COEUR d'ALENE - During the last few years, the nonprofit and mostly volunteer court advocacy program for children is seeing fundraising dollars diminish and grant funding nearly vanish.

The Court Appointed Special Advocates program in the 1st Judicial District gets $96,000 from the state to operate, but about $200,000 is needed to run the program.

CASA, which is court-mandated, provides advocacy for children who have been removed from their homes as a result of abandonment, neglect or abuse. CASA served more than 650 North Idaho children last year.

Toni Hackwith, CASA's treasurer for the five North Idaho counties, said grant awards make about 15 percent to 20 percent of the funding from year to year.

Grant awards dropped from $45,000 for fiscal 2009 to half that amount for 2010. The awards plummeted to $6,500 for fiscal year 2011, which just ended June 30, she said.

The CASA program applied for 11 grants totaling $160,000 since October, she said. The program has been turned down on all but one of the most recent grant applications. That award was for $1,500.

"We've had a particularly bad stretch in grant requests," Hackwith said.

She added, "There's a lot of entities that need money, so the pool has grown."

The available number of grant dollars, however, hasn't even begun to keep pace with the demand.

CASA's leaders are searching for more potential grant sources, Hackwith said.

With grants down, fundraising has had to increase its share of CASA's budget.

That hasn't happened.

Fundraising currently makes up the final 30 percent to 35 percent. In fiscal year 2009 fundraising was at $116,000, and dropped to $108,000 in 2010.

For the just-ended fiscal year 2011, fundraising dwindled to $90,000.

"There are more hands out there and less money," Hackwith said.

The annual Ray of Hope Breakfast, in April, has become the program's signature fundraiser. It raised tens of thousands of dollars this year.

So what does CASA spend money on?

Supervisors are paid to oversee the large number of volunteers.

Right now, there is one part-time supervisor in both Benewah and Bonner counties. There are two full-time supervisors in Kootenai County. The program's executive director also is a paid position.

The volunteers investigate cases, monitor them, report their findings and speak up for children in court.

Sandra Gunn, executive director of CASA in North Idaho, said two paid full-time supervisors had to be cut earlier this year because of lack of funding. A paid full-time supervisor position was cut in both Kootenai and Bonner counties.

Before that there were seven paid employees.

"What we do is not duplicated," Gunn said. "If we don't have our doors open, no one else does what we're doing."

Volunteer advocates who have been around for a long time are doing some of the work of paid supervisors to help out after the cuts.

"We have cut, cut and cut, and we still have to cut some more," Gunn said. "It costs money to do a good job, do it well."

The good news is there is no shortage of CASA volunteers.

Gunn said right now, the number of supervisors and volunteers will meet the need of the five North Idaho counties.

"We want to sustain with the structure we have now," Gunn said. "If we lose another supervisor, I don't know how the structure would work. That would be a serious problem."

Gunn said part of her strategy to reverse the negative fundraising trend includes communicating more with donors and conducting additional events to raise money.

In the past CASA "asked for money from (donors), and then they don't hear from" program officials until more money is needed. That pattern has to change, she said.

Also, she envisions having two large events during the year, and two smaller ones, she said. That should increase contact with donors.

Pat Volkar, a new member of CASA's board of directors, said he really hopes the program can avoid any organizational changes because of the fundraising and grant-funding challenges.

"I'd be afraid if we had to take further steps," Volkar said. "I'd hate to weaken the structure."

Volkar, a long-time business owner in the renewable energy industry, said he's going to be actively involved in strategic planning and working with Hackwith on budget and finance and others at CASA on fundraising.

He said CASA already is exploring new areas for fundraising and grants.

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If you go

• The CASA Country Hoedown is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday at Settler's Creek.

Tickets are $75; contact (208) 667-9165 or Sandra.gunn@northidahocasa.com