Children’s Law Center

Challenge

Children’s Law Center is one of Elevate’s longest-standing clients, with a partnership dating from 2014. They initially partnered with Elevate to manage and grow their grants portfolio during a transitional period for their development team. Since that time, Children’s Law Center and Elevate’s collaboration has evolved to meet new challenges and emergent circumstances, including the pandemic, that have long-term consequences for the health and well-being of DC children and their families.

Response

An essential aspect of Elevate’s thought partnership with Children’s Law Center has been to frame their programs in the context of key funder trends, including social determinants of health, systemic change for behavioral health care, and collaborative approaches to entrenched problems. Elevate has also worked hand-in-hand with Children’s Law Center’s development team to ensure that initiatives are supported through a mix of public and private funding and earned income, and are thereby less vulnerable to shifting economic realities.

Impact

In its first year of partnership with Elevate, Children’s Law Center nearly doubled its institutional grants revenue. Since then, the organization has reliably maintained foundation revenues over $1 million annually by pursuing local and national funders, strategizing new and increased requests from its supporters, and cultivating new relationships.

With Elevate’s help, Children’s Law Center secured the prestigious national BUILD Health Challenge on two separate occasions. The organization used funds from the Challenge to support its Healthy Together program, one of the first such legal-medical partnerships in the country. This funding spurred Children’s Law Center to examine and implement more effective ways to engage parents in feedback and decision-making across its entire programmatic spectrum.

Elevate also helped Children’s Law Center build relationships and credibility in new funder spaces for issues such as health equity and policy issues, leading to key funding wins, including support from the Polinger Family Foundation to bring high-quality behavioral services to DC children ages zero to five.

About the Organization

Children’s Law Center is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that uses the law to solve the urgent problems confronting the District’s children living in poverty. In its 25+ year history, it has reached more than 50,000 children and families and hundreds of thousands more through city-wide advocacy.

Service Details

Advocacy & Policy, Youth Development

Founded

1996

Started Working with Elevate

October 2014

Location

Washington, DC

Operating Budget

Approximately $10.3M

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