“At Every Child we believe that decisions regarding a child’s future should be timely, competent, and result in relationships that meet the holistic needs of the child. We believe that every child, no matter the age, race, culture, seriousness of disability or medical condition, deserves the opportunity to grow up in a loving, lasting family.”
This mission statement is personal to Susan Davis, who founded Every Child, Inc. in 1997. At the time, the program was operating from Susan’s home. As it turned out, successful efforts for funding allowed the organization to grow rapidly, and at the end of 15 months the program had to relocate.
What was it about Susan’s approach that made Every Child so successful and allowed it to grow so quickly? The answer was the interdisciplinary approach that she pioneered to deliver services, which today includes adoption, post-adoption services, family reunification, family preservation, and mental health services. Susan realized that greater operational efficiency could be realized if all staff was organized into multi- disciplinary teams, and each person able to provide multiple services. This approach greatly reduced red tape and a less top-heavy structure than competitors. It also allowed Every Child to be more responsive to changes in service demand. However, this interdisciplinary approach had an unexpected side effect: finances became more difficult to manage and track as the organization grew.
In a nutshell, staff and management were having problems determining how to record billable hours under the new system, since funding streams were tied to specific types of service, and regulations did not allow double-billing, even if different services were provided by different family members and by different employees in the same hour. Susan and the management team were impressively skilled at designing and administrating the innovative new delivery system, but no one had a strong financial background to deal with the accounting tangles that resulted.
A PSVP team that included Greg Kaminski as lead partner began to investigate ways to reduce Every Child’s overhead costs and improve its revenue-generating and billing capabilities. PSVP partner Tom Canfield helped the organization revamp its accounting and billing systems, and Tom and Susan agreed to set new expectations for the number of hours a staff billed to be cost-effective for the organization. Taken together, these actions increased Every Child’s bottom line from $100,000-200,000 per year in additional revenue. Equally important, Susan says that PSVP helped her to be more financially savvy, a crucial skill for effective communication with the board of directors.
Greg Kaminski, in his function as lead partner, helped locate the consulting firm Solutions 21 to do process mapping of Every Child to help the partners and the staff get a better picture of what was going on. He also helped locate a company to design a new software system to manage the organization’s finances. Further, a graduate programming class at Carnegie Mellon University developed a software system to work with Every Child’s financial system. To cap it all off, Every Child received two $50,000 grants from PSVP.
In response, Every Child has grown from its humble beginnings to a staff of 75 and an annual budget of approximately $4 million. It has succeeded in helping over 3,000 children achieve a loving, lasting family. And in testimony to its improved fiscal aptitude, Every Child navigated the 2009 state budget crisis without needing to lay off a single employee.
Susan Davis, now retired, is grateful for PSVP’s assistance, particularly because it helped her understand more about business. When asked the best thing about PSVP, she quickly replied, “PSVP keeps learning! It’s people who are interested in learning the best ways to help the community.” She adds that the effect of PSVP’s involvement with Every Child was nothing short of “monumental.” Susan has continued to be involved with PSVP, creating a connection that is an ongoing benefit for both organizations.
Download “Every Child, Inc.: A PSVP Story of Skill Building” (PDF)