Max's Helping Paws Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812990529
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- Carmel, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8317046473
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $115,670
- Expenses
- $788,396
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SARA DAVI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- CARLOTTA MELON (PRESIDENT)
- JONATHAN FRADKIN (VICE PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- SARA DAVI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- CARLOTTA MELON (PRESIDENT)
- JONATHAN FRADKIN (VICE PRESIDENT)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Reduce economic euthanasia, surrender, and suffering of severly ill or injured pets by providing pet owners assistance with the costs of urgent medical care.
What it reported doing in 2025
Diagnostic/stabilization: diagnostics/stabilization/initial treatment when the owner otherwise cannot afford to get to the vet because of financial limitations.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 3
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 21.1%; rating input score 21
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -581.6%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.7% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 21.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $166K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.