Therapeutic Ranch for Animals and Kids

What it reported doing in 2024

Therapeutic ranch for animals and kids (trak) programs focus on children with and without specific challenges. The focus of the program is to offer participants opportunities to provide service to people and animals of the community. This gives an often-rare experience to be a service provider to those less fortunate. Participants will receive specific educational skills, business, and vocational training that will aid in their efforts to help themselves, each other and their community. Youth often have lost confidence in their ability to learn. The trak program offers areas of skills for service where youth can rediscover the fun and value of learning. The hope is that they will give back to society all they have learned. Our porgram allows youth to choose an area of particular interest. These options teach them the necessary skills to be successful as individuals. Animal friends school programs: how far can a rabbit hop? Why does a pig roll in the mud? How can you tell if a horse is happy? What does it mean to be a predator or prey animal? These questions and many others are answered in our animal friends hands-on programs. Children learn a variety of information ranging from the diet and required to care for these animals to behaviors and interesting facts. Many schools enjoy visiting our animal family at the ranch. We have adapted this program to include virtual lessons for schools and those students who have been learning virtually. Participants acquire hands-on skills that can be used outside the program through experiencing the daily routine at a barn. This includes barn maintenanice, learning to clean stalls, feed and water animals, grounds upkeep and repair, etc. The participants also learn responsibility, timeliness, and punctuality. They learn coping skills which enables them to function better and become animal education: participants will be educated in animal care and maintenance, nutrition, health care management and behavior. They will utilize these skills in the regular care of the trak animal community. Special event volunteer work: participants in the animal education program will travel to various events throughout tucson to share their knowledge of animal care and bahavior. This will provide the opportunity to increase self-esteem by allowing our program participants to be the expert in a very high interest field amoung their peers. Community volunteer work: members of our trak family will have the opportunity to take some of our animal friends into the community to visit with those who could benefit from animal contact. This will include, but is not limited to, hospitals, hospice, nursing homes, schools, programs for people with disabilities, community events, etc animal assisted life skill and therapeutics: our animal assisted life skills & therapeutics (aals) program combines mental health professionals, equine professionals, and our farm animals to provide therapeutic interventions to individuals and groups seeking assistance in dealing with life transitions, traumatic experiences, family stressors, skill building, depression, anxiety, autism, and adhd. We want our participants (children and adults of the tucson community) to gain the ability to earn and give trust. Sessions are ground based giving both the clients and animals the opportunity to freely interact with each other. These sessions can help participants develop various skills and positive behaviors such as self-awareness/self-esteem, coping skills, building community, task management, active listening, resposibility, relationship develpoment, and social skills. This program also has shown the ability to frequently reduce anxiety and depression horsemanship riding lessons: these lessons are more involved than just riding. We believe that in order to be safe around horses it is very important to understand the nature of a horse. Lessons start with working side by side with the horses learning about their nature, how to approach, halter and lea

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 79.1%; rating input score 79
• Program expense ratio: 80.6%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $12.17 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 1.8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 15.9%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings