Canine Companions

Legal name: Canine Companions for Independence Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942494324
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Santa Rosa, CA, United States
Phone
1-800-572-BARK (2275); 1-866-CCI-DOGS (224-3647)
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$51,415,601
Expenses
$48,602,224
Assets
$231,852,125
Liabilities
$4,898,989

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

34 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • PAIGE MAZZONI (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
  • MARCIA DOWDS (VICE PRESIDENT PHILANTHROPY)

Highest reported compensation

  • PAIGE MAZZONI (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $481,674 total reported compensation
  • DAWN GATLEY (CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER): $271,923 total reported compensation
  • BARBARA BARROW (CHIEF PHILANTHROPY OFFICER): $241,871 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Canine Companions is a national organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs at no charge to the recipient. Children and adults experiencing life-threatening blood sugar fluctuations due to insulin-dependent diabetes. Canine Companions is committed to serving all consumers with disabilities. We are strongly committed to ensuring that any individual who can benefit logistically or by improved quality of life from our services is reached as part of our mission. We are focused at managing the intersectionality of all communities we do and can serve with our mission – leaving no one out who can benefit from our services or membership in our community. See our Growth.

What it reported doing in 2025

Training and client services - canine companions placed 603 working dogs in 2025. Our professional instructors spend six to nine months teaching the dog to master more than 40 tasks before the dog can be matched with an adult or child who has a disability, or a professional assisting people at risk. We provide service dogs to individuals with more than 65 types of disabilities, including a wide range of physical, cognitive, developmental, and auditory disabilities.we train service and facility dogs to best serve our clients. In 2025, we placed 380 service dogs, which included 44 dogs trained to assist individuals who are d/deaf or hard of hearing to alert to sounds. We take immense pride in our veterans' initiative. The men and women who have served and sacrificed in our military often come back with injuries, some visible and others not. In 2025 we provided 46 dogs to veterans including 41 dogs trained to provide specialized tasks for veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). In addition, we provided 72 dogs to professionals who are utilizing the dog to meet clients' therapy goals and support clients with disabilities or who are at risk. We also provided 9 agency transfers and certified 214 therapy dog placements. Since its inception in 1975, canine companions has trained and placed 8,543 service dogs and currently has over 2,832 active graduates. Our graduates reported positive increases in several aspects of life satisfaction and mental health, after receiving a dog, including: happiness scores +1.3 points, community engagement +1.4 points, sense of connection +1.5 points, and life satisfaction +1.2 points. A hallmark of the canine companions program is the lifetime support of our dogs. 96% of our clients report that they are receiving the support they need from our organization. During 2025, canine companions staff performed 1,560 in-person follow-up visits to our service and facility dog clients.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 62
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.6%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 78%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 95%; rating input score 95; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.5%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.77; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.1% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 75.6% of revenue deployed · 78% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $37.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $482K · 34 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.1M reported
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 18/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.