Support
Federal source data is public domain. Verifying it, republishing twenty-one years of independent reporting on the American child welfare system, and keeping every metric labeled honestly costs money.
This site takes no advertising, runs no tracking, and does not sell or rent reader data. It is paid for by readers and by foundations that value accountability reporting about children.
What your gift funds
Kids at Risk Action is a small organization. Total expenses in the most recent year on file with the IRS were about $60,000. That is the scale you are supporting, and it lets a gift of any size do specific and identifiable work.
- $25 underwrites one hour of federal-source verification: reconciling a state row against the AFCARS or NCANDS table it comes from and logging any vintage change publicly.
- $100 covers a week of the Signal Brief: research, drafting, citation, and filing.
- $500 pays for the annual verification of a federal data vintage — reconciling AFCARS state tables and the current Child Maltreatment report against the site’s stored copy, logging any vintage change publicly.
- $2,500 funds the build-out of a state page package: charts, the state’s reporting-gap notes, and the redirect map for state-level archive coverage.
- $10,000 underwrites a named editorial review panel seat for a year — a working reviewer, in a stated role (epidemiologist, former caseworker, data journalist), reading every methodology change before it goes live.
Estimates. Actual costs vary; unspent funds carry to the next budget line.
Ways to give
Give online now. Givebutter handles one-time and recurring gifts; no account required. The fastest way in.
Give monthly. Recurring monthly gifts are the single most useful form of support for an organization at this scale; they let us plan a year of reporting instead of six weeks of it. Set up via Givebutter or by check with a note.
Give by mail. Download the donation form (PDF). Includes fields to flag an employer match, request an anonymous gift, or note a bequest.
Donor-advised funds. Recommend a grant to Kids at Risk Action, EIN 51-0570258, at 910 1st St S. #4091, Hopkins, MN 55343.
Stock and appreciated securities. Gifts of appreciated stock avoid capital-gains tax and are deductible at fair market value. Contact us for broker details and a completed stock-transfer form.
Bequests and planned giving. Naming Kids at Risk Action in your will is straightforward; our EIN and legal name are above. Let us know if you have, so we can thank you — and so a future audit doesn’t surprise anyone.
Employer matching. Most corporate matching programs recognize 501(c)(3) public charities, and this is one. Ask your HR contact whether the match is portal-based or requires a form; both work.
Foundations. For institutional funders and grant inquiries, write to info@invisiblechildren.org. We can share the 990s and a current one-page project budget.
Ways to help that aren’t money
If a check is not what you have to give, here is what we also need.
- Syndicate the Signal Brief. Reprint it, quote it, run it in your publication with attribution.
- Legal review of the editorial policy. Pro bono privacy-law review of KARA's policy on naming children and the removal path is welcome. A law-school clinic project would fit.
- Distribution. Share this site with a state bar association, a social-work school, a journalism program, a public library’s reference desk, or the newsroom you work in.
- Editorial review. The methodology page has named reviewer seats. If you are a pediatric or public-health epidemiologist, a former child welfare caseworker or supervisor, or a data journalist, and you would consider a seat, write to us.
- Read the founding book. Invisible Children by Mike Tikkanen (PDF) is the case that started this organization. It is free to read.
What we do not do
- No door-to-door or street canvassing.
- No third-party fundraising firms.
- No list sales, rentals, or trades. Your email is not for anyone else.
- No manipulative renewal appeals, no matching-gift day pressure campaigns, no faux-urgency deadlines.
- No solicitation of children. No collection of data from children.
Transparency
Kids at Risk Action is a 501(c)(3) public charity registered in Minnesota (EIN 51-0570258; ruling 2007). Every Form 990 we have filed is public. See financials and 990s.