Photo by Dylan Gonzales | CASA Director Wilma Tom Hashimoto appears at a mural unveiling at Chukchansi Park in January 2025. Like most nonprofits, it is facing funding cuts years in the making.

CASA Fresno/Madera Counties is facing growing financial strain, with funding cuts from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and reliance on state support leaving the nonprofit in a vulnerable position.

Ronald Reagan signed VOCA into law in 1984 to provide federal funding to support state victim compensation and assistance programs — like many of the services offered at CASA.

Seven years ago, CASA Fresno/Madera County relied on five VOCA grants.

The VOCA grants, issued as a line item from the governor’s office, were issued on three-year terms from a total of $60 million allocated for California CASA organizations. That $60 million was divided into a three-year term ($20 million annually statewide), which was then divided into the 44 California CASA organizations.

Of those funds, CASA Fresno/Madera County received approximately $500,000 annually to help with everything from marketing to operations, assisting youth in the foster program.

That amount, however, has dropped from just over $500,000 from five VOCA grants, to just $75,000 provided by one remaining VOCA grant.

“The reason is it’s a decrease in the amount that’s being offered for the grant, and because there are so many nonprofits, there are many more who are now applying for the grant,” said CASA Executive Director, Hashimoto. “The more people and more organizations applying, the less money CASA is eligible for.”

The risk to VOCA funding was first brought to the nonprofit’s attention earlier this year when the Trump administration announced sweeping cuts to federal funding for a number of services.

While those cuts were rescinded shortly after being announced, threats still loom in the air, with the administration still aiming to cut spending.

“It got to the point for the one week where there was concern about federal funding being eliminated — it wasn’t even in my mind until I read about it,” she said. “Fortunately, it wasn’t eliminated…but that one week — it makes you think ‘we’d better start planning.’”

Funding from the state is reviewed every three years and in 2025, CASA will be required to reapply.

With the 2025-26 state budget yet to pass through the state legislature, funding from the state, which is directly impacted by the annual budget, is still in danger.

“We plan for the best and also the worst scenarios,” Hashimoto said. “It would be devastating to lose federal grants.”

Responding to the challenge

In response to these challenges, CASA Fresno/Madera Counties has dialed up its community outreach and fundraising efforts, not just in the number and types of fundraisers, but also the way in which the organization handles its outreach and fundraising.

“With CASA, we are recruiting and training community volunteers specifically for foster youth,” she said. “In the past few years I’ve had to increase the work task for those in operations to focus on the funds.”

Hashimoto said that when she took over as executive director, she was able to handle all donor and outreach relations, fundraisers and a majority of the in-house operations at the nonprofit.

But without the grants, Hashimoto and her team has been forced to pivot, relying on volunteers and employees to carry out multiple tasks, ranging from fundraising to marketing and outreach.

She said that much of that work has posed a challenge in program development — something that CASA Fresno/Madera Counties still places a major focus on due to necessity.

“Back then it really was how to scale up the programs,” she said. “We still are scaling up programs because kids’ needs are increasing.”

Hashimoto said that many of the financial challenges facing the nonprofit mirror those during the COVID-19 pandemic, though for different reasons.

During the pandemic, financial instability reared its head. However, local businesses, nonprofits and individual donors recognized the need for the organization and its work in the community.

Now, fundraising and driving attention is yet another task that CASA Fresno/Madera Counties must face head on.

Despite the challenges, however, Hashimoto is confident in her team’s ability to continue to serve youth in Fresno and Madera Counties.

“CASAs not going anywhere, and we still need advocates and community volunteers,” she said. “The youth are still in foster care and they still have court appointments where they need to understand what a social worker is…and explain all of that.”

Hashimoto said that CASA aims to continue to keep their eye on their mission, as well as creating stability for their own staff, advocates and ways to keep CASA close at heart to donors and volunteers.