SEATTLE — Casey Family Programs expressed its appreciation for being named as one of the most high-impact nonprofits working with at-risk youth in the U.S., based on ratings by a panel of independent experts.

The website Philanthropedia (www.myphilanthropedia.org) asked a panel of 88 experts in child welfare from around the country to rate 178 nonprofits working in the area of at-risk youth. Casey Family Programs was listed among the nine considered to have the highest impact.

Philanthropedia is owned by GuideStar, a leader in providing in-depth information about U.S. nonprofit organizations to researchers, executives, media and other leaders in their fields.

Based in Seattle, Casey Family Programs (www.casey.org) is the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on improving the lives of vulnerable children and families by improving the nation’s foster care system. It provides both direct services to children and families involved in the foster care system as well as works in partnership with public and tribal child welfare systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to safely reduce the need for foster care.

“There are many nonprofits across the nation making a positive difference in the lives of children and families, so it is a great honor for our efforts to be recognized,” said William C. Bell, Ph.D., the foundation’s president and CEO. “We could not have made the progress we have so far without the efforts of committed partners in the private and public sectors who share a vision of providing all children in America with safe, stable and permanent families.”

The expert panels appreciated Casey Family Programs’ focus on achieving the goals of its 2020 Strategy for America’s Children, which seeks to prevent child abuse and neglect, strengthen at-risk families and ensure more children grow up in safe, stable and permanent families. During the next decade, the foundation hopes to see the number of children in foster care safely reduced by 50 percent and improvements in outcomes for those children in foster care in three life-enriching areas: education, employment and mental health.

“Casey Family Programs supports the funding of programs, services and initiatives that impact children and families in the child welfare systems,” wrote one of the experts. “They are a leader and expert on the national level on child welfare services, budgets and programming.”

When Casey Family Programs launched its 2020 Strategy five years ago, there were 511,000 children in foster care nationwide. Today the number has declined by more than 100,000 – or 20 percent – to 408,000. Furthermore, federal child welfare data suggests that vulnerable children are as safe, if not safer, than they were five years ago.

The safe reduction of the nation’s foster care population has taken place in large part due to the efforts of child welfare systems around the country to implement programs that help prevent abuse and neglect, provide more effective support for at-risk families, and ensure more children are able to leave foster care for a safe, stable and permanent family.

Philanthropedia is a nonprofit organization that aims to help donors find and support effective nonprofits working in specific fields. Philanthropedia differentiates itself from other nonprofit rating websites by using experts in relevant fields to identify high-impact nonprofits. The experts are anonymous, but include funders, researchers, nonprofit senior staff, government officials and others.