Cedar Valley Angels is a the local chapter of National Angels, a nonprofit organization founded to “walk alongside children, youth, and families in the foster care community by offering consistent support through intentional giving, relationship building, and mentorship.” Read more here.
I spoke with Derek Kimball, the Executive Director of Cedar Valley Angels to learn more about how the Cedar Valley chapter was born. Kids in foster care have gone through a range of traumatic experiences, and foster families in the Cedar Valley were struggling to feel like they had enough support to take care of their children.
“Building community around foster families greatly enhances their ability to do foster care.”
Derek Kimball, Executive Director – Cedar Valley Angels
Starting the Local Chapter
National Angels is located in Austin, Texas. There are 20 cities across the United States that have their own local chapter of National Angels. In the Cedar Valley, the Derek started noticing how hard it was for foster parents and adoptive parents to take care of their families. Derek was a math teacher, and described himself as a person who likes to solve problems. As an adoptive parent himself, he wanted to help support the foster families in the area. He realized they didn’t need a different kind of therapist, they needed community. The parents needed someone to babysit, someone to hold a baby while mom does laundry, someone to go to Target with the family, these families needed people to come alongside them.
After Derek determined the problem, he talked with the social worker who was assigned to his foster home, and they realized that many families in the Cedar Valley felt the same way Derek did. This was the birth of Cedar Valley Angels. At first, they were slow growing as they had no experience with actually running a non-profit. They struggled with getting connected to people who were able and willing to support them financially. Once they were able to get some fundraising, their organization grew substantially.
Marketing Decisions
The biggest marketing challenge Cedar Valley Angels faces is knowing which marketing channel they should pursue to engage with their community.. There are so many options (social media, podcasts, news, radio, print ads, ect.) that it can be overwhelming for a new business.
Along with that, Derek said, “It’s really tough to communicate the impact that a volunteer can have on a foster family when the person is not right in front of you. When you’re not actually having conversation over coffee. ….there’s no emotions, there’s no person to person communication there.” Determining how to get people to understand the true impact of their non-profit is another struggle that Cedar Valley Angels, and other nonprofits I’ve talked to, have faced.
What Makes This Chapter Unique
Across the country, many of the chapters run their own thing. Staffing looks different from chapter, for example, some have no Communications Manager, while Cedar Valley Angels has a full time Communication Manager. For chapters in larger cities, case managers are assigned to just one county or one section of the city they work in, due to the population of these areas. In the Cedar Valley, the same isn’t true. In Austin, Texas, there are an average of 60-70 families on their wait list. Cedar Valley Angels currently has its highest wait list of 20 families. Some of the other chapters are more event heavy, Cedar Valley Angels does just one big annual event. They are very successful on the grant writing front, while others aren’t.
Consistency Matters
One of the most important aspects of Cedar Valley Angels is consistency. Children in the foster care system need stability and love. Volunteers are needed to create meaningful, long-lasting relationships with the families in the program.
“The best thing that can be given to a kid is consistency and stability and loving relationships and that is a huge indication of how well they will do long term.”
Derek Kimball, Executive Director – Cedar Valley Angels
Student Involvement
Like mentioned above, Cedar Valley Angels needs volunteers who are able to serve for a long period. This usually means 18 months, which allows for meaningful relationships to be established between the volunteers and the families. Unfortunately, this does mean that college students aren’t usually the best candidates for volunteering with the organization. They do need volunteers at their event, as well as help packing one time Love Boxes. These boxes are for families on the waiting list to receive essential items before they are placed with a volunteer.
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Read about more nonprofits here.