South Carolina · Nonprofit
PET HELPERS INC
PET HELPERS INC (South Carolina) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,450,333 to it, the largest being ANIMAL HELPERS RETAIL RESALE STORE ($1,413,293). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 67
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $8.2M
What Pet Helpers Inc does
Mission
To end euthanasia for all adoptable cats and dogs; providing low cost spay/neuter surgeries, offering humane education programs, pursuing animal cruelty prosecution and initiating animal welfare legislation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Adoption - including rescue and shelter:the dogs and cats that enter the pet helpers shelter can be strays, transfers from other shelters, or animals that have to be surrendered because of changing family situations where the animals cannot receive adequate care. Increasingly, dogs and cats are being transferred to pet helpers from open admission shelters that have reached capacity. In these cases, pet helpers directly saves the lives of healthy animals who would otherwise be euthanized. Pet helpers has operated as a no kill shelter since it was opened in 1978.
$2,073,225 spent$523,631 earned by the program92% of program spendingSpay/neuter clinic:pet helpers' mission is to provide high quality spay/neuter surgeries at an affordable price to all families in the lowcountry. This is the most effective way to reduce the companion animal overpopulation problem. Besides these services to the general population, pet helpers aggresively works to increase accessibility of spay/neuter surgeries to areas of the lowcountry with high rates of pet reproduction. Pet helpers also offers a low cost vaccine clinic that provides some preventative care services such as brief general examinations, heart worm testing, flea control, microchipping, nail trims, etc.
$176,806 spent$223,528 earned by the program8% of program spendingCommunity outreach:levi's legacy: provides small grants to pet owners who have pets facing sudden illness or injury and would not be able to seek veterinary care without financial support. Food bank: pet helpers' food bank provides food to low and fixed-income pet owners and those facing temporary financial hardship, to help keep pets in their homes. Tnr: pet helpers' trap-neuter-release (tnr) program provides trap rentals, spay/neuter surgeries, microchipping and vaccinations to help control the overpopulation of community (feral) cats. Levi's legacy: provides small grants to pet owners who have pets facing sudden illness or injury and would not be able to seek veterinary care without financial support.
$35,113 earned by the program
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,250,031.
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 $7.9M to $9.1M (+15%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 11% · 2021 14% · 2022 6% · 2023 6% · 2024 4% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of PET HELPERS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (74% 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
Melissa Susko
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $245k → $392k.
10 of 67 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 PET HELPERS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 67 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
PET HELPERS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
73% 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 PET HELPERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 89% · 2019 74% · 2020 58% · 2021 57% · 2022 46% · 2023 64% — growing more concentrated.
“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
46% of PET HELPERS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
83% of PET HELPERS INC's grant income comes from South Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $322k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
PET HELPERS INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 813 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 813 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PET HELPERS INC
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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Animal Helpers Retail Resale Store · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PET HELPERS INC: 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 PET HELPERS INC?
- PET HELPERS INC (South Carolina) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,450,333 to it, the largest being ANIMAL HELPERS RETAIL RESALE STORE ($1,413,293). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PET HELPERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 67 organizations giving $2,450,333 in grants to PET HELPERS INC, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PET HELPERS INC?
- ANIMAL HELPERS RETAIL RESALE STORE is the largest funder on record, with $1,413,293 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PET HELPERS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Pet Helpers →
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 67 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