THE CUSTODY PROJECT

Heart to Heart assists qualified mothers with care, custody, and visitation expenses, including reference, consultation, and caseload costs, via grants and the revolving door program.


Helping families for over twenty years, The Custody Project recognizes that when circumstances arise such as domestic violence, abuse, legal attempts to remove custody, inadequate or absent child support, or legal restraints that prevent mothers from improving the quality of life for their families, economic challenges compound, life is made infinitely harsher, and survival becomes extraordinarily more difficult.


Mothers commonly stretch dollars daily to feed, clothe, and care for their children and themselves, often working for $4 – $12 per hour, through babysitting, waitress, piecework, and other occupations paying below or near minimum wage. However, the protection and defense of custody of children usually includes the costs of attorneys and experts requiring substantial retainers of $500-$10,000+ and charging $25-$300+ per hour, as well as additional court, legal, and ancillary expenses and fees. If not broken by its financial crush, mothers must withstand such relentless expenses to protect their children: the overarching cost to mothers defending the custody and best interests of their children can seem insurmountable. With the ability to afford legal costs compromised, representation may be spotty or nonexistent; the economic disparity faced can jeopardize custody and contact, and cause financial ruin and devastating familial hardships, when imposed upon disadvantaged and overextended mothers.


Mothers without recourse often must represent themselves and their children in courts of law without training or understanding of the judicial system. It is unacceptable when custody and visitation are at issue that loss of custody and contact with children results from lack: lack of money, good representation, and/or legal knowledge.


While most of the challenges our mothers face are resolved with adequate funds for legal representation, there are very few resources nationwide responsive to the plight of these families.


The Custody Project's Heart to Heart Grant Program has been operational for over two decades. The generosity of our donors allows The Custody Project to help qualified mothers meet legal expenses and provide for their children, assisting with legal costs when they are defending the custody and visitation of their children, and providing funds for common necessities when such legal expenses prevent it and they are unable.


Occasionally, assistance is extended in other ways including telephonic support, information exchange, providing references, agency contacts, giving brief lectures/presentations, meeting with mothers, and as applicable when a grant is dispensed, negotiating a pro- or low-bono arrangement, or an affordable payment plan at zero percent interest with their attorneys.


In addition to TCP's grant program, the revolving door loan program serves when, as mothers repay their loans, the funds become available to help other families in need.


The compassion of our donors has kept deserving families afloat, often, at perilous junctures. And, although the daunting hardships such mothers face make complex stories where excerpts barely, or will not, do justice, our yearly newsletters share a little about our families so a light may shine on these cases, although confidentiality precludes names and pictures. (For more information, see our site's About Us: Case Excerpts and Annual Newsletter for Donors and Mothers; Mothers, see our Services Section).


Through our donors, we have helped families in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington D. C., and all 50 states with the exception of Alaska, and our range continues to expand.


Donations come from caring individuals and from businesses, including those Contributors listed on our site (http://thecustodyproject.org/contributors.php). To all: We thank you for your gracious donations, contributions, and services. It is an honor to stand with you to help make the way easier for these voiceless families in need.


Budget: Heart to Heart receives 75% or more since 1994 up to the present Fiscal Year (FY), except for 55% in FY 2016-17, due to the costs of The National Drive.


Fund & Friend-Raising, Public Awareness Actions, in combination with Educational Outreach, Property & Program Grants, and General Purposes and Overhead, receives 25% or less, while Heart to Heart receives 75% or more of yearly donations.


Our nine-digit zip code is provided here as it is not always transmitted by Guidestar to its partner sites:


Address: The Custody Project, PO Box 20753, El Sobrante, CA 94820-0753.


Telephone: 850.682.3460


Email: Not watched. Contact The Custody Project by telephone.


Info: T-H, 10-4, CST.


Financials: If you are elsewhere, including having come through Network For Good, Just Give, or Amazon, please visit our site or Guidestar for additional information about our Programs. On Guidestar, try visiting as a guest without logging in, use 95-4521373 at the search box, click on our name, scroll down, pick Programs, and look for Heart to Heart, Fund & Friend-Raising, The Drives, Educational Outreach, and for our Funding, Volunteer, and In-Kind Contributions Requests. More information may show than when logged in on Guidestar.


For some financial information through Guidestar's partner sites: use 95-4521373 at the search box and click on our name. If our IRS Determination Letters and 990N / Financial Information are unavailable through Guidestar or its partner sites, visit our site's About Us. For the IRS Determination Letters, choose that option under the About Us section, and for additional financial information, visit Financials (http://thecustodyproject.org/about.php and http://www.thecustodyproject.org/financials.php) or visit irs.gov.


Who We Are: Assisting qualified mothers, when in financial crisis, with care, custody, and visitation expenses in accordance with its Mission Statement, The Custody Project is a charitable, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Fed Tax ID #95-4521373, founded in 1994.


Note: Although we help mothers and their children, this group is not listed in the target population list below, so we have chosen: females - women and girls (i.e., mothers), and children and youth (0-19 years):


The Custody Project assists mothers and their children in accordance with our mission statement, using R (Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy), R20 (Civil Rights, Advocacy for Specific Groups) and R24 (Women's Rights). When updating GuideStar, we have also designated this population as female adults and their children as males and females, infants through age 19 years.