National Fatherhood Initiative
Creating a world in which every child has a 24/7 Dad.℠
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
National Fatherhood Initiative addresses two problems (or challenges): 1) Communities and organizations that serve families often lack the understanding and motivation to consistently provide programs, services, and other resources for fathers; and 2) Communities and organizations that seek to engage fathers lack funding and/or effective resources and strategies that address implementing programs, services, and initiatives for fathers that, in turn, help fathers become more involved in their children's lives.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
InsideOut Dad®
InsideOut Dad® is the nation's most widely-used evidence-based fatherhood program designed specifically for incarcerated fathers. InsideOut Dad® helps reduce recidivism rates by reconnecting incarcerated fathers to their families, providing the motivation to get out and stay out.
Popular among both inmates and ex-offenders, InsideOut Dad® has been proven to increase family contact and improve inmate knowledge and attitudes. Hundreds of state and federal facilities, pre-release programs, community organizations, and more are using this life-changing reentry program.
24/7 Dad® A.M. and P.M.
24/7 Dad® is an evidence-based fatherhood program used by thousands of organizations across the nation to improve the knowledge, behavior, and skills of dads of all races, religions, and demographics. The program is built on the basis that fathers can be nurturers, and for men, nurturing is a learned skill. 24/7 Dad® A.M. covers basic fathering skills and topics while 24/7 Dad® P.M. covers deeper fathering skills and topics.
Understanding Dad™
Understanding Dad™ is a unique program that helps mothers improve the relationships they have with fathers, for the benefit of their children. This program helps mothers better understand the importance of involving dad in their children's lives, and how to better communicate with the father(s) of their child(ren). Oftentimes, the mothers' gatekeeping behavior that can prevent or reduce fathers' access to their children - when fathers' involvement in their children's lives would actually benefit their children. This program encourages self-awareness and helps moms improve the communications skills they need to improve their relationships with the fathers of their children.
Fathering in 15™ (In English and Spanish)
Fathering in 15™ is an interactive, subscription-based, online tool that helps organizations build the skills of dads anytime, anywhere. Fathering in 15™ takes dads through 15 interactive, engaging topics, each in 15 minutes. The best part is that it’s accessible on any computer or mobile device and costs just $199 per location per year. Fathering in 15™ is ideal for organizations that can’t dedicate staff to facilitate a fatherhood program or who need a resource for work with dads one-on-one. It’s also ideal for reaching dads who can’t or won’t travel to an organization’s location. Use Fathering in 15™ as a stand-alone resource, or use it to compliment an existing group-based fatherhood or parenting program for dads.
Where we work
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of fatherhood resources distributed.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These data are for fiscal years (October 1 - September 30)
Number of staff in direct-service providers trained on topics related to effective engagement of fathers in programs and services.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These data are for fiscal years (October 1 - September 30)
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?
National Fatherhood Initiative's goals are related to its mission to transform organizations and communities by equipping them to intentionally and proactively engage fathers in their children's lives. Our three primary goals are to: 1) Educate all Americans, especially fathers, through social media, earned media, research, and free resources; 2) Equip organizations and communities with fatherhood programs and resources, and through training, planning, and technical assistance services; and 3) Engage and assisting organizations and communities to mobilize at the micro- and macro-level to increase the involvement of fathers in children's lives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
National Fatherhood Initiative employs an ongoing process for developing and refining strategies. Our current strategic plan includes the following tactical priorities: 1) accelerate growth in our partner base of local organizations that provide direct services to fathers and families; 2) increase the number of courses in our Father Engagement Academy™ (our new online, on-demand e-learning platform) that train staff of our partners to more effectively engage fathers in their programs and services; and 3) maintain our position as the nation's leader in providing free online resources that help organizations and communities serve dads.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
National Fatherhood Initiative has developed the following core capabilities that allow us to meet our goals: 1) NFI is the nation's leading provider of fatherhood research through the compilation and regular updating of the most comprehensive source of data and studies on father absence and involvement (our Father Facts publication), and helping providers translate the most recent research into practical applications; 2) NFI is the nation's leading developer and distributor of fatherhood skill-building resources used by fathers and organizations that serve fathers and families; and 3) NFI is the nation's leading capacity builder of organizations serving fathers and families through the provision of resources, training, and technical assistance.
One of the primary ways these capacities have evolved in recent years is reflected in NFI's increased engagement of individuals and organizations through its two websites (fatherhood.org and fathersource.org) and social media platforms. One of the most significant impacts of this increased is in NFI's ability to distribute free advice, training and resources to dads and service providers. NFI has more than 150 free resources for download. This development is crucial because the youngest generation of dads is turning to NFI for help in their fathering role and seeks information via the web and social media to perform that role. Moreover, service providers have increasingly turned to the web to locate and receive the free and low-cost resources, training and technical assistance to meet their father-engagement needs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
National Fatherhood Initiative has accomplished much in the years since its founding in 1994 and recently with an increased focus on leveraging technology to increase our impact.
NFI is the nation's #1 distributor of fatherhood knowledge and skill-building resources. Since its founding, NFI has distributed more than 10.3 million resources.
NFI is the nation's #1 trainer of organizations and practitioners on how to effectively engage fathers in the lives of their children. Since 2002, and through the through quarter of fiscal year 2022, NFI has trained 39,690 staff from 9,056 organizations in person on how to deliver our fatherhood programs.
NFI is the nation's #1 provider of evidence-based and evidence-informed fatherhood programs and resources, including programs and resources for incarcerated fathers with at least half of the nation's state departments of corrections choosing NFI's InsideOut Dad® program as their standard fathering program across all of their facilities for men.
NFI is the nation's #1 provider of fatherhood programs and resources for military fathers. NFI's programs and resources are used in every branch of the military and by many reserve and most National Guard units. We have distributed our programs and resources to installations in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and in many countries overseas (e.g. Japan, Turkey, Okinawa, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Korea, and the Netherlands).
NFI's most significant challenge related to contributions is our lack of donations from individuals. One of the primary reasons is we are not a direct-service provider. It is difficult for individuals to see the direct, immediate impact of their donations because we use those donations to serve organizations that, in turn, serve fathers and families. Even though a donor's dollar can go farther when given to a capacity-building organization like NFI (i.e. a dollar given to NFI serves many organizations, fathers and families), we must compete for donations with direct-service organizations that can show donors a more direct, immediate impact of their donations.
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 staff who work in human-service organizations that serve fathers and families in communities across the U.S.
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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 inform the development of new programs/projects, 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 designed two brochures on topics that staff in human-service organizations identified as those they needed help addressing with fathers and families: conflict resolution between fathers and mothers and helping fathers navigate the child support system.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, 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.
National Fatherhood Initiative
Board of directorsas of 01/20/2023
Shane Coker
Storable
Andy Schoka
Salesforce
Shane Coker
Storable
Maggie Spain
Spearca Communications
Rob Siedlecki
RMS Consulting Solutions
Charles Scoma
International Trade Connection, Inc.
David Bryant
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
Debora Taylor
Taylormade International Solutions
Sonia Velazquez
Literature for All of Us
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 ? Yes -
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:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data