An Update on Our Growth

As we wrap up our summer and send the kids back to school, I wanted to provide you with an update on Can Do Canines’ long-term growth plans and shorter-term building and capital campaign plans. There have been many discussions over the past year, and I want to share the newest developments and revisit how we arrived at our decision to serve more people.

Building/Capital Campaign

We are nearing completion of our architectural plans to double the size of our facility in New Hope. The construction will include many upgrades to help us better serve our clients and support our volunteers, staff and dogs. Among other things, it will include 

• a new volunteer center,
• an early learning center for young puppies allowing for more volunteer flexibility,
• a whelping/birthing facility to replace our current Whelping and Growth Center in New Germany, and
• added training, meeting, office, and kennel spaces.

We’ve also completed a feasibility study regarding the capital campaign that will be necessary to realize this expansion. We’ll share more about those results this fall.

Growth Goal

Our facility expansion will allow us to better do what we’re already doing and also to support our goal of serving more people over the next decade. Our mission is to fundamentally change the lives of people with disabilities and our dream is to change even more of those lives in the coming years.

In 2021, as part of a three-year strategic plan, we formed a work group of staff, volunteers, clients, and board members to begin a year-long discussion about growth. There was widespread agreement that, if we could do it wisely and responsibly, we would like to serve more people with disabilities, as we currently serve a small fraction of one percent of the people in Minnesota and Wisconsin whose lives could be transformed by one of our amazing dogs.

After a year of work and discussion, the work group produced a 2030 Work Group Report to guide the board in its growth discussion. In the past, growth at Can Do Canines has often been driven by fundraising results, dog numbers or somewhat arbitrary goals. The Report was designed to help the board make a strategic decision about long-term growth at Can Do Canines, knowing the costs and risks of growth before moving forward.

Based on the 2030 Report, our board unanimously approved a goal to gradually increase the number of teams we certify over the next ten years. We've been certifying about 45-50 teams each year for the past decade—our number fluctuating every year depending on several different factors. The board approved a goal of increasing our annual team numbers to 70 by 2033.

The board chose a 10-year goal (2033) rather than the original goal of 2030 in order to allow us to grow more slowly and methodically and to provide time to adjust our goal if we face difficulties or circumstances change. The board also specifically recognized the fact that we will need more volunteers and increased staff every year as we move towards our goal.

I’ve heard concerns from some volunteers that we’re not currently equipped - either in volunteer numbers or staff size - to grow in team numbers at this point. I would absolutely agree with that opinion. That’s why team growth is part of a 10-year plan that includes a commitment to increase our staff and volunteer base (along with facility expansion) before we see any team numbers increase. It’s critical to all of us that we don’t change who we are as an organization or sacrifice the quality of our matches just to reach a bottom-line goal.

We’ve added, and are continuing to add, staff in the program/dog side of our organization and we’re seeing consistent growth in our volunteer recruitment as we raise our profile and try new ways to reach potential volunteers. The puppy early learning center that will be part of our building expansion will also ease stress on volunteers for the youngest of our dogs.

We have a long way to go before we’re able to reach even 60 teams (let alone 70), but a 10-year goal allows us to grow in very small steps as we make the changes and investments we need to responsibly serve more people.

We’re excited about the future at Can Do Canines. We have an amazing team of staff and volunteers working with life-changing dogs to meet our mission. And we’re eager to change even more lives.

Thank you for everything you do to support this cause. If you have questions or thoughts, I’d love to hear them. You can reach me at jjohnson@candocanines.org.

Sincerely,

Jeff Johnson
Executive Director