Since 2016, Foster America has worked alongside bold government leaders, community advocates, and those with lived expertise to reimagine and reshape the child welfare system. Our mission is to build a future where all families thrive.
The Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC) is a 12-month professional fellowship designed for emerging and mid-career fiscal leaders who are ready to expand prevention services and reduce reliance on foster care within their jurisdictions. Through hands-on collaboration, immersive training, and leadership development, the FLC equips fellows to advance and implement innovative upstream fiscal strategies within child welfare systems.
The FLC brings together 12–15 leaders from across the country for a powerful learning community grounded in equity, collaboration, and systems change. Candidates will strengthen their capacity to integrate innovation as a fiscal leader, gain a nationwide community of support and care, and co-design fiscal approaches to sustain upstream prevention.
Our nation has reached a critical inflection point. With unprecedented shifts in federal funding policies impacting community safety nets for families, this is a time for strategic thinking, partnerships and bold creativity.
Fiscal leadership is pivotal to a prevention-first child welfare system. With expanded knowledge, shared tools, and deeper collaboration, leaders can maximize funding streams like Family First, TANF, Medicaid, and more, ensuring families receive support before system-involvement or family separation.
Our first FLC cohort supported more than $4.3B in jurisdictional budgets, advancing projects from maximizing prevention funds to creating funding pipelines for substance-exposed newborns.
Over the course of the year, FLC fellows will:
We are seeking individuals—fiscal or non-fiscal leaders—who have at least three years of experience informing, developing, managing, or working on budgets related to child and family services. Candidates must be committed to expanding and maximizing prevention-focused funding sources that safely reduce reliance on out-of-home placements.
Eligible roles include but are not limited to private and public sector CFOs, budget and fiscal analysts, fiscal managers, and prevention services providers seeking innovative ways to fund prevention services in child welfare. Fellowship candidates are expected to serve as project leads, fully participate in the fellowship, and deliver the final capstone presentation.
We ask each fellow’s organization (or sponsoring agency or philanthropy) to contribute up to $15,000. This is not intended to be a barrier, but an invitation to shared investment.
We recognize that many jurisdictions and organizations are navigating significant budget constraints and shifting political priorities, which may impact their ability to invest in professional development. We are deeply sensitive to the realities facing people and systems we aim to support.
Scholarships are available, and we are committed to ensuring that no one is turned away due to funding. Once a fellow is accepted, we will work directly with them to identify and secure the financial support as needed.
Despite growing support for prevention, only 14% of U.S. child welfare spending goes to preventive services, while nearly half is used to fund out-of-home placements. Systems are ready to shift, but they need the tools, capacity, and leadership to do so.
The Fiscal Leadership Circle is answering that call, developing a new generation of fiscal innovators equipped to invest in families. This fellowship is a collaborative initiative supported by Casey Family Programs, national experts in child welfare and social services financing, and professionals in leadership and career development.
Read our FLC Project Summaries and FLC Convening #1 Blog
Watch a video on Foster America's Fiscal Approach to Child Welfare Transformation
Listen to our podcast episode, Finding the money: How Fiscal Leaders Can Keep Families Together with Marie Zemler Wu and D.L. Moffitt
The Fiscal Leadership Circle is a hands-on fellowship that empowers leaders through collaboration and team work to drive innovation. While fellowships are awarded to individuals and not organizations, we encourage applicants to invite team members to assist with completing the application. Fellowships are awarded to individuals and not organizations.
Foster America is accepting applications at foster-america.org/careers until Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
Fellowship invitations will be issued in September 2025, followed by a kickoff session on Oct. 17, 2025.
For information about this opportunity, contact [email protected]
Originally posted on Himalayas
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