Foster America is proud to launch the second cohort of the Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC). This 12-month fellowship equips finance professionals with the tools and strategies to reshape how resources reach families. At a moment when bold, forward-thinking approaches are urgently needed, the FLC convenes leaders committed to transforming financial systems so children and families can truly thrive.
Child welfare systems across the country are at a crossroads. Even with new federal flexibility under the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), most public dollars still flow downstream—after children have already reached a point of crisis—rather than toward prevention and family-strengthening supports that could keep them safely at home.
That’s why our fiscal work is one of Foster America’s core pillars. We help partners identify and maximize opportunities to direct funding toward proactive, evidence-aligned programs, offering a vital alternative to costly out-of-home placements. Earlier this fall, Foster America presented a Fiscal Innovation training session at the Kempe Conference, highlighting how leaders in the Fiscal Leadership Circle are beginning to shift this reality.
As D.L. Moffitt, Foster America’s Fiscal Innovation Specialist, noted, “Funding structures favor placement and family surveillance versus addressing the root causes of family vulnerability.” Systems remain largely crisis-driven, leaving little time to pause, adapt, and innovate.
Foster America’s Fiscal Leadership Circle reframes fiscal leadership as strategic innovation—not just compliance or accounting. The program helps participants bridge technical expertise with adaptive leadership and community partnership to move dollars and decisions upstream.
The session introduced the Water of Systems Change framework, which shows that real transformation happens across three layers:
FLC weaves those layers through four pillars:
Leaders also apply the SPATIAL landscape analysis—examining Social, Political, Allocation, Technological, Innovation, Adaptive, and Legislative conditions—to understand what helps or hinders prevention investment in their own jurisdictions.
Wisconsin budget analyst and FLC Fellow Sam Madison shared a compelling example. His team proposed limiting child-support collections from parents whose children are in out-of-home care. Their analysis revealed that children with child-support orders stayed in care twice as long—21 months versus 9. Reducing those collections, Madison explained, would both relieve families and generate cost savings by shortening placements.
While the proposal wasn’t initially adopted in the state budget, a bipartisan bill later emerged—evidence that data, persistence, and cross-sector relationships can drive systemic progress.
Transforming funding priorities requires more than policy change—it requires adaptive leadership. Leaders must balance the “balcony” (strategic view) and the “dance floor” (day-to-day realities), connect across silos, and model shared accountability for outcomes.
Every jurisdiction can start by mapping its fiscal landscape, identifying a single challenge where prevention investment could make a measurable difference, and co-designing solutions with families and local partners.
As Foster America’s team reminds us: Finance leaders are change agents. By combining technical skill, relational collaboration, and bold imagination, they can help ensure that every dollar—and every decision—moves us closer to a prevention-first child welfare system where every family thrives.
