Jacqueline Caster started her charitable foundation for children by making a list. She wrote down all of the things she didn’t like about her prior fundraising involvements. ”Big, expensive benefit dinners. High overhead. Low accountability. Hierarchical structure. Intangible results. ”Caster set out to create a more efficient organization designed for busy women that would emphasize equality among members. The group’s focus would be on alleviating the suffering of children in the Los Angeles area facing disease, abuse, neglect, poverty or disability. ”’After having my own children, I realize everything it takes for a child to grow up and be healthy,’ says Caster, mother of two, ages 11 and 13. ‘And I have access to all these resources.’ ”Her idea for Everychild Foundation was simple: Each member donates $5,000 annually in dues to award one grant that funds a single project. Membership is limited in order to create a tight-knit group of women, maintain efficiency and keep operational costs to a minimum. ”Caster’s unique fundraising approach appealed to a range of women, from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to full-time moms. They could be as involved or uninvolved with the actual project details and activities as they wanted, and feel that their contributions were equally important. ”’The point is for women to feel empowered by philanthropy,’ says Caster, a former real estate attorney who headed her own consulting firm for over a decade, performing economic feasibility studies for large-scale urban renovation projects. She also holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. ”Everychild was incorporated in November 1999 and granted its tax-exempt status in the summer of 2000, when Caster started recruiting members. ”Fifty-six women participated in making the first grant of $230,000, which went to the purchase and outfitting of a new mobile dental clinic serving students in some of the lowest-income elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The grant was awarded to QueensCare, a nonprofit health care provider that operates the clinic. ”’We try to fund projects that are prototypes,’ Caster says. Since the clinic’s opening in May 2001, other L.A. philanthropists have purchased and equipped three additional mobile dental units. ”In the years since that first project, Everychild has awarded four other grants for a total of over $2.5 million. The projected size of the 2006 grant is $850,000 to $1,000,000. ”Currently, Everychild has 185 members, ages 25 to 65. About a quarter of them are Palisades residents, according to Caster. Her Highlands neighbors Cynthia Alexander (vice president) and Debra Colbert (secretary) are founding members. ”’I feel we have truly become a sisterhood whose mission it is to make a difference in the lives of children in the L.A. area,’ Colbert says. ‘On a daily basis I know where my money has gone and the direct and tangible results of its use. Everychild members can enjoy the unique opportunity to really see and touch the dental vans, libraries, schools and treatment facilities we have funded in the last five years.’ ”Their second project was the funding of 15 libraries in low-income LAUSD elementary schools that lacked adequate facilities. Everychild presented the $385,000 grant to Wonder of Reading, which had previously built 67 libraries through its 3R (Renovate, Restock and Read) Program. ”’I can’t think of any other group that can put a library into a school on such an efficient, cost-effective basis,’ Caster says. ”The grant helped stock the libraries with books and train volunteer reading tutors at each school. A portion of the money ($10,000) is also being used for the preparation of a ‘how-to’ manual, which Wonder of Reading will provide to other charitable entities around the country interested in replicating the program. ”The families of Everychild members Maria Bell, Cindy Simon and Gina Goldsmith have funded three new Wonder of Reading libraries, and other members have volunteered as reading tutors. Caster’s husband, Andrew, a Beverly Hills LASIK surgeon, subsequently became a Wonder of Reading board member. Everychild members have the difficult task of selecting one nonprofit agency out of the dozens that apply for the annual grant. ”’All of the projects strike a different chord,’ says Caster, who hired a professional grant consultant to advise members in the yearlong selection process. ” ”The grant consultant works with the grant screening board, which consists of 18 rotating members who review applications and conduct site visits to determine which nonprofit agency will receive the annual grant. ”’The stringency of the grant review process helps to focus organizations, their projects and structure so that all of us are assured that our $5,000 is being well spent,’ says Everchild member Amy Sommer, a documentary film producer. ”At the end of the year, when the applicant pool has been narrowed down to two, Everychild members vote on the final project. ” ”’We only make one grant a year, so we can’t make a mistake,’ Caster says, adding that members are ‘learning how to do a lot of what the grant consultant does, inhouse.’ ”One advantage of making a single grant per year is that Everychild can closely monitor the progress of each project with its grant monitoring committee. Prior grantees also update Everychild members at the annual luncheon. ”’We don’t fund anything that’s going to take a long time,’ Caster says, explaining that projects should be completed in roughly one year. ‘We want people to get immediate results.’ ”In 2003, the grant selection process facilitated the funding of a project serving child abuse victims. Everychild awarded $600,000 to Violence Intervention Program (VIP), an agency responsible for assessing and treating children impacted by violence. ”The grant successfully renovated VIP’s 70-year-old Boyle Heights facility (renamed Everychild Foundation Center for the Vulnerable Child) and enabled the agency to increase its patient load by about 45 percent. ”’We’re getting a reputation for being extremely thorough with our grant screening process,’ Caster says. Everychild was selected as ‘Outstanding Private Foundation of Los Angeles’ by the Association of Fundraising Professionals on National Philanthropy Day in 2004. ”The last two Everychild projects have served the young adult population, funding a specialized high school for troubled teens and a treatment center for foster youth. ”Optimist Youth Homes used the 2004 grant of $630,000 to build a state-of-the-art Everychild Foundation Youth Learning Center, which opened earlier this month in Eagle Rock. The new, larger high school building will allow the agency to increase the number of students served from 400 to 550, in a setting that integrates education and therapy. ”Everychild’s most recent grant of $715,000 went to Hillsides, the Pasadena-based residential and community treatment center for troubled children. ”The money will fund an apartment building, with 25 percent of the units set aside for the Youth Moving On project, which will provide transitional living, support services and life skills training for about 28 emancipated foster youth per year who have been psychologically damaged by abuse. (Emancipated foster youth lose eligibility for government-funded housing or programs when they turn 18.) ”This project is innovative and cost-effective in that the remaining 75 percent of the units will be rented to the community at fair market value and those funds used for a down-payment for a second such building purchase. ”’We were hoping to find something great’top quality’in the foster care area,’ Caster says of Everychild’s selection of Hillsides. ‘On a foster child’s 18th birthday, if the family isn’t interested in keeping the kid around, the kid’s out on the street. It’s a rare 18-year-old who can handle all of the trials and tribulations of life…’ ”With five grants awarded thus far, Everychild has served over 30,000 children in the Los Angeles area. The group is currently doing the site visits for the 2006 grant, considering a range of projects including prenatal telemedicine, a playground for disabled children, a diabetes and asthma screening van and an arts facility for impoverished and homeless children. ”To enhance their knowledge as grant makers, members host evening salons in their homes with speakers on issues facing children in their communities. They involve their own children by hosting annual Family Day Projects such as packing book bags with school supplies for at-risk children. All of these events are underwritten by outside sponsors. ”’I’m glad I don’t have to get all dolled up to go to a [fundraising] event, try to sell tickets to my friends or hustle for silent auction items. I think that most of us are tired of that,’ says Everychild member Stefania Magidson. ‘There is also a beautiful camaraderie among the members, something we share as mothers and women. I like that we make an important difference as a group and that we all have in common the conviction that while it’s nice to give our children the best in life, we should also let it overflow to those children who are in powerless, disadvantaged situations.’ ”Inspired by Everychild, Magidson started Blue Heron Foundation in 2002, a nonprofit charity foundation for Romanian orphans. ”Caster, who was recently honored as one of four ‘Women of the Year’ by the YMCA Santa Monica/Westside, says she would like to see Everychild membership reach its goal of 220. Eventually, she’d like to see branches in other cities. ”’We’d license the name,’ she says. ‘We’re all trademarked and we’re working on a manual now.’ Caster is also writing a book called ‘No More Rubber Chicken’ about more efficient and less time-intensive fundraising approaches. ”The Casters have lived in the Palisades since 1993. Their children, Bryce (13) and Jocelyn (11), attend Brentwood School and Carlthorp. ”For more information, visit www.everychildfoundation.org.
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