The Children’s Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF encourages preventive investment before children get sick or into trouble, drop out of school or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds. Cover photo: One of the children who survived Hurricane Katrina now participates in a CDF Freedom Schools® program in Mississippi. © 2007 Children’s Defense Fund. All rights reserved. Cover photos © Charles Smith and Photodisc Inside photos © Michael Cunningham, Sharon Farmer, Cheryl Gerber, Alyssa Holt, Steve Liss, David Rae Morris, T.C. Perkins, Jr., Alison Wright, Photodisc and iStockphoto Annual Report2006 Contents CDF Board of Directors 2 Message from the Board Chair 4 Message from the President 5 Each Day in America 8 Key CDF Achievements 11 • A Healthy Start 11 • A Head Start 15 • A Fair Start 17 • A Safe Start 19 • A Moral Start 21 • Successful Passage to Adulthood 22 • State and Regional Organizing and Advocacy 26 • CDF-California 26 • CDF-Louisiana 26 • CDF-Minnesota 27 • CDF-New York 28 • CDF-Ohio 29 • CDF-Southern Regional Office 29 • CDF-Texas 30 Financial Report • Financial Overview 33 • Consolidated Financial Statements 34 • Accounting Policies 36 • Donors 38 • Seals of Approval 45 2006 CDF Publications 46 2006 CDF Board of Directors Robert F. Vagt, Chair Carol Oughton Biondi Angela Glover Reverend Kirbyjon President Emeritus Child Advocate/Commissioner Blackwell, Vice Chair Caldwell Davidson College Los Angeles County Founder and Chief Senior Pastor Davidson, NC Commission for Children Executive Officer The Windsor Village– and Families PolicyLink St. John’s United Methodist Los Angeles, CA Oakland, CA Churches Houston, TX Geoffrey Canada, Leonard Coleman, Jr. Leslie Cornfeld, Esq. Marian Wright Edelman Vice Chair Cendant Corporation Director, Mayor’s Task Founder and President New York, NY Force on Child Welfare Children’s Defense Fund President and Chief and Safety Washington, DC Executive Officer New York, NY Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc. New York, NY James Forbes, Jr. James Forman, Jr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Winifred Green Senior Minister Emeritus Associate Professor Chair, Department of President, Southern The Riverside Church Georgetown Law School African and African Coalition for New York, NY Co-Founder, Maya Angelou American Studies Educational Equity Charter School Harvard University New Orleans, LA Washington, DC Cambridge, MA 2 | Children’s Defense Fund Dr. Dorothy Height Ruth-Ann Huvane William Lynch, Jr. Katie McGrath President Emerita Child Advocate President Child Advocate Chair of Board Los Angeles, CA Bill Lynch Associates, LLC Los Angeles, CA National Council of Negro New York, NY Women, Inc. Washington, DC Ivanna Omeechevarria Wendy Puriefoy J. Michael Solar, Esq. Thomas A. Troyer, Esq. Child Advocate President Solar & Associates, LLP Partner Alexandria, VA Public Education Network Houston, TX Caplin & Drysdale (PEN) Washington, DC Washington, DC Laura Wasserman Reese Witherspoon Deborah Wright, Esq. Movie Music Supervisor Actress President and Chief Executive Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, CA Officer, Carver Bancorp, Inc. New York, NY Lisle Carter, Jr. Howard H. Haworth Charles E. Merrill, Jr. Chair 1973-1986 David Hornbeck Board of Laura Rockefeller Chasin Leonard Riggio Chair 1994-2005 Hillary Rodham Clinton James Joseph Donna E. Shalala Directors Chair 1986-1992 Chair 1993-1994 Chair 1992-1993 Maureen A. Cogan Marylin Levitt Susan P. Thomases Emeritus 2006 Annual Report | 3 2006 Message from the Board Chair It is obvious from Marian’s fulsome report this was another active year for CDF, its staff and those volun- teers who play such a vital role in its work. As has been the case since the founding of CDF, the continu- ing challenge is to bring into focus for all of us in this country, citizen and legislator alike, the plight of so many of this country’s young—to give name and face to poverty, hunger, homelessness, illiteracy and medical need. Robert F. Vagt, CDF Board Chair Concurrent with raising our consciousness of the with, and in direct support of, the Children’s Defense needs of our youth, we have worked with others at the Fund; and we encourage you to become even more local and national levels to define what is essential to directly engaged in your communities. accomplish on behalf of those too young to fend for I believe I speak on behalf of the entire Board themselves. What we must do for our children has when I say that it has been both a challenge and a never been a matter of choice—optional programs and privilege to serve this year as volunteers to CDF as it services if there happen to be unspent funds—but a seeks to shape a world that holds out its hands to sup- matter of what is absolutely necessary. We have a social port its children. contract with our children and we must fulfill our obligation. This is an issue that transcends political affiliation, for it is vital to all of us who value what this country holds dear: its national treasure, its future... and that is its children. CDF is not doing this alone; for, to be successful demands the exercise of conscience, the Robert F. Vagt exercise of moral leadership, on the part of each and all of us. We are very grateful for what so many do 4 | Children’s Defense Fund 2006 Message from the President Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said there are two kinds of leaders: thermometer leaders and thermostat leaders. The former stick their fingers in the air to feel the political temperature and adjust; the latter seek to change the political climate to promote justice for all. For 34 years CDF has sought to be a thermostat leader and to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s often repeated statement as he sought to free India from colonial rule without despondency: “Full effort is full victory.” Marian Wright Edelman, CDF President CDF has always tried to discern, after careful All Healthy Children Campaign – research, analysis and field work, what children need. CDF National Office Then through policymakers and public awareness, CDF’s 2006 and continuing 2007 top national engagement and multiple advocacy strategies at the and state policy priority is ensuring health coverage for national, state and community levels, we try to create all nine million uninsured children in America. We the climate and promote the actions required to meet believe that every child’s life is sacred and of equal those needs. Our calling is not to be political realists or value. After many months of consultation with to fit children’s needs into the prevailing views of what numerous leaders and organizations, we developed the is possible. Our calling is to push the boundaries of All Healthy Children Act (S. 1564/H.R. 1688) to what is possible and to transform over time the mis- ensure a level child health playing field as the State guided priorities of the richest nation on earth that Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) comes leave millions of children without health coverage and up for renewal by September 30, 2007.* Its key princi- in poverty, failing schools and violence-saturated com- ples are: munities. Coverage of all nine million uninsured children and Something is awry in a nation where the only universal pregnant women; child and youth policy is a jail or detention cell after a child gets into trouble. It is morally wrong and practi- A national eligibility standard for all children and cally foolish that states spend nearly three times more pregnant women at or below 300 percent of the fed- per prisoner than per public school pupil. It’s time for eral poverty level with a right of families above 300 a new and more just paradigm. percent to buy in; * It has been introduced in the House and the Senate. Its 64 House sponsors constitute the largest of any pending child health coverage bill. CDF has a (C)(4) Action Council that supports our annual legislative agenda for children. We do everything that the law permits to advocate for children and nothing that it prohibits. 2006 Annual Report | 5 Comprehensive benefits (Medicaid’s Early and CDF-Minnesota continued to organize for cover- Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment age for all Minnesota children, succeeding in getting [EPSDT] benefit package) for all uninsured and more than 35,000 uninsured children covered in 2006. SCHIP-eligible children; CDF-Ohio supported its Governor’s efforts to raise A streamlined and blended child health program so child eligibility to 300 percent of the federal poverty that the 5 to 6 million children currently eligible but level, up from 200 percent, which enables 32,000 not enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid do not continue children to gain coverage. They are also organizing to fall through the cracks; and women leaders to provide a powerful Ohio advocacy voice for powerless mothers and children beginning Elimination of bureaucratic barriers to child enroll- with the issue of health care. ment and renewal through automatic enrollment at birth and at other critical junctures in a child’s life CDF-Southern Regional Office made more visi- and for all children in means-tested programs. ble Mississippi’s shameful infant mortality rates and fought enrollment barriers that have resulted in more Over 1,200 national and local faith, public official, than 61,000 children losing health coverage.