Arthur L. & Elaine V. Johnson Foundation Grant

From Arthur L. & Elaine V. Johnson Foundation

In 1990 Arthur L. "Bud" Johnson established the foundation in memory of his wife Elaine. Bud had a life-long love of German Shepherd dogs and loved seeing them used to help people. He began making grants to assist organizations providing German Shepherd guide dogs. Over time, Bud expanded the Foundation's focus to include other dog breeds and handicap assistance animals in general, as well as funding nature conservation and the preservation of wildlife.

Type of Support

Overview

The Foundation may award grants to organizations which provide for the care, benefit, support and preservation of guide dogs or other animals trained to assist the sight impaired or otherwise physically handicapped individuals (or that facilitate the use of such animals by sight-impaired or otherwise handicapped individuals). The Foundation may also award grants that provide for the preservation, care and benefit of wildlife and the world’s natural resources.

For funding in the area of handicap assistance animals:

  • Our highest priority is dogs that assist the visually impaired, followed by dogs or other animals individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a physical disability.

For funding in the area of nature conservancy:

  • Our highest priority is for direct conservation (e.g., preservation or restoration of natural land, animal conservation or preservation) and science-based conservation activities (i.e., research designed to lead to better land and wildlife management).
  • We give higher priority to applications focused on critical habitat or environments or on threatened or endangered species.

Eligibility

Organization's Location
USA
Program Location
USA
Organization Type
501(c)(3)

Ineligibility

Therapy, medical alert, autism, PTSD, facility, or emotional support animals (If your organization funds such animals in addition to animals to assist the physically handicapped, you are strongly encouraged to provide an accounting of how many of each type of animal are placed as part of your application)
Organizations that require recipients to pay (other than a nominal fee) or to do significant fund raising for the organization
Nature conservancy organizations whose primary focus is advocacy
Wildlife rehabilitation that is not focused on the rehabilitation and release of threatened or endangered species
We are unlikely to fund land or easement purchases if the significance of the property is not clear, protection for recreation purposes is unlikely to be supported
We prefer not to fund overhead or general and administrative expenses - in cases where it is necessary, please explain.
not specified

Submission

Schedule
Step 1: Pre-proposal
Application deadline
Rolling
Step 2: Full proposal (check website)
Required Attachments
Audited Financial Statement
Form 990
Board List
Bios of Key Staff
Review Criteria
  • We desire that the Foundation be a catalyst for change and therefore prefer to fund projects that will assist an organization in a long-term change. Requests for funds to support on-going program operations are given a lower priority.
  • Out of date or unaudited financials, unexplained swings in income or expenses, irrelevant financial information, and very high-level budget information negatively impact our review.
  • We are more likely to fund organizations with a strong, active, and independent board (include details about board members and recent board minutes).
  • If you are requesting funds for research, specify the anticipated value or utility of the research results.
  • Here are some of the issues that may negatively impact assistance animal grant requests:
    • Sponsor a dog. We do occasionally sponsor a service animal. However, we consider this to be operational support. Please do not position it as a “project.”
    • Organizations that fund various types of service animals. Our funding area is more restrictive than many definitions of “service animal.” Please review our priorities. If your organization provides animals both within and outside of our funding area please include your long-term success rate for animal placements. This is especially important for less common approaches such as owner-trained animals and the use of rescued shelter animals.