Project Purr

What it reported doing in 2025

Project Purr is a feral cat advocacy organization founded in 1987 to humanely reduce the cat overpopulation in Santa Cruz County, California. This all-volunteer nonprofit funds the only countywide free spay/neuter program for feral cats/kittens, available to all county residents, regardless of income and no voucher required. Project Purr promotes and supports an ongoing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program to end the homeless animal crisis, while teaching nonviolence and tolerance for others. Project Purr believes in a feral cats right to life as part of our mission. Our goal is to educate, encourage, and enable as many people locally as possible to facilitate TNR themselves. The more people we educate and involve, and the more acceptable the concepts of community cats and TNR become, the more cats lives will be saved. Since Project Purrs inception 38 years ago, nearly 19,500 Santa Cruz County feral cats and kittens have been sterilized for free through our program, at a cost to Project Purr of almost $2.5 million! (average cost of $125 per cat) In 2025, Project Purr accomplished over 600 spay/neuters at a cost of over $67,000. We also rescued/ relocated 15 barn cats. Our partner vets Pet Maintenance & Repair and Animal Hospital of Soquel have been instrumental in supporting this work. These combined efforts prevented the births of thousands of unwanted kittens born to a life of uncertainty and reduced the number of animals entering the shelter. But with ever-increasing veterinary costs and the need for more feral cat spay/neuter, and dependent on donations, Project Purr is always struggling to make ends meet. We are so grateful to individual donations through groups like Benevity and Network for Good.Project Purr is grateful to have received financial support from the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter this year, thanks to a Tipping Point Grant that in 2025 funded spay/neuter for 329 cats at $100 each. We continue to partner with the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter to reduce the number of unsterilized outdoor cats. Our vision of working together with the community to find humane, compassionate solutions will help create long-term change. Project Purr will continue to partner with other local rescue organizations helping animals to reduce the community cat population. The result will be safer, happier, and healthier communities -- and better lives for its community cats too. Together, we can do more. And someday, we hope to save them all.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 78.7%; rating input score 79
• Program expense ratio: 95.8%; rating input score 96

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: 17.8%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.1; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -3.4% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings