Our History

An anonymous donor launched The Child Welfare Fund in 1992 in response to challenges within the New York City child welfare system brought on by poverty, crack, and AIDS. Caseloads had tripled from previous levels, with nearly 50,000 children in foster care--under a system ill-equipped to meet their complex individual and family needs.

CWF believed that the best way to improve the child welfare system was to give children and families caught in the system a greater role in decisions affecting their lives. CWF also believed that prodding the system can sometimes be as important as cooperating with it. Working with its grantees, at different times CWF has either challenged or supported the work of the New York City's Administration for Children's Services.

The Fund helped launch and provided ongoing support to such projects as: the Child Welfare Organizing Project, which works to make the voices and experiences of parents in the child welfare system audible to policy makers and practitioners; Child Welfare Watch, a project of the Center for New York City Affairs, which provides detailed policy analysis and recommendations on a range of issues in the system; and Rise, a magazine written by and for child welfare-involved parents.