Shade for Children
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
About 105,000 children remain institutionalized in Ukrainian State-run orphanages. More than 90% are "social orphans", placed in State custody for a variety of reasons but mostly due to economic difficulties, or neglect and abuse, or abandonment. The region we serve is one of the smallest and least populated in Ukraine, with about 3500 institutionalized children in 25+- facilities. Only about 300 have "Status"- the Ukrainian designation for a child who is eligible for adoption or foster care. Again, the overwhelming majority have parents- and children deserve to live in a family, not an institution. To be sure, many families are incapable of properly providing for a child but many just need support. It is our contention that a poor family beats an institution any day!
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Family Preservation & Reunification
We work with churches and NGO's, and government social work agencies to assist families-in-crises to prevent them from getting to the point where thy surrender their children to an orphanage. We facilitate reunification of children in orphanages with their family.
Domestic Adoption and Foster Care
We advocate for Ukrainian adoption and foster-care throughout our region.
Social & Relational Safety Nets for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
We mobilize and equip volunteers, primarily Ukrainian, to visit orphaned and vulnerable children. Teams of volunteers and mentors regularly visit children in orphanages and in homes. We want the same trained volunteers to visit the same kids at the same time and same place every week until they have a family or until Jesus comes back!
Shade for Children works with other NGO's and churches to provide day camps and residential camps OVC, as well as one-day excursions for children in orphanages.
Where we work
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of participants attending course/session/workshop
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Academics, Activists, Emergency responders
Related Program
Family Preservation & Reunification
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
COVID severely hampered our training opportunities in 2020, but we conducted one ZOOM virtual training seminary for 50+ social workers in 2021.
Number of people within the organization's service area accessing food aid
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Families, Parents, Widows and widowers, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Family Preservation & Reunification
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
This is families served, not individuals. Some of them are monthly recipients, some of them are Christmas Angel Tree related.
Number of participants engaged in programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Some programs were hampered in 2020 due to COVID but bounced back in 2021.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Economically disadvantaged people, Victims of conflict and war
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
COVID has severely hampered activities that rely on volunteers yet we have seen slight yearly increases.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Extremely poor people, Working poor
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Ideally, we'd like to work ourselves out of a job. We wish there were no orphaned and vulnerable children or families-in-crises to serve. Even so, we still want to serve families.
Number of organizational partners
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
One of our partners is an Alliance with about 20 members but we count it here as one organization.
Number of new champions or stakeholders recruited
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Unique individual and corporate donors. Our goal is to increase 10% per year during our current Strategic Plan window.
Number of children in foster care who have stable placements
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Families
Related Program
Domestic Adoption and Foster Care
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We do not place children but we advocate for placement and support foster families. This metric represents foster children and foster families we supported.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Awareness- Our mission is uniting churches and communities to cherish orphaned and vulnerable children in our region. To unite anyone requires raising awareness. Shade for Children
Advocacy,- Once people are aware then we want allies who will join us in advocating for these children
Action- beyond talking about it but doing something.
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What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Shade for Children supports the Deinstitutionalization of children. We have four primary areas of focus: 1) Family Preservation and Family Reunification- we want to support families-in-crisis before they feel like their only option is to give up their children, we want to see most of the children in orphanages reunited with their families. We work with State social service agencies to provide a variety of support for families. Our Angel Tree Program at Christmas not only provides gifts for at-risk families but provides an opportunity for us to build relationships and a safety-net for those families. 2) Advocating for Domestic Adoption and Foster Care- we want to advocate for children with Status and we want to encourage families to pursue adoption and foster care. We provide services to help families pursue adoption and foster care. Our Orphan's Prayer program works like a child sponsorship program (minus a fee) to encourage people to pray for orphans with quarterly updates that we provide. We believe some of the people praying for these kids will someday adopt or foster them. 3). Orphanage Visitation- Until there are no kids in orphanages, we will take trained and consistent volunteers to visit the same kids at the same orphanage at the same time every week for as long as we can. We want to build long-term relationships with kids and caregivers. Our volunteers hold abandoned babies nearly every day of the week in a local pediatric hospital. Through an agreement with the hospital, new volunteers are vetted and trained by Shade for Children. 4) We provide camps for orphaned and vulnerable children.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We are a small organization but because of our work in "uniting churches and communities," we've partnered with at least six churches in our home-town of Uzhhorod to provide services for families-in-crisis. Volunteers for our camps and our orphanage visitation represents several churches and at least three other NGO's.
We are a founding member of the Transform Uzhhorod Alliance, made up of more than 30 leaders from churches, NGO's, business, education, and government, which aims to make sure no one is invisible and everyone has access to food, freedom, and health in our community.
We need more orphanage visitation volunteers to expand our weekly visits to include more locations. We need more volunteers who are confident enough to share our vision in churches and with community groups.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
1. We have provided support and assistance to more than 100 local families-in-crisis in partnership with State social services.
2. We have sponsored several children from families-in-crisis, met through our partnership with social services, for summer camps and after-school programs.
3. In one year since our founding, we have recruited two families to pursue domestic adoption and provided assistance to one family that completed an international adoption. Working with another NGO, we recruited a family that will soon complete an international adoption.
4. We have a solid team of volunteers that have been very consistent in one orphanage location- going every week to the same location to see the same kids, for more than a year. We will expand to weekly service in at least one other location this year and we have visited three other locations for seasonal (Christmas, Easter, etc) programs.
5. Our Summer Camps is sold-out every year (the camp program precedes our founding).
6. We've been invited to conduct Day Camps in two orphanages this coming summer.
7. We have recruited more than 120 people to pray for specific orphaned children- we provide a quarterly update about those children.
8. We raised more than $5000 to create Yearbook/Photo Albums for orphaned children this year.
What's next?
1. We want to recruit at least four families to foster or adopt this year.
2. We want to speak in at least six new churches this year.
3. With our Transform Uzhhorod Alliance friends, we will meet with NGO's and Govt Leaders in March for roundtable discussions.
4. We want to expand our summer camp program from 2 weeks of residential camp to 4 weeks, and from 2 day camps to 4 day camps.
5. We want to sponsor a part-time Nanny to be with the abandoned babies at the local hospital at least half a day, five days a week, and increase the number of volunteers that hold babies to at least 2 volunteers every day.
6. We want to double the number this year of people committed to praying for orphans.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
We serve foster and adoptive families and potential foster and adoptive families. We serve "families-in-crises" who are at high risk of losing their children to the orphanage system. We serve children and teenagers, primarily those in the orphanage system. We serve local churches and the community at large.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
SMS text surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We are currently in the process of creating an Academic Intern program as a result of feedback from stakeholders.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Feedback from both donors and service recipients greatly shaped our 2021 Strategic Planning process. Both stakeholders universally shared their appreciation for being included in the process.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Shade for Children
Board of directorsas of 02/23/2022
Clinton White
Shade for Children
Term: 2019 - 2022
Shannon Trisler
Low Country RF Consulting
Charles Trammell
YMCA of America
Lena White
Shade for Children/Church of the Living God
Janet Schmidt
Telecommunications
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/19/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.