Case Study
Fathers & Families
Founded in 1998, Fathers & Families has distinguished itself as the most accomplished family court reform organization in America. It is the only organization of its kind to achieve financial stability through broad-based individual financial support. Fathers & Families has been a client of Charitable and Philanthropic Management Counsel since the summer of 2000.
“Rita gave us the guidance we needed to turn ourselves from a living room organization into a national advocacy group with over 50,000 members. For the first five years after we retained her, our revenues grew 50% per year.”
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Fathers & Families
“Rita Fuerst Adams has been instrumental in crafting Fathers & Families. She has helped make us a better-funded, more professional, more effective, and more efficient nonprofit organization. Utilizing her as a consultant on a long-term basis was one of the smartest decisions we've ever made.”
Glenn Sacks, MA
National Executive Director
Fathers & Families
Charitable and Philanthropic Management Counsel's role has included:
- Writing, in collaboration with the founder, its first mission and vision statement and first case for support. These have been revised and updated as Fathers & Families has grown.
- Organizing Fathers & Families work around eight key areas used for its strategic planning, budgeting, and fundraising.
- Establishing the strategic planning document Fathers & Families uses each year and updates for the coming year.
- Creating its fundraising program, including goals for each year since 2000.
- Conducting a series of several dozen focus interviews with prominent citizens to help craft Fathers & Families' plan and message. Interviewees included former Democratic Party presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, as well as entrepreneurs, philanthropists, corporate giving officers, foundation leaders, and other prominent citizens throughout the United States. The valuable insights gained from these focus interviews were used to help shape Fathers & Families' 2009 and 2010 Strategic Plan and Case Statement.
Most recently:
- 2009 saw a greater number of unique givers than ever before in Fathers & Families' history and an 80% increase in revenue compared to 2008.
- In 2010 we are building affiliates in key states, developing sound governance structures and legal relationships among national and affiliates, and increasing contributions by 50%.
