Building Corporate Goodwill Across the Charlotte Community!

Imagine kicking off your first work week in October with the following schedule...

Create Your Own Corporate Goodwill.

We're seeking organizations looking to foster goodwill among Charlotte's business community, who are interested in sponsoring at any level. We currently have 4 traditional sponsorship packages available, as well as a variety of incredibly unique sponsorship opportunities! (All sponsorship packages include your logo displayed on our website and featured on our social media.)

Major Sponsorship Opportunities:

While we have large sponsorship opportunities available, our smaller sponsorship levels provide an opportunity for anyone to get involved with our mission. Nationwide, our veterans, children with special needs, and adults with disabilities are waiting 4 years to receive a service dog.

This is completely unacceptable and because of one reason—the service dog industry has a supply chain issue.

Changing Lives with Service Dogs.

There is nowhere near the supply of quality puppies of the right breed for the service dog industry. Most service dog organizations don't have a breeding program, meaning they must scour shelters for an ongoing supply of dogs to be trained for service work.

In a longitudinal study conducted by Paws With a Cause, a Michigan-based service dog organization, it was found that 1 out of 12 of the dogs taken from shelters had what it takes to be partnered as a service dog. A synopsis of the study also suggested that a percentage of the dogs that were placed in partnerships developed anxiety or aggression and had to be removed from the partnership.

Imagine if a for-profit company had an 8% production efficiency rate. It would lead to “supply chain” issues, very long waits, and probably a shuttering of the company. But for most nonprofit service dog organizations, they have no other choice.

The Impact of Puppy Nurturing & Nature.

A puppy as a child is a reflection of nature and nurture. We need to know as much as we can about these things when considering the probability that a puppy will have what it takes to become a service dog. When it comes to a dog taken from a shelter, how much can you know?

As far as its genetics—or nature—probably nothing. As far as early nurturing, socialization, and training during the critical phase of its life as a puppy, likely next to nothing. A third challenge is that shelter dogs are more likely than not to be made up of many breeds—each of these breeds having its own proclivities and instincts.

For example, herding breeds are more independent, being bred to work away from the handler. Conversely, a Labrador Retriever is meant to work in close connection with its handler. It is also may at times be required to remain settled and quiet for long periods of time. Consider a hunter in a blind waiting for a flock of ducks. That flock may arrive or they may not—but the dog needs to remain settled until it is time to work or retrieve.

The same is true of a service dog. It works in close contact with its handler, meaning there may be times when the dog must remain settled under an office desk where a person works for long periods of time throughout the day. This is why Labrador Retrievers are such a great breed and show so much success working as service dogs.

Compared to the 1 out of 12 (or 8%) success rate of dogs taken from shelters, feedback from more than 25 service dog organizations that call on Project 2 Heal for puppies indicates a success rate in the are of 60-65%! Even if you were to double the success rate of shelter dogs to 16%, it would still be 4x less than what Project 2 Heal puppies achieve.

In fact, the organization that Project 2 Heal has served the longest, Fidos for Freedom in Laurel, MD has received 33 puppies that are of placement age. 32 of those puppies are now successfully working with a veteran, child or adult with disability!

Based on these numbers, Project 2 Heal puppies can increase the partnering of puppies placed in training from 16% to 65%. That’s a 400% increase in efficiency! It's also the answer to the question of providing service dogs to veteran, child with special needs, or adult with disabilities sooner and for a reduced cost.

Through our work, organizations can place a greater number of trained dogs with people in need, with much greater efficiency.

Sponsoring Work that Changes Lives.

Our Putt for Pups outing is the only event we hold annually to raise money for our work. The financial success of our outing depends on our obtaining sponsorships. The number of puppies we can donate of course depends on funding.

Shortly after our 2nd annual Putt for Pups, a very important volunteer crucial to the outing—a mother watching her son play soccer was sitting in the stands—overheard two gentleman talking about the Putt for Pups outing they had attended and sponsored the week earlier. One said to the other, "It was the best run outing I've ever attended.” The other went on to agree, saying, "I agree—whenever you had a question, someone was there to give an answer immediately."

These are small things, but we take pride in doing them well.

Our veterans served and sacrificed—they deserve better. We put a man on the moon in 1969, but for some reason it takes 4 years for a veteran to get a service dog. Something is going wrong, but we can correct it. The solution is being able to donate an increasingly larger number of Project 2 Heal's purpose-bred Labrador Retriever puppies from outstanding pedigrees—nature—that go through our structured nurturing, socialization and early training—nurture.

We need the help of corporate partners to make this event a success. We humbly ask you to help our veterans, children with special needs, and adults with disabilities by becoming a sponsor of our 2022 Putt for Pups golf tournament. You and your colleagues will experience a great day of golf, food, and camaraderie, while also helping to provide for a service dog to a person in need.