Missouri CASA pushes through setbacks to raise funds for new building

By Abrah Taggart, Columbia Missourian

After losing a $500,000 appropriation from the state this summer, Heart of Missouri Court-Appointed Special Advocates are pushing forward with a new facility it hopes to open in late 2026.

This week, the organization kicked off a campaign to reach $4.6 million to complete fundraising for its new home.

Missouri CASA has already raised $2.7 million and has another $600,000 pledged as a matching grant, said Executive Director Kelly Hill on Wednesday.

In July, Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed a one-time appropriation of $500,000 that was meant to help fund construction.

“The veto wasn’t going to stop the project, but it was definitely going to help get closer to our goal and be able to start sooner,” Hill said.

CASA is planning to build a 10,000-square-foot building and use half as a training and advocacy center for staff, and the other half as a clubhouse for the foster care children CASA works with.

“The work that we do is a huge service to the state of Missouri,” Hill said. “So that’s why we wanted to ask the state for support, because this project is going to essentially help them and their outcomes.”

The campaign began when CASA realized it was outgrowing its rented space in Columbia. The organization couldn’t find any existing building in good condition, so it decided a new building would be its best option. “The primary goal, the focus of our mission, is to serve every child with a CASA volunteer who is in foster care,” Hill said. “We’ve tripled in the last six or seven years, we were serving about 20% of the kids in 2018, and we are now serving about 65% of them.”

In February 2024, CASA bought a 1.3-acre plot of land on North Stadium Boulevard to soon call home. A few months later, it began a capital campaign by forming a committee and fundraising. The loss of state appropriations was not the only funding setback CASA faced. National CASA offered Missouri CASA a marketing and awareness grant, as well as a needs-based grant. The two grants were terminated in April, but eventually reinstated in August, causing CASA to push back the project launch for three months.

Hill said these setbacks made the nonprofit fight even harder for their goals. The kickoff launched the campaign publicly.“To me, with this building and campaign, I want kids in foster care to know that our community sees them,” Hill said. “We care about them. We care about their future.”