Arizona · Nonprofit
SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND
SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND (Arizona) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,421,996 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($287,258). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $5.2M
What Soldiers Best Friend does
Mission
The organization provides service/therapeutic companion dog training for veterans living with combat-related post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury . Our program is arizona-based, providing life-changing services for eligible veterans and az homeless dogs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
On its FY2025 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
The organization expanded its prison-based dog training program to the arizona state prison complex - perryville in goodyear, arizona. The program began as a pilot at the fort grant state prison in willcox, arizona, and successfully expanded to perryvilles all-female prison complex. In addition, the organization introduced a new training site and facility in kingman, az.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
In 2025, we concentrated on expanding our service/therapeutic companion dog training program. As a testament to this, during the year we accepted 100 new veterans into the program, introduced a new training site and facility in Kingman, AZ, and launched the Prison Dog Training Program at Perryville. In 2025, the program served 221 veterans, rescued 85 dogs from local shelters, provided 3,544 training hours to veteran/dog teams, and celebrated the graduation of 51 veteran/dog teams from the program. Provided at no cost to eligible veterans, each veteran/dog team trains a minimum of 6 months. Providing this life-changing service includes: comprehensive application process, dog adoptions, fostering, professional training & testing, veterinary care, and providing equipment/supplies & support to help ensure program completion. As part of our program, we offer mentorship and operation graduate training (OGT) classes. The mentorship program pairs graduates with teams-in-training to help guide them through the program. The OGT classes are provided for graduates who want further training for their dogs. Our program serves as a parallel support plan to each veterans medical treatment & aims…
$1,068,333 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,068,333.
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 2019 to 2020, from $2.8M to $3.4M (+22%).
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: 2018 5% · 2019 5% · 2020 6% · 2021 7% · 2022 8% · 2023 12% · 2024 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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
Mik Milem
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $205k → $346k.
15 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 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
SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
55% 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 SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 21% · 2019 25% · 2020 25% · 2021 16% · 2022 11% · 2023 22% — 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
41% of SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
57% of SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1000k 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
SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,274 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,274 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $150k on record.
- Department of Defense$150k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND: 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 SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND?
- SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND (Arizona) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,421,996 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($287,258). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $2,421,996 in grants to SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND?
- ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $287,258 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Soldiers Best Friend →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 74 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