An Interview With Moira Mulroney, Director of Development and Communications, the Support Center for Child Advocates

With an annual operating budget of $2.2 million, the Support Center for Child Advocates provides legal assistance and social-service advocacy for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia County. Child Advocates is one of the most successful volunteer models serving children in the country. Since its founding in 1977, Child Advocates has trained more than 3,500 attorneys who contribute pro bono services valued at more than $3.5 million annually.

Its mission statement: "To advocate for victims of child abuse and neglect in Philadelphia with the goal of securing a permanent, nurturing environment for every child."

Here, we talk with Moira Mulroney, director of development and communications, at the center.

FundRaising Success: How does Support Center for Child Advocates fund its mission?
Moira Mulroney: More than $1.7 million of the annual budget is raised through charitable contributions from nongovernmental sources.

FS: What are Child Advocates' fundraising strengths/weaknesses?
MM: Our main fundraising strength is the diversification of funding sources. In the previous fiscal year, we received 24 percent from foundations, 21 percent from corporations and law firms, 26 percent from individuals. We accomplish this by building relationships with all supporters — whether through meetings and events, or volunteer opportunities with our child clients and on the board of directors or various committees.

As the philanthropy trends change and monies are less available from corporate and foundation sources, we hope to strengthen our individual giving program by increasing major gifts and planned gifts. To date, we have not launched a formal major-gifts program so I consider that to be our area of weakness and an area of potential growth.

FS: How do you engage donors and other supporters and potential supporters in ways other than purely fundraising efforts?
MM: Child Advocates is the nation's oldest and largest pro bono legal and social services agency serving abused and neglected children. We recruit and train hundreds of attorneys a year, assigning more than 500 volunteer attorneys to represent our child clients. We believe in "whole child" representation, teaming volunteer attorneys with staff social workers and consulting lawyers to provide all needed legal and social services with the goal to secure a permanent and nurturing environment for each child. There is no better way to engage our supporters than to involve them directly in our work.

For almost 20 years we have organized a toy drive, where lawyer and non-lawyer volunteers alike can become engaged in our work. More than 100 volunteers help us collect, sort and deliver bags of toys to each of our child clients and every other child living in their homes. Last December we delivered thousands of toys to more than 1,000 children in 500+ homes!

FS: Can you share a recent fundraising success? Why was it successful?
MM: Child Advocates has a history of successful fundraising events — an annual gala and auction, a golf outing, and a charity 5K run. This past April, we surpassed all prior events and the year's goals to gross $515,000 at the Annual Benefit Reception & Auction (ABR). It was a wonderful evening attended by more than 900 guests.

Dr. Amy Gutmann, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, agreed to accept our highest honor, the Judge Lois Forer Child Advocacy Award. We heavily promoted her appearance, as well as that of nine recipients of our Distinguished Advocates awards. A Penn trustee graciously hosted a VIP preview party at his home.

We recruited more than 100 supporters to our events committee, asking them to promote the event and sell tickets. Sponsorship committees worked tirelessly to raise more than $300,000 in sponsorships from regional corporations and law firms. The auction committee collected more than 400 items for our silent and live auctions, which raised more than $92,000 that night. Staff leadership and board members made personal connections with major-donor prospects at the ABR, and we've been following up with them, seeing some larger gifts come in as a result.

FS: Any major difficulties or setbacks you've faced along the way? Things you would do differently with your fundraising?
MM: Our capital campaign to buy and renovate our offices in 2001-2005 cut into program fundraising but gave us a new home and substantial equity for the agency. During the recession, we laid off two staff as part of reducing expenses by $200,000 without cutting direct services.

FS: What is your organization's fundraising philosophy?
MM: We constantly seek a broad base of donors to strengthen our diverse fundraising program. We cannot become reliant on any one type of funding source, so we focus equally on each. Fundraising staff are assigned by primary responsibilities: individual and major donors, foundations, corporate relations and special events, and database management.

The development department is integrated with our public relations efforts; overlapping responsibilities include promotions, marketing and press relations. Raising awareness of our agency's work allows us to engage volunteers, donors and other supporters.

FS: What advice would you give to organizations similar to yours in size and annual operating budget?
MM: Board rotation and term limits bring fresh ideas and expand the base of participation in leadership. Sound stewardship of resources, fiscal integrity and effective management all matter to donors. Quality of service to clients matters most of all.