Champion animal welfare through youth-driven action.
We organize, educate, and mobilize the next generation around adoption, fostering, supply support, and community outreach, making it easier for every animal to find safety, care, and a home.
Our Mission · Our Story
We're teen-led, mission-driven,
We're teen-led, mission-driven,
and stubbornly hopeful.
Paws For A Cause is a 100% youth-led nonprofit serving animals across Michigan and beyond, through adoption events, supply drives, education, and community partnerships.
Our Origin
Three juniors. One classroom conversation. A mission that wouldn't quit.
On July 16, 2025, three high-school juniors in Okemos, Michigan, Tejas Valisetty, Rithik Parthasarathy, and Vaibhav Mahesha, decided that "someone should do something about it" wasn't going to cut it anymore.
They had watched too many animals slip through the cracks: shelters running out of food, foster networks stretched thin, families without resources to keep their pets. So they built a nonprofit teens could lead, and adults could trust.
Within months, Paws For A Cause grew from a kitchen-table idea into a multi-state network of student volunteers, shelter partners, and community sponsors, all chasing one simple promise: no paw left behind.
📅 Founded July 16, 2025
A Michigan, and a country, kinder to every animal.
A future where no shelter is overwhelmed, no animal is unseen, and where teens are recognized as one of the most powerful forces in the animal welfare movement.
Our Values
What we stand for, every single day.
Five non-negotiables that shape every event we run, every partnership we sign, and every paw we touch.
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Compassion
We lead with empathy, for animals, for partners, and for each other. Always.
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Leadership
We empower youth to lead real campaigns with real outcomes, not symbolic seats at the table.
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Service
Show up. Do the work. Help the shelter restock and the family adopt with dignity.
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Community
Schools, shelters, families, businesses, we're stronger together than alone.
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Action
Awareness without action is just noise. Every campaign we run ships measurable impact.
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Transparency
Where the dollars go, what the volunteers do, who we partner with, open by default.
Where We Stand
A snapshot of our first chapter.
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Year Founded
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Teen Co-Founders
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State Chapters
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Regional Chapters
How We Work
Four steps from awareness to impact.
01
Listen
We start by talking to shelters and rescue partners, what do they actually need this month?
02
Mobilize
We coordinate volunteers, set drop-off points, and rally schools, families, and sponsors.
03
Deliver
We host the event, run the drive, train the volunteers, and hand-deliver supplies to partners.
04
Share
We report back, publicly. Numbers, photos, lessons learned. Then we do it again, better.