Lend A Heart Lend A Hand Animal-Assisted Therapy

A nonprofit organization
Fundraise

0% complete

$5,000 Goal

Lend A Heart, Lend A Hand Animal-Assisted Therapy was founded in 1987 through the involvement and dedication of local dog club members. It provided the Sacramento area with animal-assisted teams to be used in therapeutic settings. Today, we continue to provide the benefits of animal-assisted therapy through ongoing programs in a wide range of facilities and settings. Assisted living facilities, libraries, and VA Medical Center make up the core of our programs and have been supported by Lend A Heart since its beginning. We have added adult programs and reading programs at schools. Within the last ten years, we've branched out to include Sacramento International Airport (BARC), Sacramento County Courthouse (Family Relations), and de-stressing events at schools and colleges. Currently at 55 volunteers/teams, we've maintained agreements with 15 facilities (Sr Living, VA Hospital, Libraries, Schools)  for 90 regularly monthly scheduled therapy visits, 66 mostly school de-stressing special events, 111 BARC/airport visits, and 41 Sacramento Courthouse visits. Our programs connect with people of all ages with the support of our volunteers and the unconditional love of our therapy pets.

Lend A Heart continues to move forward with more park role-plays/orientations. Sacramento International Airport (BARC) with currently 26 teams (26 dogs) just celebrated its 10th anniversary  - you will see us every Wednesday and two Fridays each month in Terminal B.  And, we are there two Sundays each month in Terminal A.  We continue to increase our regular facility monthly visits. Not to mention, that we have been very active at schools (elementary through college), UCD Med Center/Mind Institute, and many others. Interacting with our teams brings smiles, belly rubs & hugs to our pups, and conversation.       

Lend A Heart continues to to make a significant impact with 2799 total hours by volunteers for 2025 into 2026, monthly park role plays/orientations, 4 evaluations, and our Courthouse visits are expanding. Things are definitely looking up and we're now engaged in a marketing video project!  Two videos are posted on our website, Evaluation and BARC, with more to come.  


Giving Activity

Mission

Lend A Heart is an all-volunteer organization comprised of certified handler and animal teams, and associate volunteers, dedicated to provide compassion and understanding for our clients through animal-assisted therapy. Our values are to provide quality, commitment, integrity, and to celebrate diversity.

Needs

Operating Expenses...In order to maintain and expand our Lend A Heart programs, we must be able to cover our operational expenses of liability insurance for our teams (handler/pet), website, volunteer online calendar management system, storage for equipment, location for meetings/activities (currently Zoom) and mail correspondence to volunteers/clients/public.

Education...Hire a professional videographer to produce quality video supporting our therapy pet orientations, evaluations, and ongoing education. Lend A Heart needs to expand its recruitment of new teams (handler and pet) and education efforts to re-socialize current teams. It traditionally uses face-to-face demonstrations and handouts. LAH will continue with that format, but it recognizes its lack of video support and realizes the benefits of video support. It now strives to fill that void. These videos will be posted on our website and Facebook pages - available to public, potential teams, new teams, current teams, and clients.

Marketing...Help us to provide custom therapy dog business or trading cards to our clients of all ages. We provide our traditional business card to all teams to pass on to clients during program visits and events. However, our clients are drawn to custom therapy dog business or trading cards that some of our teams have created (at their own expense). These custom cards still include LAH information, but also include picture of pet with name, information about pet i.e. favorite food, favorite activity, therapy pet visit types. LAH would like to contribute to this expense and provide this option to all teams.

Replace dated or broken visit-related equipment as well as purchase additional equipment. With increased demand for outside events, we need additional mats for our teams and students/public.

Equity Statement

Quality — Treat everyone, the public, clients and colleagues, with respect, dignity and sensitivity while continually striving to improve our services to the community.

Commitment — Maintain a consistency of purpose to improve our members and our organization through training and teamwork.

Integrity — Demonstrate commitment, responsibility and honesty in all of our activities.

Celebrate Diversity & Inclusion — Respect, value and welcome diversity in our organization, as well as in the facilities and populations we serve.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Lend A Heart Lend A Hand Animal-Assisted Therapy

other names

LAH

Year Established

1987

Tax id (EIN)

68-0191234

Guidestar

Mission Category

Human Services

Operating Budget

$0-$50,000

Organization Need

Volunteers, Funding: Program, Funding: Other

Demographics Served

Seniors, Youth & Children, General population

Local Counties Served

El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Yolo

Equity Statement

Equity Statement

Address

11230 Gold Express Dr Ste310 #284
Gold River, CA 95670

Service areas

Sacramento, CA, US

Placer, CA, US

El Dorado, CA, US

Yolo, CA, US

Sutter, CA, US

Phone

916-985-6272

Email

smckaig@lendaheart.org

Website

http://www.lendaheart.org

Social Media