What if breaking the cycle of poverty takes more than job training—requiring emotional healing, self-worth, and the belief that change is possible? In this episode, we sit down with Natasha Herdman, CEO of Pawsperity, to explore how dog grooming combined with holistic support is transforming lives.

0:00 | Intro

2:49 | Natasha’s Journey into Social Impact, how volunteering with homeless families revealed the cycle of generational poverty—and sparked the idea for a new solution.

4:41 | The Lightbulb Moment: How a call from her mom gave Natasha a unique solution to combating the cycle of poverty

5:42 | Understanding the barriers through Amy's story of addiction, homelessness, incarceration, and low self-esteem

8:42 | How Dog Grooming Changes Lives, what is Pawsperity?

13:47 | Phase 1: Stabilization, ensuring basic needs of students are met to maximize success

15:34 | Phase 2: Become a dog groomer, hands on dog grooming training paired with holistic social services

16:18 | Phase 3: Graduation and life as a dog groomer, long term support and stories of success

20:18 | Measuring Outcomes and Lives Changed, 100% job placement, $47K+ average income post-graduation, and why Pawsperity prioritizes outcomes from day one

26:15 | Why Self-Esteem Matters, Natasha’s insights into why breaking negative beliefs is essential to breaking poverty

28:47 | Scaling the Model Nationwide without Compromising Measurable Success

31:50 | What Inspires Natasha, The Perry Preschool Study and why Natasha believes a two-generation approach is key.

35:01 | Impact Opportunity: Support Pawsperity

37:40 | Impact Inbox: Can I fund non-501(c)(3) organizations from my Donor Advised Fund

Links from this Episode

Learn more about Pawsperity here: https://pawsperity.org/

Learn more about Impact Innovations: https://iig.uicharitable.org/

Learn more about the Peery Preschool Study: https://highscope.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/perry-preschool-summary-40.pdf

Transcript

Todd Manwaring - Welcome to the UI Charitable Impact Innovations podcast, where we elevate philanthropy to be more effective through learning, collaboration, and innovation. My name is Todd Manwaring, Chief Social Impact Officer at UI Charitable. I'm the host of this podcast. This is episode number six. 

In this month's episode, I sat down with Natasha Herdman, CEO of Pawsperity, a nonprofit empowering individuals affected by poverty, addiction, and incarceration through professional dog grooming.

Natasha shares how her personal story fuels a program that is transforming lives and preparing to scale their operations nationwide. I was immediately impressed with Pawsperity when we met them last year and realized that they had a third party measuring their program's outputs and outcomes. They'd been doing this ever since the beginning of their program.

These outcomes provide Pawsperity with a feedback loop. It helps them to refresh their work constantly. This is exactly what we look for in organizations that we vet and recommend to you as top in their class. 

Later in the podcast, Tanner will dive into how to support Pawsperity and their efforts to break the cycles of generational poverty, incarceration, and addiction as this month's recommended high impact organization. Tanner will then respond to a social impact question from one of our listening members about gifting funds to non-501(c)(3) entities. Thank you so much for being part of this community.

Todd Manwaring - Welcome everyone to the Impact Innovations podcast. I'm Todd Manwaring. I'm the host today for our podcast with Natasha Herdman. Over the past few months, we've had a chance to talk about a number of interesting impact investing opportunities. And then we switched a bit talking about great organizations with incredible outcomes.

And we found Pawsperity last year and came across them and recognized this is really an interesting organization and their approach to really engaging in measuring and understanding great outcomes. We're here today with Natasha Herdman, the CEO of Pawsperity. Welcome, Natasha.

Natasha Herdman - Hi, thank you for having me.

Todd Manwaring - It’s great having you here with us and taking some time to help us understand a bit more about what Pawsperity is and how you work. To start things off, tell us a little bit about your path to Pawsperity. ⁓ Some of the different activities you've been involved with, a nonprofit you've engaged with. ⁓ And in some ways, some of your family's connections to this world of pet grooming.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so I probably about 15 years ago moved to Kansas City and I started doing volunteer work with homeless families. And so I volunteered in various shelters around the city and that's when I got to know the clients that we were working with and I learned that so many adults couldn't get jobs due to criminal records or lack of education or job history. 

So I was trying to figure out a way that they could actually get training and become employed because what I was seeing really for the first time was generational poverty. You know, I've always heard the word before, but this was really the first time I could see how this all worked together. The folks that I was working with, I started, you know, just asking about their childhoods. You know, where did they grow up? That kind of thing.

And so many of them raised themselves on the streets in and out of group homes. They would sell drugs and their bodies to survive and sometimes becoming addicted to those drugs. And now they're adults, you know, they're living in homeless shelters. They're working through addiction issues. They've got three kids, no house, no car, no job. And I was just trying to figure out how I could actually break the cycle of poverty.

So I was driving home from work one night. My mom called from Iowa. She's a dog  and I've always done her marketing and her bookkeeping. And she said, I need you to put another ad in the paper. I'll take any warm body who walks through the door and train them. And that was really the light bulb moment for me because I knew how much money my mom made. I knew that she was so desperate that even my mom would hire somebody that had a felony on their record, and it was one of those jobs that she was able to flex around our schedule as kids. 

So when I came home at night when I was in high school with, you know, cigarettes on my breath and possibly beer on my breath, she was right there to turn me around and set me straight. And that was exactly what I felt that every kid deserves to have. So that's a little bit of the history of the how and the why we got started.

Todd Manwaring - Right that makes a lot of sense. You've kind of helped us catch up some about Pawsperity. Tell us a little bit, maybe start by describing a story. Someone who's been involved. What does that look like for someone who's not been employed ⁓ or has struggled being employed?

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so I mean, an example I'll give that is probably representative of about 40% of our population that we serve is Amy's story. came to us back in 2017. She was born into generational drug use. So she was actually taught how to make meth by her dad when she was 10 years old. By the time she was 13, she was addicted to meth.

And actually that's when she first went to prison. So she has, I think, over 17 felonies on her record. She's been dealing with addiction and recovery, never graduated from high school. 

And when she came to us, she was about two months sober. She had just gone through a pretty severe domestic violence situation. And really at that point had realized that if she doesn't change her life, she's going to die. She came through our program. She ended up ⁓ giving up custody of her kids for one year to her mother so that she could go through our program. She moved into an addiction recovery housing situation and learned how to groom dogs.

And then when she graduated, she was immediately placed into ⁓ a job And after a few years, we actually called her back because we were growing and looking for more grooming instructors. So Amy then came back and applied and got the job. And now she's been teaching grooming for us for five years now. She's trained over 150 students And she's also on the side, started the largest women's AA group in the Midwest.

Todd Manwaring - Wow.

Natasha Herdman - And so Amy is just this amazing person who's overcome amazing odds. And what that does for our students who are in the same it really gives them hope that they can do the same thing. And so she's been a great role model for all of our students here.

Todd Manwaring - That makes so much sense. I mean, as you've been describing this and the situations that people are in with intergenerational poverty or they're really struggling, as you just described with drugs or prostitution or other different kinds of activities, I think and sometimes in our society, we think that that person's never going to make it. 

And what you're really describing is, but if we can connect them to a great group like yours, they have a chance of, a few things, learning a skill will help them with a job, but also in some ways it sounds like over that year's period, they're learning some other things while they're participating. Tell us more about what goes on during this year program with Pawsperity.

What does that really look like?

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because Amy says to us all the time that it was really the soft skills in our program that's paired with the hard that really made the difference because, you know, folks are in our program in the actual training program for seven months and it's full time. They're here Monday through Friday.  And so it's a place for them to constantly practice the soft skills that we teach.

So, you know, a lot of the students that are in the program, they've grown up on the streets or in and out of prison. And that skill set doesn't always transfer well into the classroom or a professional. And so for Amy, she calls those house skills. She says she just didn't have them. And so that's part of what we teach. 

We teach them how to control their emotions. You know, so if they're in a situation where they're getting heightened, how can they control that before they have an outburst? They also have to control themselves before they can start working with the dog. And so the human animal bond plays a part here as well because the dog can sense the groomer's emotions. 

And if they're angry, yeah, then the dog is gonna have a reaction to that. So not only are students here getting that practice, but they're getting it in real time, not only with the dog, but then they go back home with their kids and they talk about how that's very ⁓ similar to what they're doing at school. 

Some of the other things that we teach though are budgeting, mindfulness, again, the emotion regulation. We make sure that all of our students can get a bank account. I thought it was fascinating when I first started to know that people still buried money in the ground because they could not get bank accounts. So it's really trying to figure out on an individual level with each student, what are their barriers to getting and keeping a job and then really kind of solving those problems.

Todd Manwaring - So in some ways it sounds like you have some set things you're talking about with everyone. And then it sounds like you're also customizing something for each student. In your case, we really need to help you set up that bank account, or we need to help you with your ID, or whatever else it might be. But helping them, and then it's so interesting the way you describe that in some ways the connection to the dog is enabling a change in their perspective, I guess, a change in behavior and how they not only approach work, but their family. That's so interesting.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, it's been really fascinating. A lot of people think that I started this organization for my love of dogs and I don't even have a dog. I have a cat. I've always heard of, you know, people talk about the human animal bond and I never believed it. I'm like, that's BS. But after talking with our students, they talk about how brushing the dog out and drying the dog, how therapeutic that is for them and calming for them. But after I started hearing this from multiple students, I finally started becoming a believer of it.

Todd Manwaring - It's just very interesting in hearing about really just multiple ties in a connection to a person who's trying to change their lives. I can imagine other programs trying to help similar people get employed, but in this case, providing these other connections that help them in that same process.

Did you ever have a sense of that growing up with your mom and her dog grooming? I mean, I guess in that case it was, well, my mom has a job, this is what she does. Other than what you've kind of described, which is, well, because of that job, she was able to be available for her children.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, and you know, and that is what I really learned from my mom and my dad. I was the first person from our family to ever go to college. And some of my mom's family looked very similar to our students here at Pawsperity. And my mom had always said if she didn't get into this trade right away when she graduated from high school, that she thinks that she would be in a very different situation. 

And so that's always kind of stuck with me. I assumed everybody grew up with parents that were constantly there and parents that put their children first. And I learned that that's just, that's unfortunately, that's just not the case. ⁓ And so I really tried take a look at what my parents did right and how could I fit this into the program so that other people could experience that too.

Todd Manwaring - I mean, there's so many barriers that people come across when needing to be employed. I mean, it happens to all of us really, whether it's child care, whether it's making sure we're in a good housing situation or how we travel to work.

Do you work on those types of things as you interact with these students who are participating in your program as well?

Natasha Herdman - We do. So our program has three phases and the first phase is stabilizing them. We have about 90 nonprofit partners in the Kansas City area. That's housing, childcare, mental health. I mean, it's the whole gamut. And so making sure that their basic needs are met so that they can actually be in class full time for seven months.

And part of what we do there, so we've got a food pantry on site. We do have housing about two blocks away. It's not enough, so we still do lean on our partners. A good example of this is Synergy Services, which is another nonprofit here in Kansas City. And they largely are helping folks coming out of domestic violence situations. They help with housing.  And they send their clients to us. And it's an excellent partnership because they're taking care of that housing, helping with the addiction support, and recovery.

Todd Manwaring - Mmm.

Natasha Herdman - And we can really focus then on job training. And our students, while they're here, they make a stipend. It's not anything huge, but it's a little over $4,000 by the time they're done with the program. And Jody, the student that we got from Synergy Services recently, she was able to save that money and buy a car, get a driver's license, and that really helped her then get a job as a groomer. And now she's making 50, 60 thousand a year and has her kids back in her custody.

Todd Manwaring - Tell us about phase two. You described phase one. What's phase two of the program?

Natasha Herdman - Phase two is after they're stabilized and they're in our grooming training program. So that's the actual school. It's hands-on, it's 40 hours a week. And we've got social workers on the floor with our grooming instructors. So if our students are coming in and they had a domestic violence episode just hours before or the night before, our social worker can work with them right there while they're grooming.

Because our goal is to get that student through school as fast as we can because the faster we can do that, the more stable they will become and a lot of these other problems will start to go away.

Todd Manwaring - Do you support them at all after they graduate? What does that look like?

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so that's phase three. So when they graduate, they're immediately placed into a job into the grooming industry. They're given a job coach and a case manager. So the case manager is there in case the tire blows on their car and they need to dip into emergency funding that we also provide to make it so that they can get to that job. 

If they start losing those benefits, so the benefits cliff where maybe they're not making enough money yet, but they're out in the industry. That's when we lean on our partners. So a childcare nonprofit might be willing to give them free extended childcare for six months until they start making more money. And then we can do that too with gas cards and that emergency assistance. They can also visit our food pantry. So in total, we're working with the family for at least two years.

Then after that, they need less and less of our support, but they will come back. They'll come back for, hey, I can buy a house now, but I have no idea how to do that. Or you said something about retirement funding. How do I start saving for that? You know, so it's really, we can really start to see somebody that's coming from homelessness move to middle class in about a two or three year period, which is really fascinating with how quickly this can move.

Todd Manwaring - It sounds like in some cases people are being referred to by these partners. Do other people apply? What does that look like? How do you find these people? In some ways I'm thinking people would be knocking on your door trying to get in. What does that really look like?

Natasha Herdman - Yeah so we have about 700 applications every year and we take about 100 students out of those 700 applications. ⁓ Those students are getting referred to us from those other ⁓ nonprofit organizations, but 50 % are coming from referrals from our students that were in the program and then they've got friends or they'll hear about us on the news and stop in and see what we're doing.

Todd Manwaring - All right. Now, I'm going to show some ignorance here. I should have thought about this. Does somebody need to be licensed to be a dog groomer? I mean, does the training end up with something like that? Or is it just that employers are looking for someone with experience?

Natasha Herdman - So right now, you do not have to have a license to be a dog groomer, but that is starting to change in the grooming industry. So we're working with the National Groomers Association right now that I know is working on that. We are a state certified school through the Missouri Department of Higher Ed. So our students exit with a certification as a professional dog groomer. We're also going through national accreditation right now as well.

Todd Manwaring - Mm.

Natasha Herdman - You can go to a dog grooming school that's only three months long, but you're not going to be very fast if you've only got three months experience. And how dog groomers make money is with speed and efficiency and quality. 

The more practice that we can give them with more dogs and more training and show them the tools, the more money they're gonna make in the industry. Our groomers that graduate from our program can start off making $40,000 a year and quickly get to 70 or $80,000 a year in two or three because of that education behind them.

Todd Manwaring - That makes so much sense. Also you are trying in many ways to deal with soft skills that they need to help them be a great employee or to be able to set up their own business or whatever they're doing.

I think the thing that's drawn us to you, we're very interested in organizations that measure great outcomes, outcomes that describe changes in people's lives. Not just a goal that the program has, but literally something that's changing.

And my experience is only 5% of charities of for-profit social impact organizations actually measure good outcomes. And in your case, you have a third party organization that does those kinds of measurements and you learn about a number of things. I'm going to read them off here to make sure I get some of them. For instance, people feel more confident in making their plans work. ⁓ They feel in more control of their life and changes that go on in life. They feel like they're more financially able to provide for their family. In some ways, a lot of this is kind of more in control of their life's direction.

There is a sense of changing from being a victim to being someone who really approaches life and more of a growth mindset or a way of approaching the world. You know that I'm an active participant in this.

You also obviously learn about their ability to plan for their future. You're probably measuring a number of other things. Tell us about some of those. And I'm sure you've got some statistics from 2024 perhaps, or even early in 2025, you can help us understand, yeah, what is it that you see happening in the lives of the students who graduate from your program?

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so it has been really interesting. We started tracking with the help of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership actually right when we started back in 2000. 

Todd Manwaring - That's the third party group.

Natasha Herdman - It is, it is, yeah. And some of the reasons why we do that is because when I was actually a volunteer in the nonprofit sector, I worked with a lot of homeless folks that had gone through CNA training, but they had felonies on their record and they could never actually get hired as a CNA. 

And it's like, why would you spend the time and the money to train somebody in this when you should have known that that outcome was never gonna happen for them? And so I feel like it's just so important to make sure that when we're taking ⁓ community money, we're a nonprofit, so all of this is donated.

That we're spending it wisely and actually making a difference. And then the other piece on that is that, you know, when I started this, was a little bit, I was upset with how the government is trying to fix the welfare system. I felt like it just wasn't working. And if we could show that there was a different way to do it that actually was working, that maybe that would happen on a larger scale. 

So kind of back to some of our outcomes. So our students on average when they come to us, you know, before they start our program are making about $8,500 a year. And after our program, the average wage and that's kind of the starting wage is about $47,000 according to our 2024 study.

And that varies. so we reach out to all of the graduates that have come out of our program dating back to 2016 when we first started the program. And right now we've got about 172 graduates. A lot of those graduates… like we have a lot more graduates in the last two years than we did in the beginning because in the beginning I only had 10 grooming stations. Now we have 50. So the scale at which we're growing is much bigger now. But we were able, I think it's like, I don't know, is it 67? I'll have to look. 

Anyway, it was a subset of the total number of graduates that took this study and it was qualitative and quantitative. And we learned that the average salary was $47,000 a year. We learned that our highest earner made over $100,000 in the last two years. We've had a 100% job placement rate for our students within two months of graduation. About 75% have retained employment in the grooming industry. We have seen some pivot into other industries.

And about, so 90 % in total are staying employed after coming out of our program, but only 75% of them are in the grooming industry. yeah.

Todd Manwaring - Wow, which is really a phenomenal number.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, I mean, so one of the things that we had to do that was surprising to me, we had to tell our students to stop accepting the first offer they got because they stopped looking for jobs because they were just constantly rejected. But they weren't in the grooming industry and the grooming industry is booming.

Todd Manwaring - Hmm.

Natasha Herdman - And so our students are getting three or four job offers before they get out. So one of the things that we've had to teach our students is you're not just getting interviewed, you are interviewing to make sure that that's the right fit as the employer. So it's just been a whole new ball game for our graduates that just have never had that.

Todd Manwaring - Tell us about some other outcomes that you also measure. Some of the things that you sense are really big highlights. Maybe some of these views of people seeing themselves in more control, things like that.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, you know, so the biggest thing that I see and honestly, and I don't have any proof to back this up with my beliefs, but I've always believed that low self-esteem is actually holding a lot of people back and could even be a cause for homelessness because I feel like, I became pretty good friends with a lot of the homeless families that I was serving.

You know, this was 15 years ago. And they would tell me, you know, it was like their parents were telling them that they were worthless, you know, don't even bother trying to get a job. You aren't smart enough to get one, that kind of thing. And after you hear those messages for so long, you believe them. And so part of what we do here, we have to break that. You know, we have to, we just have to let them know that that's just not true.

And so to me, one of the biggest things that I see is that their self-esteem really starts to just shoot through the roof. And they, you know, the next problem that they see, they think that they can tackle it and they can. And so that's where you really start to see, you know, it's like with Amy, you know, these just amazing things that she's like, well, if there's no women's AA group, I'm going to start one. It's going to be the largest one in the Midwest, you know.

Stuff like this and to me that once you have that belief and you can overcome the next challenge that's gonna come your way because it is going to come, that's what's sustainable.

Todd Manwaring - Right. That makes sense. I think I'd even seen a measurement, something to the effect of near 85% of the students feel confident in making these changes in their lives. And so it really is a change that's occurring with a large percentage of them like you're describing. That's so impressive. 

Natasha Herdman - Yeah.

Todd Manwaring - I mean, obviously from my perspective, I think this gives you a view into what's occurring, what's happening, so that you could alter your program or recognize, we ought to make this kind of a partnership. It's such an important kind of activity for organizations to have. 

You also mentioned this gives you a chance to describe to the world what's really occurring. And I know in the last month or two here, you've been reaching out nationally with a campaign, tell us about what that next step looks like that you're pursuing.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so with Pawsperity, we've created all of our own grooming curriculum. We've actually just completed a video library so we can train groomers from afar. Our goal is to have our package ready to go open in other cities.

It's not a franchise, it's a licensing model. But it's the same premise of, you know, we package all of this down to job descriptions and marketing. got all the curriculum online, the training videos. We will help another organization. So say it's a YWCA nonprofit that already has housing and case managers. If they want to add a job training component, then they would work with us to fundraise for that to set it up. We would train them, we train their employees and help them get started.

Todd Manwaring - Right. So really you're looking for groups in any city in the United States to connect and say, boy, I've caught what your group is doing. I understand this. I've got a ⁓ segment of society that I'm working with and we'd really like to help them gain that job with good, decent pay and this upside that you've been describing.

And they can then utilize the training, the experience, connect with you and make this something nationwide. And I guess based on how you'd describe it, they might call it a different name because it's not a franchise. So...

Natasha Herdman - We would still use, yeah, we'd still use Pawsperity and the same branding.

Todd Manwaring - Okay. Okay.

Natasha Herdman - And it's really interesting because one of the requirements of any other organization that wants to do this is that they would do this program evaluation every year with us because we wanna make sure that our success isn't just happening here that it's actually happening in every location that we're in.

Todd Manwaring - Everybody who works with me here, they're going to know, I mean, you are a gold star group. Any group that talks about how we've got to keep measuring, we've got to keep understanding, that is so important in this charitable space. We tend to overlook that and it's really just singing to my heart, hearing you describe, we're going to make sure this works and that different groups are successful just like we've been.

As we wrap this up, always ask give us another sense of maybe there's a book that you've read, there's a podcast you've listened to, there's some article, you something that you really have a sense of, boy, this really changed a perspective for me and helps me understand and really solidified some concepts for me.

Natasha Herdman - Yeah, so it's interesting because the Perry Preschool study is a, it was like a 40 year study that was done, basically it was the start of Head Start. And it was done following these families. They had a control group of kids that went to preschool and the ones that didn't. And they were able to show that over these 40 years that it reduced the amount of teenage pregnancies, the crime rate for those families that actually went through early childhood education center. And it was really that study because prior to me starting this, I actually ran a childcare center out in DC and I learned how important those first five years of life are. 

And so when I was trying to figure out how to actually break the cycle of poverty, I knew it had to be a two-generation approach. I knew that we had to work with the mom at the same time that we're working with the kids. And a lot of this spurred because of that study. So I always point everybody to the Perry Preschool study, and I hope that someday we have 40 years of research behind us.

Todd Manwaring - Right, that's awesome. Natasha, you've just talked to us about this effort to take this nationwide. so obviously one way people can support is connecting. They've got a program. They'd love to replicate this. How are other ways that people who are listening could connect and help your organization and help more people in these same kinds of circumstances to gain employment?

Natasha Herdman - Well, we do not charge our students any money for going to our school because our goal is to get them out of debt, not further in debt. And so we are always in need of individual donations, corporate donations, connections to folks in the pet industry that might like to support us. Really, our organization is a 501(c3) and about 80 % of that is coming from ⁓ individual gifts and foundations.

If you're interested in helping to support Pawsperity, please go to our website, www.pawsperity.org.

Todd Manwaring - Well, Natasha, thank you so much for taking your time to be with us today sharing your own personal story as well as Pawsperity's story and how it's helping an amazing way with people here in the United States to gain necessary employment to help them in their lives to thrive. Thank you so much.

Natasha Herdman - Well, thank you so much for having me.

Tanner Mills - This is your co-host Tanner Mills with this month's Impact Opportunity. Today we're highlighting Pawsperity who you just heard from. As you heard across the US, tens of thousands of individuals are trapped in cycles of poverty, addiction, and incarceration. For many, stable employment is out of reach not because of a lack of desire, but because of criminal records, limited education, and or unstable housing.

These barriers negatively affect not only individuals, but entire families and even communities. Many traditional job training programs often fall short, ignoring deeper challenges or root causes of instability like trauma, lack of childcare, transportation, education, and support systems.

Pawsperity offers a unique and holistic solution. They train individuals, primarily single parents and people in recovery, to become professional dog groomers. But this isn't just a job training program. It's a full ecosystem of support that includes 800 hours of hands-on grooming instruction, case management and wraparound social services, training and life skills like emotional regulation and even budgeting, support for housing, food, childcare, and stipends, and ongoing coaching after graduation. Graduates are leaving with marketable skills and the confidence to build a stable future. 

The results of their program and their impact are very impressive to us. The pre-program income levels are over $8,000 per year per student with the post-program income levels being above $47,000 on average. They have 100% job placement within the first two months of graduating, with 90% employment retention, with 75% of them staying in grooming for the long term. Graduates are buying homes, regaining custody of children, and launching support groups for others in recovery.

Pawsperity is preparing to scale their efforts, partnering with organizations nationwide to replicate this model.

If this mission resonates with you, we'd love to help you support their work. Pawsperity is a 501(c)(3) registered entity and keeps tuition free through individual and foundation support. You can donate directly at Pawsperity.org or if you'd like to fund this through your own donor advice fund, you can find them on your UI Charitable portal account or you can reach out to at impact@uicharitable.org and we will help you be part of this change.

This is the Impact Inbox. In this segment, we feature one question from a member of our community each episode. This episode's question is, “Can I only donate money to ⁓ 501(c)(3) charities from my donor advice fund?”

This is a great question. For those who are unfamiliar, a donor advice fund is like a charitable investment account. You put money in, get a tax deduction right away, and then decide over time which charities you would like to support. The money can grow while in the donor-advised fund as investments. You then give to different charities whenever you're ready. It is a very rapidly growing efficient giving vehicle. 

With most donor-advised funds, the answer to this question is yes, you are limited to giving only to US-based 501(c)(3) registered public charities.

While some donor-advised funds allow limited international giving, UI Charitable offers far more flexibility staying fully compliant with IRS rules. If you want to give to a non-501(c)(3) organization and receive a tax deduction, the IRS requires that sufficient work is done by a qualified organization to understand the charitable purpose of the use of funds and do the requisite follow-up to ensure that funding was used appropriately. This process done by qualified organizations is known as expenditure responsibility and is an area of expertise at UI Charitable. 

Charitable purposes, for those who are uncertain what that means, are generally defined by the IRS as relief to the poor, distressed, or underprivileged, the advancement of religion, education, or science, the provision of public goods, lessening of tensions, prejudices, or violence, the defending of human rights or civil rights, and other related activities. 

A due diligence fee reflects the scope of work, as not all organizations require the same level of expenditure responsibility. We are able to complete the research, documentation and the requisite follow-up. This expertise allows you to give to international organizations, support domestic projects that don't have 501(c)(3) status, for-profit or hybrid impact ventures with loans, equity investments, or hybrid impact investing structures, and still obtain a tax deduction.

This is one of the major advantages of Donor Advice Funds and one of the reasons why they are becoming so popular, especially at UI Charitable. So if you're in need of a tax deduction and want to support a non-501(c)(3) organization with a charitable purpose that you believe qualifies under these terms, reach out to us and we will help you make it happen.

Todd Manwaring - Thank you for joining us for this Impact Innovations Podcast. We hope that today's conversation inspires you to approach your philanthropy with greater intention, strategy, and effectiveness. Please subscribe and leave a review on Apple podcasts and Spotify and share this with others you know who are interested in finding great organizations to support. This helps our podcast grow.

To continue the conversation or if you have questions about your grant making, impact investing or impact measurement, get in touch with us by emailing us at impact@uicharitable.org.

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