The WMK9 Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded in 2019 in West Michigan, that puts professionally trained dogs with the veterans, first responders, and communities who need them — without the price tag that keeps most of them from ever getting one.
"To provide professionally trained service dogs and police K9s to veterans, first responders, and communities in need, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent access to these life-changing and life-saving canine partners."
That sentence is the whole organization. Everything we do — fundraising, training, matching, placement, and the support that follows — exists to make it true for one more person or one more department at a time.
The Foundation grew out of West Michigan K9, a professional canine training and procurement operation whose dogs serve federal, state, and local law enforcement. The people training those dogs kept running into the same problem from two directions. Veterans and first responders would reach out about a service dog, learn what a fully trained dog costs, and quietly disappear. Small police departments would lose a K9 to retirement and have no budget line to replace it. The dogs existed. The training existed. The money didn't.
In 2019 we formed the WMK9 Foundation to be the thing that removes that cost. We raise the money, fund the training, match the dog to the person or department, and place it at no charge to the recipient.
Veterans and first responders first. A service dog can mean sleep, steadiness in a crowd, a reason to leave the house, and a partner that notices what's happening before anyone else does. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers carry the same kinds of wounds veterans do, and we treat them the same way.
Communities second. When a department needs a detection or patrol K9 and can't fund one, we donate a trained dog so the community gets the protection and the officers get a partner. By 2021 we had donated our tenth police K9.
We are a volunteer organization. No board member, officer, employee, or volunteer receives compensation — not a salary, not a stipend. Every dollar donated goes to training dogs and fulfilling our purpose, and we publish how it's spent on our Open Books page.
Founded in West Michigan as a 501(c)(3) to remove the financial barrier between people who serve and the dogs that can change their lives.
When the City of Wyoming retired one of its police dogs, we donated K9 Max, a German Shepherd trained at our West Olive facility, to the Wyoming Department of Public Safety — our tenth donated K9. Read the story.
The Ruff Ruck Challenge raised $96,000, netting $86,000 to the mission — enough to fully fund four service dogs (Cider, Rouge, Nira, and Chief), start a fifth, and cover veterinary care for every dog in the program. See the full financial report.
Our golf outing returned for its second year, bringing sponsors, veterans, and supporters together to fund the next placements.
People ask, so we answer it plainly. West Michigan K9 is a for-profit canine training and procurement company founded by Stephen Parent, who also founded and leads the Foundation. WMK9 Foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit with its own books. The Foundation exists because the team training working dogs kept meeting veterans, first responders, and departments who needed one and couldn't pay for it.
The connection is why we can deliver: the Foundation has direct access to professional trainers, proven dogs, and a working facility. Any dealings between the two organizations are disclosed on the Foundation's Form 990 as the IRS requires, and we publish the details on our Open Books page.
100% of every gift goes to training and placement. No one at the Foundation is paid.
