What prompted you to establish the Everychild Foundation, and what sets it aside from other organizations funding work on behalf of children?
I was frustrated with the typical charity fundraising model which did not appropriately tap into my talents, training and abilities. I was fed up with only being asked to plan galas and solicit for dinner tickets and auction items. It was demeaning and inefficient. I felt that the focus of these events wasn't always about the cause. They also did not stimulate me intellectually. As to the cause itself - having my own children made me more attuned to issues that face the most vulnerable of our society.
What do you see as the greatest triumph of your work with the Everychild Foundation so far?
Directly serving over 350,000 local children in significant ways would be the obvious answer. However, 1) the fact that we have created a grant-making model that now has inspired at least 10 spin off groups and 2) that we only fund projects which can inspire replication and which have, in fact, done so, is very exciting to us. We have really leveraged our work.
You've worked closely on issues of foster care. What are some of the issues that face children in the foster care system?
There is a huge laundry list. One of the saddest is what happens to these kids when they age out of care. Upon their 18th birthday, they are on their own. In fact, some of them even arrive home on that day to find the locks changed and a garbage bag on the doorstep with all their belongings. Their prospects, as you can imagine, are dismal. The girls, for instance, are 3 times more likely to become pregnant by age 19 than their non-foster care peers. In Los Angeles and Alameda Counties, 50% of these kids will be homeless within 6 months. Less than 5% of these kids will ever complete college. As they age, their poverty and incarceration rates are also way above the norm.
What kinds of changes would you like to see in the state foster care system, and what efforts are you and the Everychild Foundation making to promote those changes?
We would like to see more programs that provide housing and support services for these children as they age out of care - mental health, career counseling, independent living skill instruction. We have successfully advocated for these funds in the past. Currently, our focus is on AB 12 - a bill that would provide the state funds needed to match newly available Federal funds giving youth the option to remain in foster care up to age 21. Without the state match, California can't tap into the Federal dollars. (We are all grateful to California's Senator Barbara Boxer for authoring the Federal bill.) All the studies show that kids are not ready to be fully independent until age 25. Allowing these youth to remain in care, at least until age 21, would permit them to enroll in college or trade schools or look for a job without simultaneously having to worry about where to sleep each night.
Your goal with Everychild is to fund projects that are replicable, and Everychild itself has followed that, with similar organizations starting up in other communities. Are there any projects you see as worthwhile even if they make be specific to a certain community or local need?
Of course. We just decided to select "replicable" projects because we wanted to have more bang for our buck by leveraging our funds.
With your ability through Everychild to make large grants, typically a million dollars, what kinds of large-scale changes have you seen in the recipient organizations as a result?
Once an organization receives our grant, it immediately gives them greater credibility in the community as our grant process is known as the most rigorous in town. Many of these groups, as a result, have been able to attract other significant funding and grow their services significantly. For example, after we gave the Wonder of Reading funding to build 15 new libraries in elementary schools, suddenly other new funders surfaced who provided multi-library grants. Our gift for a program that sends staff into homes of children diagnosed with asthma to rectify asthma triggers has now attracted funding for a similar program for adult asthma patients. Our mobile dental clinic grant attracted funding for 3 other clinics to work alongside ours. Also, a reason why our grant recipients are able to attract this new funding is that our grant team helps applicant agencies learn how to craft a better proposal. Even the losing agencies have thanked us afterwards for the guidance. One final point is that a number of the agencies have also expanded their boards once they have received our grant which has allowed them to increase their community visibility and expand their strategic vision.
Given the membership requirements of an organization like Everychild, not every woman will have the financial resources to join. How can women who don't have the ability to make a $5,000 contribution help with these kinds of efforts?
This model can be replicated at any price point, for any cause and with any demographic group as its members. We have inspired spin off some groups where the members contribute $500 annually and they are able to fund some important grants. My children have actually joined a teen group where the kids put on bake sales, car washes and baby sitting nights to earn the pot of money they use as a group to distribute. There are many creative ways to approach pooled giving.
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