Foster Coalition
EIN: 86-1687861
Mission
Foster Coalition works together with foster agencies, local organizations, and church ministries to improve the lives of foster children and provide them with a better chance for a successful future.
Ruling year
2021
Founder
Paul Berry
Co-founder
Mike Ousley
Main address
P.O. Box 382241
Birmingham, AL 35238 USA
EIN
86-1687861
Human services management
Population served
Families
Foster and adoptive parents
Orphans
Foster and adoptive children
NTEE code
Management & Technical Assistance (P02)
IRS subsection
501(c)(3) Public Charity
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.
Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The number of foster children in the system has continued to rise every year. Agencies do a great job of rescuing children from dangerous and unhealthy situations. However, they need help with recruiting, equipping, and training foster advocates. Because of the great need for foster parents, mentors, and volunteers combined with the high turnover rate of foster advocates, it's difficult for foster kids to move through the process efficiently. A significant number of valuable resources are available, but confusion remains about which resources, who provides them, and how to go about obtaining them. Lack of unity and communication among agencies, volunteers, and organizations is one of the biggest problems in the system. It results in reduced training for volunteers, loss of services and benefits, and a lower volunteer retention rate. The foster care system has received a great deal of negative publicity, and there's an increased need for mentors and mentorship programs.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Fostering For Success
We work to improve the lives of foster children through church support ministries, positive publicity, education, and community building by providing:
- Tools for churches using the Promises686.org model to establish or enhance family advocacy ministries and recruit foster parents, mentors, and support teams.
- Positive publicity including a website, social media channels, podcasts, radio, television appearances, and documentary production and broadcasts.
- Education and community building for foster families, aging out youth, agencies, and support people through mentoring, workshops, seminars, conferences, virtual and live meetings.
We want to provide the children with increased stability, security, significance, and acceptance.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of stories successfully placed in the media
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Fostering For Success
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Fostering For Success
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
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?
Our goal is to enhance the lives of children, youth, and parents in the foster care system by providing improved services and support. We want to help foster children succeed both now and as they enter adulthood. We want to help foster parents stay for the long haul and not burnout.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Foster Coalition connects local agencies, organizations, and volunteers with vital resources to help foster advocates provide safe and loving homes. We provide them with links and connections for specialized training, continuing education, and network conferences.
We work to create a positive public image by sharing success stories of our foster children while offering training and continuing education for all foster advocates. We provide media exposure to help create a positive image of foster care and foster children. We share success stories through documentaries, social media, website, and literature.
We equip local church leadership with Foster Care Ministry teams to recruit foster parents, mentors, and volunteers. We'll provide assistance for church leadership with these teams. We also assist local and state hubs to guide churches and ensure that training and ongoing education are available and consistent with all foster advocates.
We’ll always be available to offer encouragement and love to everyone we meet along our journey. We hope you’ll join us.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Foster Coalition can best be described as a catalyst organization. It functions as an independent entity that helps foster organizations, agencies, and ministries unite to provide collaborative services at an effective level above what can be accomplished individually. The results of a united community focused on accomplishing a common goal with effective communication among themselves and the community has historically improved success rates by up to 50% as documented in research performed by Stanford University.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have served approximately 20 agencies and organizations in Jefferson and Shelby Counties.
We currently partner with 3 churches in Jefferson and Shelby Counties.
We are unable to determine the number of people who have been served by the documentary that has aired on Alabama Public Television (APT) as they do not collect that data. We will be able to check metrics provided by our website and various social media platforms to determine the number of online viewers for the educational documentaries as those are posted.
We expect these numbers of agencies, organizations, and churches to increase as we expand our reach in the months and years ahead as we are still a young organization and just getting started.
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?
Foster families including children, parents, and kinship caregivers.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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 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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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders,
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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 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,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,
Financials
Financial data
Foster Coalition
Revenue & expensesFiscal Year: 2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| Contributions, Grants, Gifts | $52,700 |
| Program Services | $0 |
| Membership Dues | ($69) |
| Special Events | $0 |
| Other Revenue | $95,898 |
| Total Revenue | $148,529 |
| Expenses | |
|---|---|
| Program Services | $26,569 |
| Administration | $21,970 |
| Fundraising | $0 |
| Payments to Affiliates | $0 |
| Other Expenses | $103 |
| Total Expenses | $48,641 |
Foster Coalition
Balance sheetFiscal Year: 2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
| Assets | |
|---|---|
| Total Assets | $98,386 |
| Liabilities | |
|---|---|
| Total Liabilities | $0 |
| Fund balance (EOY) | |
|---|---|
| Net Assets | $98,386 |
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Documents
Founder
Paul Berry
Paul is a retired financial planner and investment advisor with the Covenant group which he founded in 1988. He has served on the board of JH Ranch, First Priority, and Kingdom Advisors. He has also served as a member of the steering committee to start the Alabama Christian Foundation, a division of the National Christian Foundation.
Co-founder
Mike Ousley
Mike is an entertainment producer with over 37 years experience in award winning television production. He has strong ties through philanthropic work in his community, and also serves on the boards of Owens House and Cornerstone Schools of Alabama.
There are no officers, directors or key employees recorded for this organization
There are no highest paid employees recorded for this organization.
Foster Coalition
Board of directorsas of 03/10/2023
Board of directors data
Mike Ousley
Mike Ousley Productions
Samuel McClure
Adoption Attorney
Angie Hoffman
Oak Mountain Presbyterian
Patti Smith
Retired Juvenile and Supreme Court Judge
Tony Petelos
Retired DHR Director and Hoover Mayor
Lee Kinnebrew
Barber Companies
Jim Wright
Childhaven Children's Home
Andy Martin
Providence Partners
Zack Miller
ServisFirst Bank
Andrew Howard
Select Specialty Hospital
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 -
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
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
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 12/27/2022GuideStar 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 disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- 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.
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