Arizona Voice for Crime Victims

Annual budget more than triples with grant writing help

AmPhil has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Arizona Voice for Crime Victims (AVCV), a pro bono legal and social services clinic for victims of violent crime in Arizona. In 2016, AVCV recognized a need for strengthening their grants program in order to expand their organization and extend their impact, so they enlisted AmPhil to provide grant writing and management assistance. Our involvement in managing AVCV’s various government grants and providing administrative and operations support helped AVCV to more than double their annual budget, allowing them to hire more attorneys and social workers to protect and uphold the rights of victims in Arizona.

AmPhil began by creating thorough and well-crafted grant proposals, which helped AVCV to renew a few of their existing grants at significantly higher levels. We then worked to help AVCV to maintain compliant and accurate reporting of their grant programs by creating a comprehensive and detailed tracking system. Additionally, AmPhil coached AVCV staff on best practices for sustaining excellent relationships with numerous grant administrators at the federal and state level.

In the course of our engagement, AVCV discovered a new government grant application that would allow them to expand their representation to child victims throughout the state of Arizona. Once they decided to pursue this opportunity, American Philanthropic assisted them through every step of the application process, ensuring that the submitted application met all requirements, as well as highlighted the important work they’re doing—setting them apart from other applicants.

In the summer of 2019, AVCV was awarded a $939,171 grant to be administered over a 24-month period. This tremendous grant has more than doubled AVCV’s annual budget and allowed AVCV to hire two additional attorneys, one social worker, and one legal assistant who will all contribute to a caseload that will consist entirely of child victims of crime in care of the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

Additionally, in fall of 2019, AVCV was awarded an $800,000 government grant, which they will use to continue the expansion of their current services, as well as partner with another victim’s advocacy group.

With the help of AmPhil, Arizona Voice for Crime Victims has seen a substantial impact in their bottom line. What started as a $700,000 annual budget three years ago, is now over $2,400,000 and growing.

AmPhil is registered as fundraising counsel or as a fundraising consultancy in all states that require such registration. This means that we are not “fundraisers”: we do not ask people for money on our clients’ behalf, make personal introductions, make phone calls, or otherwise have direct personal contact with your donors or donor prospects. We tee you up to do those things, and to do them more effectively, by advising you, coaching you, and providing the services outlined in this proposal. Our goal is to help you build your development program so that it becomes stronger and more sustainable, and to put you in position to build your own strong, personal relationships with funders.