The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation announced it was recently selected as one of the 2024 Best Nonprofits to Work For. The NonProfit Times, the leading national business publication for nonprofit managers, has partnered with Best Companies Group to identify nonprofit organizations where leaders have excelled in creating quality workplaces.
Founded in 1996, Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization based in Santa Paula, CA. Its mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by rescuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters. SDF pledges to support each of these teams through training and medical coverage for the entire life of each canine, all provided at no cost to their task forces and departments. The organization was founded by Wilma Melville, a retired schoolteacher who was deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 with her FEMA-certified search dog, Murphy. Returning from the deployment, she was determined to do something about America’s severe shortage of canine disaster search teams and created SDF to address this problem. Since then, SDF has recruited hundreds of rescued dogs and trained over 180 certified search teams deployed to over 260 disasters and missing person searches.
The survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize, and honor the 50 best employers in the nonprofit industry, benefiting the industry’s economy, workforce, and businesses. Nonprofits from across the United States entered the two-part survey process to determine the Best Nonprofits to Work For. The first part evaluated each nominated organization’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, and demographics and was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation.
The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top nonprofits and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process, analyzed the data, and determined the ranking.
For more information on The Nonprofit Times’ Best Nonprofits to Work For program, visit www.BestNonprofitstoWorkFor.com.
