PLATINUM2023

Foster Hearts

Our Community... Our Children

Custer, WA   |  https://www.foster-hearts.com

Mission

Foster Hearts provides personal items and life-enhancing opportunities for children in foster care. Providing them with belongings and experiences to call their own. This is accomplished by providing foster children in our area with basic items: food, clothes, hygienic products, school supplies, childhood experiences and more.

Ruling year info

2020

Executive Director

Shala Crow

Program Director

Christina Urtasun

Main address

PO Box 566

Custer, WA 98240 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

85-1729709

NTEE code info

Foster Care (P32)

Youth Development Programs (O50)

Children's and Youth Services (P30)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2022 and 2021.
Register now

Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Many children enter foster care with only the clothes on their backs. They have experienced exceptional trauma due to abuse and/or neglect which is compounded by the removal from their family, home, and community. Foster Hearts provides support to these children providing basic needs not being met by the state or other programs and by equipping and connecting those caring for them. We provide material resourcing, emotional support, encouraging community support, parent's night out opportunities, and more! These services are available to foster parents, kinship caregivers. By providing resources support to caregivers, we help them to sustainably care for the children in their homes for longer periods of time, thereby increasing stability and decreasing disruption for children in foster care.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Food 4 Fosters

For foster children with food insecurities especially due to COVID-19. Helping your foster child with food or snacks for visits.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
At-risk youth

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of children placed in foster care in Region 3.

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Decreasing

Total number of volunteer hours contributed to the organization

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Foster Hearts programs bring normal childhood experiences to foster and kinship youth. Our goal is to widen horizons, teach important life skills, and bring joy. Foster Hearts believes this can happen successfully by doing three things; providing basic needs to foster children, connecting foster parents through monthly support meetings, trainings and quarterly parent's nights out, and work to build awareness and inspire community engagement to best serve children in foster care and their caregivers. Our organization helps reduce the financial strain a placement can place on a foster family by freeing up funds that would otherwise be used to fulfill these immediate needs. These needs are not always met immediately or in full by the State, and that is where we step in. Meeting these needs allows foster parents to use the funds saved to help the children adapt to their new home in other ways.

Foster Hearts aims to meet basic needs, provide caregiver support, foster relationships, and promote community engagement.

We currently serve families from Whatcom, Skagit, Island, and Snohomish counties. We collect and distribute new and 'like new' donations, given by members of the community, local businesses, churches, etc., that are assembled into Care Kits for children entering foster care. We also provide basic necessities like car seats, cribs, bunk beds, and other items free of charge. In addition to material resourcing, Foster Hearts provides for food insecurities, education and FUN! We also hosts support group meetings for foster parents, quarterly Parent's Night Out events, and hosts annual family events.

Foster Hearts benefits from the generosity of the community. Our 20+ volunteers give regularly towards our mission, generous donors provide financial support to further our work, and the community at large is becoming more involved as word of what we're doing spreads; there are countless ways for community members to get involved. Under the leadership of our dedicated staff and board members, Foster Hearts is able to increasingly meet the needs of the community and steadily expand our impact and reach.

Foster Hearts serves over 1,000 children and adults who are providing care for them each year and we are continueing to grow. We are giving out more Care Kits, car seats, beds, and other basic necessities, more support for our caregivers, serving more families through specific child needs, special events, and engaging the community more for increased awareness and involvement.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • 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

  • 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 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 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 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, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

Foster Hearts
lock

Unlock financial insights by subscribing to our monthly plan.

Subscribe

Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our 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.

Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build 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.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build 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.

Foster Hearts

Board of directors
as of 06/27/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board co-chair

D'Shaynna Anderson

Foster Hearts

Term: 2020 - 2022


Board co-chair

Christina Urtasun

Foster Hearts

Term: 2020 - 2022

D'Shaynna Anderson

Tartan Chickadee

Nicole Crow

Community

Kim Hendrickson

The Fires

Francisco Contreras

Foster Parent

Emmanuel Camarillo

Youth Net

Anna Urtasun

Former Foster Youth

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • 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 ? Not applicable
  • 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? Not applicable

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 6/27/2023
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

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
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

The organization's co-leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 01/21/2022

GuideStar 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

Data
  • 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 disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
Policies and processes
  • 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 help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • 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.