ECHO Orphancare Partners
Connecting Families to a Caring Community
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Children in the US are waiting far too long for someone to step in and provide safe foster and adoptive families. Families that do step forward often quit within the first year citing lack of support. In many circumstances, children enter foster care unnecessarily, and remain for far too long. Couple all this with social worker burn out and the frequent turnover rates and many children fall through the cracks and end up on the streets with no one to lean on.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Foster and Adoptive Parent Recruiting
Helping prospective parents overcome the barriers to becoming resource and adoptive parents.
Birthday Boxes
Collecting items to include in a personalized box or bag for children currently in foster care to ensure each child gets to celebrate their birthday.
Support Circles
Develops a team of monthly support for families who've received a placement(s) of a child(ren), to ensure the success of the family, regardless of the goal (reunification, permanent foster care, kinship care, or adoption).
Healing Hearts
Partner with the Newport News Department of Social Services to provide supplies for the Healing Hearts grief therapy program, assisting foster children, foster youth, and foster parents to process the trauma associated with foster placements
Social Worker Support
Championing local social workers to offer encouragement and respite amidst the challenges associated with the social welfare of vulnerable children and families
Prevention Services
Emergency response for at-risk families with the goal of family preservation and prevention of child separation into foster care.
Crazy Fun Night Out
CFNO is a bi-annual respite night for foster and adoptive families. It provides three hours of activities for children and gives the families time away to do whatever is therapeutic for themselves.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of free participants in conferences
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Prevention Services
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Attendees participated in roundtable style discussion to share community resources and address the needs of vulnerable children and families within the immediate community context.
Average number of service recipients per month
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Support Circles
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
A service recipient is a family unit, rather than an individual. This could change in future assessments.
Number of licensed foster families as a result of the organization's efforts
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Foster and Adoptive Parent Recruiting
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of foster care children placed with a family that were formally adopted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Foster and Adoptive Parent Recruiting
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of individuals in the target audience that expresses intent to adopt (or continue) desired behavior
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Foster and Adoptive Parent Recruiting
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children in foster care who have stable placements
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Family relationships
Related Program
Support Circles
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
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?
We address the problem by recruiting more resource (foster and adoptive) families. We recruit and maintain support circles to ensure resource families are adequately cared for throughout each placement. We strive to provide for the needs of at-risk families, reducing the instances of unnecessary placements. And we step in where appropriate to care for the practical and emotional needs of the child welfare social workers.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Churches in our community are the greatest single repository of strong, healthy families. We partner extensively with local churches in the community to educate pastors and parishioners of the need, recruit resources, and offer opportunities to extend their influence into the community through their business and social connections.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Our organization's staff, led by our co-founders Randall and Kelley Nichols, have a blend of personal and professional experience in child welfare, we are veterans in the field of adoption, foster care, family services, faith-based work, missions, and more. We've walked with families through the lows and highs of family life and have the patience and experience to be a valuable guide to many, many more.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
So far this year, we've seen eight new resource families, we've engaged 7 churches, witnessed 3 waiting children find forever homes, we've provided over 100 birthday bags for children in care, serve more than 250 children in foster care and their foster families, we've served three at-risk families, served 74 families through our foster and adoptive parent night out program, recruited 100 volunteers, and engaged with tens of thousands of individuals on our social media platforms.
In the next 24 months, we're looking to become a local foster parent training provider, and a resource organization for Safe Families of Virginia.
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.
ECHO Orphancare Partners
Board of directorsas of 01/26/2024
Randall Nichols
ECHO Orphancare Partners
Term: 2023 - 2026
Randall Nichols
ECHO Orphancare Partners
Kelley Nichols
ECHO Orphancare Partners
Carlyn Menser
Anchor Realty
Jamey Menser
Anchor Realty
Meredith Malpass
Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
Phil Forbes
Mulkey, Forbes, Reid & Barton
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? Not applicable -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
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
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/02/2022GuideStar 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 review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- 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 seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- 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.