Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
205318898
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Phone
4137814000
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Animal Protection and Welfare

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,797,312
Expenses
$5,729,411
Assets
$8,575,440
Liabilities
$348,458

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

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TRACY SICBALDI (PRESIDENT)
  • TIFFANY APPLETON (PRESIDENT "PAST")
  • KELLY MOLONEY (VICE-PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MEGAN TALBERT (EXEC. DIRECTOR): $181,848 total reported compensation
  • DR JACK MUTH (PUBLIC MEDICAL & EDUCATION): $148,953 total reported compensation
  • DR ELIZABETH HELTON (VETERINARIAN): $123,359 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Dakin humane society delivers effective, innovative services that improve the lives of animals in need and the people who care about them. As a trusted community resource center for pets and their people, we offer a variety of programs that touch the (see sch o) lives of nearly 20,000 animals and people a year including adoptions, pet food assistance, low-cost spay/neuter surgery, affordable vaccine and medical clinics, and much more.

What it reported doing in 2025

In july of 2022, dakin launched the pet health center, which is a non-emergency veterinary resource to better support the pets and people in our community and lessen the barriers to veterinary medical care. In 2025, 5,358 animals received services through the pet health center. Dakin's pet food aid program provides food assistance for pets whose people are facing temporary hardships. In 2025, our pet food aid program distributed over 50,000 pounds of pet food, which equals 444,000 meals for dogs and cats, providing peace of mind and maintaining lasting relationships between people and their pets while also partnering with our human-service partners such as survival centers, animal-control officers, and a number of local social-service agencies to dispense food directly to families in need. In 2020, dakin launched the kitten street team, a program to address critical need in our community. The goal of this team of specially-trained volunteers is to assist in controlling feral (wild) cat populations in the pioneer valley. Tnr (trap, neuter, return) is a humane and effective way to prevent unwanted litters of kittens born outside year after year. Cats and kittens trapped through this program are spayed and neutered at dakin and returned to their colony or placed up for adoption. In 2025, the kitten street team helped 440 cats and kittens through tnr.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 56
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 66.7%; rating input score 67
  • Program expense ratio: 77.9%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.45 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 15.7%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.5; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13.1%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 66.7% of revenue deployed · 77.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $4.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $182K · 19 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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 12/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.