AVMF REACH Program™

The AVMF REACH Program™ aims to break down barriers to access to immediate veterinary care by offering grants to any of the more than 107,000 AVMA members nationwide, increasing assistance and access to the most vulnerable communities. This program empowers the AVMF to bring our “Helping Veterinarians Help Animals” motto to fruition on a much greater national and regional scale, potentially assisting thousands more animals in need every year, including those owned by veterans. For details, see Eligibility and guidelines below.

The REACH program has seen tremendous success since its inception in 2023. Due to the overwhelming positive response, we have made two key changes to the program to allow us to support more of you—our AVMA members—and your clients.

1. AVMA members are eligible to receive $1,000 a year to use for eligible cases, as long as funds are available.
2. A maximum of five grant requests per clinic address can be awarded per calendar year.

Please note that while every attempt will be made to approve your grant at the requested amount, high demand for limited resources may result in some grants being funded at a lesser amount or not being funded at all. To ensure fairness, grant requests will be evaluated by a stringent review process.

Eligibility and guidelines

To be considered for an AVMF REACH Program grant you must meet the following requirements:

1. Be a veterinarian who is a current AVMA member* (pet owners are not eligible to apply).
2. Have already provided veterinary medical care to an animal for an illness and/or condition requiring immediate care and whose owners are experiencing financial hardship.
3. Must be a staff veterinarian at the practice submitting the grant application.

*Not an AVMA member? Find out why more than 107,000 veterinarians call AVMA their professional home. Visit the AVMA website.

Exclusions
Grant requests will not be considered for:

• Elective surgery (e.g., spays and neuters)
• Routine preventative care

Grant Guidelines
For more information, read the complete Guidelines and FAQs.

• Grants are awarded as reimbursement for veterinary charitable care services provided within the last two months. No pre-approval is required. Estimates will not be considered.
• Services/treatment must have been provided within the past two months to qualify for grant funding.
• Up to five grants may be awarded per clinic address.
• Each charitable care grant request may be funded for up to $1,000 per case as determined by reviewers, for a total not to exceed $1,000 per applicant per calendar year (January through December).
• Members within the same practice can pool funds for a single case, not to exceed $5,000 per calendar year. Each veterinarian is required to submit an individual grant application.
• Grant applications are limited to one request (may include up to three patients) per client.
• Submission of a “Final” application is not a guarantee of approval/funding. Grants may be partially approved or denied based upon available funding.
• Approval emails are sent to the participating veterinarian’s email address associated with the AVMA member ID.
• We aim to approve all REACH applications within seven business days. Once your grant is approved, we ask for seven to ten business days to invite you to the payment verification system.

Important: If you do not set up an account within our payment portal within TWO months of invitation, your grant will be cancelled. However, you will be eligible to apply for another grant in the future. For more specifics on payment information, please refer to the FAQs

“The REACH program lived up to everything it had in its mission. An owner who was facing euthanasia for their cat because of financial hardship was able to take their friend home because of the help of REACH. For a hospital/veterinary perspective, the application was seamless and required only a very small amount of time and paperwork. The program WORKS and is not in any way taxing on the veterinarian or hospital.”

“As an urgent care practice, we often see pets with immediate medical needs whose owners have financial limitations. REACH has helped us provide care to pets that would otherwise have been euthanized.”

“It took me just a few minutes to provide some basic information on behalf of clients that would benefit from some financial assistance – it took just a few minutes out of my day, but will make such an enormous difference to these clients /patients in need.”