The Rock Island County Children’s Advocacy Center (RICCAC) has established a permanent endowment fund with Moline Regional Community Foundation (MRCF) to ensure long-term support for its mission of reducing trauma to children through coordinated, multidisciplinary investigations of abuse.
“This newly established endowment will provide annual funding to support our critical services well into the future, ensuring children and families in Rock Island County continue to receive the care and protection they need,” RICCAC executive director Marcy O’Brien said recently.
RICCAC serves children under the age of 18 who have been victims of sexual or physical abuse. Law enforcement or the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) refers all children to be interviewed at RICCAC’s center about the abuse.
The purpose is to coordinate and track the investigations, medical treatment, counseling referrals, prosecution, and training to protect the best interests of the victims and their families.
In addition to forensic interviews, RICCAC provides comprehensive services including family advocacy and case management, referrals for medical care and counseling, court preparation, and emotional support. Therapy services are offered free of charge to children and their immediate family members, helping them begin the healing process in a safe and supportive environment. RICCAC also invests in prevention and education through community outreach.
Without a CAC, the child may end up having to tell the worst story of his or her life over and over again, to doctors, law enforcement, lawyers, therapists, investigators, judges, and others, according to the RICCAC website. They may have to talk about that traumatic experience in a police station where they think they might be in trouble, or may be asked the wrong questions by a well-meaning teacher or other adult that could hurt the case against the abuser.
When police or DCFS believe a child is being abused, the child is brought to the CAC — a safe, child-focused environment at a former home in Rock Island — by a caregiver or other “safe” adult. At the CAC, the child tells their story once to a trained interviewer who knows the right questions to ask in a way that does not retraumatize the child.
Then, a team that includes medical professionals, law enforcement, mental health, prosecution, child protective services, victim advocacy, and other professionals make decisions together about how to help the child based on the interview.
CACs offer therapy and medical exams, plus courtroom preparation, victim advocacy, case management, and other services. This is called the multidisciplinary team response and is a core part of the work of CACs.
“We are honored to partner with RICCAC to help their leadership and key stakeholders invest in their sustainable financial future,” said Paul Plagenz, president/CEO of Moline Regional Community Foundation.
RICCAC has received grants in the past from MRCF – they typically award to about 50 nonprofits annually, each between $5,000 and $50,000 for a total of nearly half a million dollars every year, Plagenz said.
The RICCAC in 2023-2024 had a budget of $518,273, and had total contributions and grants of $596,015, from public and private sources.
The center seeded the new endowment with $10,000, for the MRCF to invest. Every year, they will receive an annual allocation that will help them with sustainable funding, Plagenz said Friday.
“Then the second part of that, which is very important, is they are the reason why they establish it like our other 40 nonprofit funds, and they're growing more and more every year, is that they want to take advantage of this great transfer of wealth that's happening in the United States.
“They're looking for their donors and key stakeholders to not just make annual gifts, but consider a will or estate provision, that kind of thing,” he said. “That's a separate part of the business that we do, which we manage these endowments besides the grant making.”
Huge transfer of wealth coming
In the next 25 years or so, Americans will transfer $124 trillion between generations, Plagenz said. “It's a tremendous amount of money. We're in this giant transfer of wealth in the United States. And you know, those will mostly go to heirs, their family and heirs. But a portion of that more and more are going to nonprofits.
“They're giving back to the things that they cared about in their community. Traditionally you would think about churches and higher ed and things like that,” he said. “But more and more of the nonprofits that they want to continue to have sustainable funding, they're looking and talking to their key stakeholders about leaving a legacy gift or some sort of retirement gift. So if you think about more and more people, 65-plus have wills, we're at an all-time high and 31% of the people with wills are leaving a planned gift, not just to their heirs, but they're saying, we really cared about this nonprofit and that one, so let's leave them something too.”
That is why nonprofits like RICCAC are trying to be ready and be prepared to be part of that trend, Plagenz noted of the endowment funds.
“They're busy with their missions and serving their people and they're busy with annual funding and keeping the doors open and growing, etc.,” he said. “But when it comes to endowments, it's nice to have a partner like us because we do all the kind of the back office work for them.
"So we do the investment services, obviously for them. We also help them have conversations with their key stakeholders," Plagenz said. "When someone says, hey, I'm thinking about a gift of appreciated stock, well, we can process that. And maybe a nonprofit isn't ready to take those kind of gifts, or I'm thinking about giving you a gift of grain or farmland. Well, we can do that. So, you know, we have this expertise and it's what we do.
“So they partner with us to do that kind of stuff for us, and then in the end, it improves our community,” he said. “It's why a community foundation exists, to kind of be the partner with these nonprofits and grow these endowments. And obviously, I've been talking to a lot of nonprofits about, hey, do you have a planned giving circle? Do you have an endowment? It's time to start one if you don’t.”
RICCAC doesn’t have an endowment goal to reach, but plans to take a small percentage each year to support their budget.
“They put the initial investment in, and then we have a spending policy. So right now, about 4.5% of their principal and earnings is allocated back to the nonprofit every year,” Plagenz said. “And for the most of the nonprofits, it’s undesignated, so it's just falling to their bottom line, so they can use it however they'd like.”
This is an especially good time to start an Illinois-based endowment, since the Illinois General Assembly has passed a new tax-credit program to encourage giving to endowments.
Called Illinois Gives, effective since Jan. 1, 2025, Illinois taxpayers can receive a 25% tax credit on their donations to an endowment at a community foundation, Plagenz said.
“So obviously that is driving some of the conversations with these organizations to say, there's also a financial benefit to our donors if you give to this endowment that we've created. So that's really wonderful news,” he said. “It's something that the Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations have been working with legislators for over 10 years to make happen. And we're very pleased that this is, this is happening and this is good for the next this year and three more years after this.”
The first year resulted in $20 million in such donations, and $5 million in individual tax credits, Plagenz said.
Fundraising breakfast April 21
The Rock Island County center will hold a fundraising breakfast Tuesday, April 21, at 7 a.m. at the Moline University Club, 1526 5th Ave.
At the “Believe in the Brave” breakfast catered by DeBord Catering, you can bid on silent auction baskets while you learn about the mission of our Children's Advocacy Center. An inspirational message will be given by Emmy-nominated Sasha Joseph Neulinger, who is the founder and president of Voice For The Kids, and co-founder and head of production at Step 1 Films.
Tickets are $55, available HERE.
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