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
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
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 program55% of program spendingDchs'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 program16% of program spendingDchs'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 program14% of program spendingDchs'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 program11% of program spendingDchs'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 program3% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,959,549.
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.
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%).
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.
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).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
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.
Against its field
DANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 134 animals nonprofits its size.
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
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.
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