Financial Aid for Rescuers
♦ What sort of Financial
Aid does the DPCA provide?
The DPCA offers financial aid to qualified Doberman Rescue organizations.
The aid is in the form of a reimbursement for some of the basic veterinary expenses that a Rescue will
incur in the course of preparing a dog for its new home; for example we reimburse a spay or neuter, a
heartworm test, a rabies shot, etc.. We do not reimburse elective or
'heroic' procedures, there are other charitable organizations that cover
those areas.
The list of procedures that are reimbursed and the amount of the reimbursement for each procedure is defined in the form Veterinary Expense Reimbursement Form. Additionally, if a rescue purchases certain medications (eg: wormer) in bulk then the DPCA will reimburse those purchases. The list of medications reimbursed and the amount of the reimbursement is defined in the form Bulk Medication Expense Reimbursement Form.
♦ What do I have to do to be eligible to apply for Financial Aid?
There are three basic requirements to apply
for reimbursement:
- Be a member of the DPCA, or, for an incorporated 501c3 organization, have a DPCA member on the Board of Directors.
- Have signed the DPCA Rescue Code of Ethics
- Have an IRS form W-9 on file with the DPCA treasurer.
These requirements are explained in more detail in the document Reimbursement Requirements.
♦ How do I apply for Financial Aid from the DPCA?
Each quarter, complete a Veterinary Expense Reimbursement Form for each dog for which a reimbursement is being requested, attach all receipts/invoices relating to those expenses and submit the package to the DPCA
Rescue Committee. Likewise complete a Bulk Medication Expense Reimbursement Form for any eligible medication purchases.
Each Reimbursement form contains the necessary instructions and details.
Additional information and guidance is contained in the
document Reimbursement Submission Guidelines. Only expenses incurred during that quarter are eligible for payment for that quarter. The deadline for submission is the
15th (snail mail) and 20th (e-mail) of the month following the end of the quarter.
♦ When will payment be made?
Each quarter the submissions are logged-in and checked. A sampling of
the invoices are spot-checked with the issuing veterinary practices. After
all the submissions have been processed and their reimbursement amounts
verified the payments will be authorized – typically within about 4 weeks of the
quarter’s deadline.
♦ Payment Records
Each quarter the DPCA publishes details of the Financial Aid it gives - listing the rescues receiving funds, the
number of dogs assisted, and the amount of the reimbursement given.
These details are published on the DPCA Rescue
website click here and are also
available on the
DPCA-Rescue Yahoogroups site.
♦ How is this Financial Aid funded?
The DPCA solicits donations specifically for Rescue and holds those donated funds segregated
from the DPCA general account. The financial aid to Rescues is paid only from those donated funds.
♦ What happens if the aid requested exceeds the funds available?
Each quarter the number and size of reimbursement requests and the amount of donations received are all unknowns
and so it is indeed possible that for the quarter the total of the requests will exceed the available funds.
In order to distribute funds without favor a mathematical formula, known as The Flexible Sliding Scale, is applied and distributes the available funds
amongst the requests with an impartial automatic bias in favor of the smaller rescue organizations. Full details of this scheme
are in the document Reimbursement
Procedures with an example in the document
Sliding Scale Example.
