Strong Fathers Network

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Executive Summary

Strong Fathers Network is a nonprofit in Maryland that helps low-income and justice-involved fathers be present, steady and positively involved in their children's lives. We offer a 24-week parenting and fatherhood class, one-on-one coaching, help finding work and referrals to attorneys who can review child support orders. Our fathers are men who want to show up for their children and need practical support to do it.

Children do better when the adults who love them are involved and stable. Yet most family programs are built for mothers, and many fathers do not know where to turn when they are out of work, behind on child support or reconnecting after time away. We offer a respectful place to start, with coaches who listen, a clear plan and referrals to the right professionals. We do not promise any result in court or in a family, and we say so from the first conversation.

What we are asking for. Our program has a Year 1 budget of about $266,000. We are asking for $70,000 from a regional family foundation to a Fatherhood Coach salary and contracted legal help with child support orders. The rest of the budget comes from other grants, sponsors and donors that are listed in the funding section. Every dollar amount in this plan is an estimate and none of it is a promise of any result for the people we serve.

Company Description

Strong Fathers Network is a nonprofit organization recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, governed by a volunteer board of directors that meets every month. The board approves the budget, reviews financial statements and oversees the executive director. If an organization is just starting and does not yet have its own determination letter, a fiscal sponsor can receive grants on its behalf, and the proposal explains how below.

What we believe. Every father can grow, and every child is better off when their father is safe, honest and involved. We treat each father with respect, we protect his privacy and we put the safety of children and their mothers first.

What we do. Our program has four parts:
- A 24-week fatherhood class. Weekly group sessions on parenting, communication, handling stress, healthy relationships and money, taught from a published curriculum we license.
- One-on-one coaching. A coach meets each father, helps him set goals and connects him to services.
- Legal help with child support orders. We contract with attorneys who review child support orders and, when appropriate, help fathers ask a court to modify them. Our coaches are not lawyers and never give legal advice.
- Job connections. Referrals to employers, training programs and expungement clinics.

The people we serve. Fathers aged 18 and older who live in our service area, with priority for fathers with low incomes and fathers who were in jail or prison. Fathers choose to take part, and we do not charge fees.

How we are different. We combine coaching with real legal help and work connections in one place, and we measure results in plain numbers such as fathers who complete the class, children seen regularly and steady payments.

What we do not do. We do not give legal advice, we do not guarantee any court result, and we do not coach a father who has a protective order against him unless the order and the court allow it and the mother's safety is protected.

Our board has at least five members, including at least one person who has used our services or lives in the community we serve, and only a minority of board members may be related to each other or paid by the organization.

We keep a written conflict of interest policy, a whistleblower policy and a record retention policy, and the board reviews them every year.

Problem & Opportunity

Many children grow up without regular contact with a father who wants to be involved, and the reasons are often practical rather than personal.

1. Few programs welcome fathers. Many family services focus on mothers and children and do not reach out to fathers.
2. Child support debt. A father who loses a job can fall behind, and large unpaid amounts can lead to penalties that make it harder to find work and pay in the future.
3. Time away from the family. Fathers returning from jail or prison face a hard job market and may not know how to reconnect with their children.
4. Little trust in services. Fathers who have been treated poorly by past systems may avoid help.
5. Legal confusion. Child support and visitation rules are complicated, and many fathers cannot afford an attorney.
6. Stress and isolation. Without support, stress and shame can lead to withdrawal from the family.

Why it matters now. Steady, safe involvement from fathers is linked with better outcomes for children in school and in life, and fathers who are employed and current on support are more able to stay in their children's lives.

How we know the need is real. We reviewed the number of child support cases and the number of fathers returning from incarceration in our service area, held conversations with at least 30 fathers and 10 mothers and asked partner agencies how many fathers they could not serve. Fathers told us that coaching, a lawyer to answer questions and a path to work are what they need most. We will share the numbers we gathered in the appendix.

We update these facts every year using public data, partner reports and what the people we serve tell us, and we change the program when the facts change. If a need turns out to be smaller than we thought, we will say so and put the money where it is needed most.

Products & Services

What the funded project will do. With this grant, we will run the fatherhood program for a full year with two fatherhood coaches, a part-time administrative coordinator and contracted legal help.

How a father moves through the program:
1. Outreach and intake. A father hears about us from a partner, a friend or an event and meets a coach. The coach explains what we offer, what we do not do and what is expected.
2. Safety screening. We ask about domestic violence and child safety. If a protective order or a safety concern exists, we follow a written plan that protects the mother and child and may delay or change the father's participation.
3. The 24-week class. Fathers attend weekly sessions in a group of 10 to 14, with a meal and child care help where possible.
4. Coaching and goals. Each father works with a coach to set goals for work, housing, time with his children and payments.
5. Legal help. A father who has a question about a child support order is referred to a contracted attorney. The attorney decides whether and how to help and gives the legal advice.
6. Job connections. We connect fathers with employers and training programs and help with résumés and interview practice.
7. Graduation and follow-up. We check in with fathers for six months after the class.

What the grant pays for. Our request covers the salary of one fatherhood coach and the contracted attorney hours and filing fees for child support order reviews.

What we will not promise. We do not promise that any father will get a job, a change in a support order or more time with his children. We commit to offering the program honestly and to measuring and reporting results.

How we protect people. Money is never given to fathers as cash. Filing fees are paid directly to the court and attorney fees are paid to the attorney. If a father or anyone else is in danger, we call 911. If a father is in a mental health crisis, staff direct him to 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

We start small, check what works and grow only when we can do the work well. Every few months we review the numbers and the stories from the people we serve and change the plan where it is not working.

We write plain-language handouts for every step so people know what to expect, what it costs and who to call with questions, and we ask each person at the end whether the help was useful and what we could do better.

Market Analysis

Who benefits from this project are fathers in our service area who want to be more involved in their children's lives, and the children and mothers who benefit when that involvement is safe and steady.

Who we serve. Our fathers are 18 or older, most have low incomes, many have a record that makes hiring harder and many have child support cases. They come from referrals by courts, probation offices, child support agencies, schools, churches, barbershops and other fathers.

How many people we plan to serve. In Year 1 we plan to enroll about 90 fathers in the class, to coach about 120 fathers in all and to refer about 60 for legal review. By Year 5 we plan to serve about 160 fathers a year. We chose these numbers from our staffing, which is two coaches at first and three by the third year, and from room size for the groups.

Where we serve. The city and nearby neighborhoods where the largest number of child support cases and returning citizens live. Classes meet in community centers, churches and libraries that are close to public transit.

Who else benefits. The children of our fathers, the mothers who may get more reliable support and contact, employers who gain steady workers and a community that benefits from lower stress in families.

How we will be careful. We will not collect more information than we need, we will keep records private, and we will tell fathers clearly who can see what. We will respect every family's choices and do not take sides in a custody dispute.

We choose how many people to serve from the number of staff, hours and rooms we really have, not from the size of the need. If we reach fewer people than planned, we will report it and explain why.

Competitive Landscape

Other choices fathers have in our area are limited, which is part of the reason we exist.

1. Court-ordered parenting classes. These are required for some fathers but are often short and do not include coaching or legal help.
2. Child support agencies. They enforce orders and can sometimes offer job help, but fathers may not trust them.
3. Legal aid organizations. They help with legal questions but are often overloaded and cannot offer coaching.
4. Faith communities and barbershops. These offer support and community, but not a structured program.
5. Other fatherhood programs. A few serve parts of our region, which makes partnership possible.

What makes us different. We are open to any father who wants to participate, we offer coaching, a structured class, legal referrals and work connections in one place, and we are honest about what we can and cannot do. We work with the other programs and refer fathers to them when they are a better fit, and we share information with partners only with a father's written permission.

How we avoid duplication. Before starting, we met with the child support agency, legal aid and two other programs to agree on who serves whom. We share a simple referral form and meet quarterly to compare numbers.

We keep a written list of every other organization that does similar work in our area and review it each year. If another group can serve a person better, we refer the person and say so plainly. Funders can expect us to tell the truth about overlap, to share what we learn and to work as part of a larger network of help.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How we will reach the fathers we serve once the project is funded.

Referral partners. Probation and parole offices, courts, child support agencies, schools, workforce centers, shelters and legal aid offices will refer fathers, and we will give each partner a one-page guide and a direct phone number for a coach.

Community outreach. Coaches will visit barbershops, churches, community centers and job fairs, and speak at events with a message that is simple and respectful: you matter to your child, and here is practical help.

Word of mouth. Graduates become our best messengers. We invite them to speak at orientation events and recognize them at graduation, with their permission.

Digital outreach. A simple website and social media posts will explain the program, show the schedule and give a phone number and a short form. We will not post any father's story or photo without his written permission.

Language and access. We will provide materials in English and Spanish where the community needs it, hold classes in the evening, provide a meal and help with transportation costs where the funds allow, and meet fathers where they are.

Measuring outreach. We will track how fathers heard about us, how many attended an intake meeting and how many enrolled, and we will adjust where outreach is not working.

Marketing budget. Outreach is part of the office, reporting and activity costs in the budget, and we will pay for printing and event costs from the program budget.

Most people hear about services from someone they already trust, so we spend more time with partners and neighbors than on advertising. We write our materials in plain language, test them with a few people from the community and fix anything that confuses them.

Operations Plan

How the project will be carried out, in plain terms.

Timeline for Year 1. Months 1 and 2: hire and train the coaches, finalize partner agreements and set up the class room. Months 3 to 12: run three 24-week class cycles, each with a new group, and continue coaching and legal referrals.

Space. Classes meet in donated or low-cost space in community centers and churches near public transit. Coaches meet fathers one on one in a private room at the same sites.

Partners. Courts, probation offices, the child support agency, workforce centers, expungement clinics and a legal aid organization. Each has a written agreement that explains what each side does and how information is shared.

Safety and privacy rules. We screen for domestic violence at intake, follow a written safety plan, do not share a father's information without written permission, and report suspected child abuse or neglect as the law requires. We call 911 in any emergency and give the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number, 988, to anyone in a mental health crisis. Staff never meet a father alone in a private place outside our program sites.

Money and legal help. Funds for legal help go directly to attorneys and courts. No cash goes to fathers. Our coaches do not give legal advice.

Records and reporting. We track enrollment, attendance, completion and follow-up in a secure database, and we report numbers to funders each quarter.

Training. Every coach completes the curriculum certification, training on trauma-informed practice, domestic violence awareness and mandated reporting, and receives supervision every week.

We write down every step of the project in a short manual so that any trained staff member can carry it out the same way. We hold a short team meeting every week to review problems, safety concerns and numbers, and we ask the people we serve for feedback at least twice a year.

Management & Organization

The executive director leads the program, manages the budget and supervises the staff, and the fatherhood coaches deliver the class and coaching. The administrative coordinator handles scheduling, data entry and reporting.

The team. Pay figures include payroll taxes and workers' compensation insurance. The numbers in parentheses are how many people we plan to have in Years 1 through 5.
- Executive Director: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (Years 1 to 5), about $72,000 a year each.
- Fatherhood Coach: 2, 2, 3, 3, 3 (Years 1 to 5), about $48,000 a year each.
- Administrative Coordinator (part-time): 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (Years 1 to 5), about $20,000 a year each.

Governance and money controls. A volunteer board of directors oversees the budget and the executive director. Two people review every payment, the board reviews financial statements every month, an outside accountant prepares the yearly tax return and audit-ready records, and every grant is tracked in its own budget line. We screen staff and volunteers who work with the people we serve, train everyone on privacy and safety and keep written policies on conflicts of interest and complaints.

Staff and advisors. We recruit coaches who have strong listening skills, have worked with families and are comfortable with fathers from different backgrounds, and we welcome coaches who have lived experience of fatherhood and reentry. A small advisory group of fathers, mothers, an attorney and an employer meets quarterly to advise us, and we post written complaint and grievance procedures for participants.

Feedback and complaints. Anyone we serve can give feedback or a complaint by phone, in writing or in person, and can ask to speak with the board chair. We reply within five working days, keep a log of every complaint and report the themes to the board each quarter. No one loses services for speaking up.

Milestones Narrative

Goals for each of the first five years and how we will measure results. These are goals, not promises.
- Before the grant starts (2 to 3 months before the grant starts): finalize partner agreements, hire the coaches, license the curriculum and train the team, set up the class room and a secure database and recruit the first group of fathers
- Year 1: enroll about 90 fathers in three class cycles and coach about 120 in all. The budget is $266,000.
- Year 2: add a third coach and begin a graduate peer group. The budget is $269,500.
- Year 3: open a second class site and add evening sessions. The budget is $322,500.
- Year 4: expand legal referrals and employer partnerships. The budget is $326,000.
- Year 5: serve about 160 fathers a year and publish a plain-language results report. The budget is $330,000.

How we will measure results: fathers enrolled, class completion rate, fathers with a job after six months, fathers current on payments, regular contact with children as reported by fathers and mothers, and fathers who say they would recommend the program. We report results to funders in the same plain numbers we use here, and we say honestly when a goal was missed and what we changed.

We report to funders every quarter and send a short plain-language summary to our board each month. At the end of each year we review all of the goals, publish a short results report and update the plan for the next year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $70,000 from a regional family foundation for a Fatherhood Coach salary and contracted legal help with child support orders, for January through December 2027.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Fatherhood Coach salary, $48,000.
- Contractual: Legal assistance for child support order modifications (contracted attorney hours and filing fees), $22,000 (other funds add $2,000).

Other money in the program. This request is about 31% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $266,000, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $9,400 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: grant revenue $226,000; individual donations $25,000; corporate and community sponsors $15,000. Year 1 costs: executive director $72,000; fatherhood coach $96,000; administrative coordinator (part-time) $20,000; legal assistance (filing fees and contracted attorney hours) about $24,000; curriculum materials, activities and supplies about $18,000; office, reporting and insurance about $15,000; father-Child activities about $10,000.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $21,500 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $4,800 for six laptops with privacy screens for coaches and group sessions, $3,200 for projector, screen, locking cabinet and meeting furniture, $6,500 for curriculum license and coach certification training, $2,800 for background checks and policy review by an attorney, $2,400 for banners, brochures and a simple website, and $1,800 for opening supplies and a family room set-up.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($21,500), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $63,800, which is about 3 months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $85,500. We start with $14,000 of our own savings and $73,000 in startup support from a local foundation and our board, $87,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $266,000 in Year 1 to about $330,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $226,000, $221,500, $266,500, $262,000, $258,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows as sponsors and donors join. The program plans a small surplus each year, about $9,400, $9,300, $10,500, $10,000 and $9,900 in Years 1 to 5, which we put into savings.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $79,400, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $10,640 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

After the grant. Sponsors, community supporters and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Graduates and employers help spread the word, and churches and community centers may donate space so more of the budget goes to coaching.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- Fathers may not stay in the class. We provide meals, flexible times and a coach who stays in touch.
- A safety concern may arise in a family. We screen at intake, follow a safety plan and work with domestic violence services.
- A grant may end. We build sponsors and donors each year and keep savings.
- Legal help may be harder to get than expected. We contract with more than one attorney and refer to legal aid.
- Staff may leave. We cross-train staff and keep clear written procedures.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller with one site or one staff member and track results carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach before you send this proposal:

- Your IRS determination letter showing 501(c)(3) status, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your board list and board minutes approving the application.
- Your most recent budget and financial statements.
- A list of other funders and what each has given or been asked to give.
- The signed curriculum license and staff training certificates.
- Written agreements with courts, probation offices, the child support agency and legal aid.
- Your safety screening form, intake form and privacy policy.
- Letters of support from partners and fathers.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $226,000 in Year 1, growing to $258,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donations: $25,000 in Year 1, growing to $45,000 in Year 5.
- Corporate and Community Sponsors: $15,000 in Year 1, growing to $27,000 in Year 5.
- Staff pay is shown in the management section and includes payroll taxes and workers' compensation.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: legal assistance (filing fees and contracted attorney hours) $24,000, curriculum materials, activities and supplies $18,000, office, reporting and insurance $15,000, and father-Child activities $10,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year as the program grows.
- Grant and partner payments arrive after we bill, so about $10,640 (4% of Year 1 income) is owed to us at the end of Year 1.
- The program does not pay income tax. Any surplus stays in the program.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your organization's real numbers.

Plain words used in this proposal:
- Grant: money given for a specific purpose that does not have to be paid back, as long as it is spent as promised.
- Request: the part of the budget we are asking this funder to pay for.
- Surplus: money left over after a year's costs. A small surplus is healthy because it builds savings for slow months.
- Startup costs: one-time costs, such as equipment, paid once before the program runs at full speed.
- Working capital: cash kept in the bank to pay bills while waiting for grant payments.
- In-kind: goods or services given instead of money, such as donated space.
- Fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for a new group and passes the money to its program, usually for a fee.
- 501(c)(3): the tax status that lets a nonprofit receive tax-deductible gifts and many grants.

How to read the numbers. Every income and cost figure is a plan, not a result. Income rises as sponsors and donors join, costs rise a little each year, and each year's budget is planned to balance with a small surplus. Startup costs are shown separately because they are paid once. If a real number turns out different, we will update the plan and tell our funders why.

Startup Costs