Tiplings Company
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
To provide support to community cats and kittens through fostering, adoption, and education. To provide foster homes for these animals, necessary veterinary care, and place rescued animals into permanent adoptive homes. To promote the importance of spaying/neutering and assist others with referrals to low cost spay/neuter programs.
- Income
- $68,514
- Spending
- $48,824
- Spent on programs
- 92%
- Reserves
- 2.1 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 55%
- Employees
- 0
- Volunteers
- 40
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
We do not score finances when yearly spending is very small or the return has too little detail. The ratios stop meaning much at that size.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Good: 81 out of 100. Higher than 82% of charities in its peer group (animals, under $250k).
Independent board
25 of 255 of 5 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
0 of 8Reports no written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
0 of 7Reports no written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (2)
- $44,678 spent. Tiplings foster and adoption program serves over 400 cats during a calendar year and is second in cats adopted in the county only to the publicly funded municipal shelter. However, while the current trends in animal welfare may be focused around data and numbers, those numbers often paint an incomplete picture. For example, while the nearest shelter did adopt out 556 cats the last year, they euthanized 234 for medical and/or behavioral reasons; rescues are critical to fill the gap between the resources available to a publicly funded municipal shelter to ensure the cats in need of those additional resources but able to make meaningful recoveries and be adopted are given that chance. This year Tiplings took chances on cats like Duncan, who is deaf but still somehow always more talkative than any other foster cat. We took chances on cats like Meep-meep who had a previously broken, crooked tail, missing fur, and was from such a crowded and dirty hoarding situation she seemed happy in a stainless-steel cage bank because it was genuinely an upgrade from her previous living situation. We took chances on cats like Oskie, who needed a tail amputation but whose affectionate nature more than compensate for a missing tail. We spent months carefully monitoring Lunchbox while he outgrew a heart and GI condition and all the medications he used to need for them. Our volunteers crawled on the floor to socialize Izzy, Charlotte, and Casper, who are in loving homes now but were unsocialized at an age that risks the euthanasia list at most shelters and that is exactly where Casper and Charlotte were headed before being pulled to our rescue. Despite our submission for this 990 including only September through December and including all the administrative start-up costs for a new nonprofit, over 90% of our expenditures are program service expenses directly related to caring for the animals whose lives we are trying to improve. We have a dedicated and knowledgeable team of volunteers who help ensure we use our resources well. For example, we have volunteers with education and work experience in the scientific and veterinary fields who conduct vaccine clinics, test stool samples, and assist fosters with basic supportive care so that we have additional veterinary funds that can be spent on items some rescues are not able to provide that increase survival rates and improve outcomes. For example, we were able to keep the medication neupogen in stock this year, which turns the grim mortality rate, which is sometimes as high as 90 to 100% to a 90% survival rate for panleukopenia when administered promptly. Tiplings volunteers spend weeks socializing cats and kittens and getting them healthy. Other volunteers staff two adoption events each week to ensure that all our cats, even those not classically adoptable, find homes. Yet more volunteers clean the adoption cages and care for and entertain the cats so they can meet members of the public and find loving homes. Tiplings volunteers drive countless hours so the limited spay and neuter resources in our county don't limit the number of cats that can be helped; significantly helping to reduce overpopulation in our area.
- Our education program also saves lives and improves outcomes for the felines in our area. Tiplings has supported other smaller rescues and community members in obtaining low cost services and helped them train their volunteers on supportive care protocols. For example, Tiplings has shared their experiences with obtaining and administering Neupogen to treat panleukopenia and shared their supportive care protocols with other rescues and community members, helping many of those community members to have a 100% survival rate despite panleukopenia being one of the deadliest diseases rescuers encounter. Even relatively healthy kittens died in foster care in local organizations in prior years while fosters made their best guesses on what medication might help while they waited for lab results. By helping those rescues run stool samples and teaching them how to screen their own samples and provide targeted treatment before official results were available and trained their volunteers on recognizing critical dehydration, they were able to intervene before their kittens were in crisis. Tiplings often supports community members who have found a kitten and want to keep it by informing them of quarantine procedures to keep them and their existing pets healthy and help them locate appropriate care for the kitten, as well as educating them about cat behavior and proper socialization. One of our Tiplings volunteers asked how the litterbox looked and was shown a picture that was more hookworms than stool and was able to help that community member obtain the correct medication, administer the medication, and provide advice on how to monitor the cat to make sure it was recovering well. It is also not uncommon for volunteers to show others how to socialize a found feral kitten in a way that avoids them getting bit or scratched and is effective and less stressful for the kitten. Tiplings volunteers often get asked questions about cat care and behavior by members of the public while attending our adoption events or representing Tiplings at community events and provide education and information about local resources.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Worth knowing.
Recognized by the IRS in December 2025. It is too new to have a track record.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.