Children’s Rights was launched as a project of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and later, the

American Civil Liberties Union. Established as an independent nonprofit organization in 1995,

Children’s Rights serves as a national advocacy organization that uses the law to protect

thousands of abused and neglected children when child welfare systems fail to do so. Children’s

Rights has secured court orders mandating sweeping child welfare reform in more than a dozen

states and has won landmark legal victories in Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, New

Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin. As a national advocate,

Children’s Rights is changing the way child welfare is practiced in the United States and is

working to ensure that the system is run effectively. As a result, kids are safer, healthier, and

more likely to be placed in permanent homes with supportive families.

 

In the fall of 2014, the Board of Directors put a strategic planning committee in place to leverage

a change in leadership, refresh Children’s Rights’ strategy and restructure the organization.

Children’s Rights worked with Impact Catalysts (as its predecessor firm, Root Cause) to conduct

a strategic review of its internal capacity, its role in the field, potential collaborators, and new

opportunities to execute its mission in ways outside of its current efforts to secure court orders

and organize class action lawsuits on the state and local level. The strategic review enabled

Children’s Rights to assess alternative revenue streams and identify a course toward financial

sustainability. Over the course of the planning process, we advised Children’s Rights’ search

committee as the organization’s strategic priorities took shape.