Think of Us is an advocacy group focused on the foster care system that advocates keeping children in foster care in settings close to their families and for the provision of resources to financially struggling families to prevent children from entering the foster system. ¹

Founder and CEO Sixto Cancel’s experience in foster care shapes the organization’s emphasis on kinship care and a family-first approach within the foster care system. Think of Us partners with government agencies, lawmakers, providers, advocates, and foundations to support “kinship care” and similar family-unification-based systems. ²

Funding

Think of Us has announced a $100 million fundraising goal to support its advocacy and research. In 2023, the Audacious Project, a social-impact funding initiative within the TED organization, pledged a five-year grant totaling $47.5 million. ³

Think of Us has also received funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation to advance kinship-first approaches that prioritize placing foster children with relatives first, and advocates for support for older youth, including those who had aged out of foster care. ⁴

Activism

As of 2017, the Hack Foster Care Summit in Silicon Valley was held at which stakeholders, including youth, philanthropists, social workers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and tech leaders, converged to present solutions in the child welfare space, particularly in California’s Bay Area. At the Summit, Santa Clara County “committed to piloting the Think of Us platform with its foster youth.” ⁵

Think of Us partnered with Foster America, New America, and Bloom Works on the Child Welfare Playbook project, which advocates for kinship placements in the foster care system, among other policies. The Child Welfare Playbook was supported by the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, the Aviv Foundation, the Ballmer Group, the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Greenbridge Family Foundation, New America’s New Practice Lab, Schmidt Futures, the Stand Together Trust, and the North Forty Group. ⁶

1. “Your Donation Helps Transform Child Welfare.” Think of Us. Accessed January 3, 2025. https://www.thinkofus.org/donate/donate.
2. Rodgers, Josh. “Sixto Cancel’s Foster Care Experience Led Him to Create a Nonprofit That Could Transfer $1.3B to Families.” AfroTech, May 11, 2023. https://afrotech.com/sixto-cancel-is-helps-foster-families-access-billions.
3.  Tiano, Sara. “Think of US Receives $47.5 Million from Ted’s Audacious Project.” The Imprint, April 17, 2023. https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/think-of-us-receives-47-5-million-from-teds-audacious-project/240425.
4.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Think of US Raises $47.5 Million to Improve Child Welfare Systems.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation, April 18, 2023. https://www.aecf.org/blog/think-of-us-to-expand-its-efforts-with-investment-from-the-audacious-project.
5. Alvarez, Mayra. “Silicon Valley Hack Foster Care Summit Brings Technology and Child Welfare Stakeholders Together to Help Transform the Foster Care Experience – New Report Issued.” The Children’s Partnership, January 4, 2020. https://childrenspartnership.org/2017/04/06/silicon-valley-hack-foster-care-summit-brings-technology-child-welfare-stakeholders-together-help-transform-foster-care-experience-new-report-issued/.
6. “About the Child Welfare Playbook.” About. Accessed January 3, 2025. https://www.childwelfareplaybook.com/about/.