FITCHBURG, Wis. — Peer Response Inc., a Wisconsin nonprofit built by first responders for first responders, has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3). The status is effective May 15, 2026, the date the organization was formed, and clears the way for Peer Response to accept tax-deductible donations and begin its work in earnest.
The mission is straightforward: make sure peer support exists, is funded, and is within reach of every first responder who needs it.
The need is well documented. About 1 in 3 first responders will face a behavioral-health condition like PTSD during their career, compared with about 1 in 5 of the general public. Firefighters and police officers are now more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. The support that helps most, study after study, is support from someone who has been there.
Not a replacement. A connection.
Peer Response is deliberate about what it is, and what it is not. It does not replace department or county peer support teams, and it does not provide peer support directly. The teams already doing this work are the heart of it.
“We’re not here to plant a flag or compete with anyone,” said Daniel Schultz, founder and president of Peer Response Inc. “The peer support teams in our departments and counties are already doing the hard, quiet work of taking care of their own. Our job is to back them up. We connect them to each other, we help fund the training, and we build the tools that make the role a little easier to carry. If a responder ever falls through a gap, we want to be the net.”
That partnership approach runs through everything the organization does. When a responder reaches out, Peer Response points them to their own department’s resources first. It steps in to fund, connect, or fill a gap, never to take the place of a team already in the building.
A network, and a tool to hold it together
To connect that network, Peer Response built a confidential platform with a simple promise: find a peer who gets it. First responders across fire, EMS, law enforcement, 911 dispatch, and health care can reach trained peer supporters, pull up their agency’s confidential Employee Assistance Program, and get to crisis resources fast.
The platform is built around the legal privilege that protects peer support conversations. It never records who reached out for help or what was said. A peer can support a responder from another department, look up that agency’s crisis information in seconds, and log that the support happened without ever putting a name or a note in the system. The more the tool is used, the more support happens, and the less anyone has to risk to ask for it.
Funding the training that makes it work
Peer support only works when there are trained peers to provide it, and training costs money that smaller and volunteer departments rarely have in the budget. Peer Response raises funds to offset the cost of initial peer support training and the continuing education that keeps teams certified year after year, so budget is not the reason a responder goes without.
Get involved
Peer Response is a volunteer-led nonprofit, and its work depends on community support. Departments interested in building or strengthening a peer support team can reach out to partner. Trained peer supporters can join the network. And anyone who wants to stand behind the people who run toward the call can make a tax-deductible gift.
They show up for everyone. Peer Response is here to show up for them.
