreach programs include pets for life, community cat days and community dog days, and a pet food pantry program, focused on closing the service gaps for pets in underserved neighborhoods and keeping existing human-animal bonds intact.

    $534,008 spent$159,095 earned by the program
    11% of program spending
  5. Dchs's volunteer program includes recruitment, training, supervision, and retention of dchs's volunteers. In 2025, 1,256 volunteers provided approximately 111,684 hours of volunteer service to dchs.

    $171,374 spent$11,764 earned by the program
    3% of program spending

The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,959,549.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($3.9M) Expenses 100 ($3.7M) Net assets 100 ($6.8M)2018 Revenue 123 ($4.8M) Expenses 105 ($3.9M) Net assets 111 ($7.6M)2019 Revenue 127 ($5.0M) Expenses 115 ($4.3M) Net assets 125 ($8.5M)2020 Revenue 128 ($5.0M) Expenses 116 ($4.3M) Net assets 136 ($9.3M)2021 Revenue 153 ($6.0M) Expenses 128 ($4.8M) Net assets 152 ($10M)2022 Revenue 134 ($5.3M) Expenses 146 ($5.4M) Net assets 145 ($9.9M)2023 Revenue 147 ($5.8M) Expenses 158 ($5.9M) Net assets 146 ($10.0M)2024 Revenue 202 ($7.9M) Expenses 176 ($6.6M) Net assets 165 ($11M)2025 Revenue 812 ($32M) Expenses 200 ($7.5M) Net assets 561 ($38M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (812)Expenses (200)Net assets (561)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $13M to $40M (+205%).

$7.0M
$7.8M
$8.7M
$9.5M
$11M
$11M
$11M
$13M
$40M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 11% · 2021 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

94% of DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 238 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$205k
’17
$936k
’18
$710k
’19
$720k
’20
$1.2M
’21
−$177k
’22
−$103k
’23
$1.4M
’24
$24M
’25
9.6
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Chief executive

Pamela Mccloud Smith

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed121113141613141818
Joined·+0+2+1+2+0+2+5+2
No longer listed·10003112
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $346k → $617k.

17 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

86% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY.

23%
largest funder
46%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 41% · 2019 31% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 18% · 2023 21% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

55% of DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

60% of DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.

MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
NV
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
DE
AZ
TN
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Wisconsin out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 134 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin77% · top quartile
Months of reserve9.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)30% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 134 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Wisconsin

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

67% of spending goes to programs.

Program 67%Management 10%Fundraising 24%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

68%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WI

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY?
DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY (Wisconsin) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,958,463 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY INC ($1,116,744). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY have?
IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $4,958,463 in grants to DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY?
UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,116,744 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 79 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing