KID FY 2021 Annual Report
JUNE 2020 – MAY 2021
Dear KID Friends & Supporters
Dear KID friends and supporters,
We are excited this year to present our online annual report for Fiscal Year 2021 (June 2020 through May 2021). This format will allow you to easily see the progress you’ve helped KID achieve as you scroll through the photos and reports.
This Fiscal Year was our first full year under the shadow of COVID-19 and the global pandemic. KID staff spent it at home, working from our dining room tables, but staying connected in new and creative ways. Like the rest of you, we are proficient on Zoom and strive to find new ways to make that engagement as meaningful as in-person gatherings. From webinars on children’s product safety, Zoom press conferences and our first virtual KID Best Friend Award Night, we took our mission online and were able to continue as a strong voice for families and children.
At that virtual Best Friend Award Night in October 2020, we honored an amazing couple, Danny and Anne Shapiro, who have been committed KID supporters for almost two decades. Their support—along with the support of so many of you—has allowed KID to fulfill our mission of keeping children safe.
As you read this report, you’ll see the progress we’ve made in protecting children as they sleep and play; in holding manufacturers accountable for safety and strengthening a network of advocates to work with KID to keep children safe.
We’d love to hear from you about KID’s progress and how we can increase our impact and carry out our mission. Please reach out to us and support our work to keep our efforts strong.
Nancy CowlesExecutive Director
Shawn KassermanPresident
KID Mission & Focus
Kids In Danger (KID) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting children by fighting for product safety.
KID’s mission is to save lives by enhancing transparency and accountability through safer product development, better education, and stronger advocacy for children. Since our 20th anniversary in 2018, we have been focusing on increasing our impact by investigating the use of technology and data to provide better safety information to parents and caregivers sooner and expanding our work on design safety to develop new tools for product designers and entrepreneurs.
KID was founded by the parents of Danny Keysar who was killed by a poorly designed recalled portable crib in his child care home.
View More Family VoicesAdvocacy
In February 2021, KID launched a campaign calling on Peloton to take down a commercial that shows images of an unsafe infant sleep environment including crib bumper pads. Over 2,000 people signed our petition, and KID staff spoke with Peloton just days after launching our campaign. The company apologized for the unintended unsafe image in the commercial and committed to not using unsafe infant sleep images in future ads.
KID testified at CPSC’s FY2022 Agenda and Priorities Hearing in April 2021 and offered recommendations for CPSC to prioritize children’s product safety issues such as furniture tip-overs, inclined sleepers, and ingestion hazards. KID joined numerous consumer, medical, and parent groups calling on Congress to pass the STURDY Act which would help prevent furniture tip-overs, and the Safe Sleep for Babies Act which would ban infant inclined sleep products and padded crib bumper pads which have led to dozens of infant deaths. KID, along with other organizations, sent a memo to then-President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team outlining our priorities related to product safety issues such as safe sleep and furniture tip-over prevention.
KID Board of Directors
June 2020 to May 2021
KID Staff
Nancy CowlesExecutive Director
Dev GowdaAssistant Director
Natalija KosicAdministrative AssistantYoung Professionals Board
Work Study, Interns and Volunteers (FY 2021)
Prior to the pandemic, almost all of KID’s interns and volunteers were based in Chicago and came into our River North office. Since the pandemic brought us remote working, we have been able to broadly recruit interns. We had interns and volunteers from all over the country from coast to coast and even other countries, such as Ghana, Brazil, Egypt, Poland, and China. Interns and volunteers worked on a wide variety of projects such as fundraising and event planning, program (research, outreach, social media, advocacy, and Recall.it), and general KID administrative needs. Our volunteers included several in IT that helped develop our new browser extension, Recall.it. We would not be able to accomplish our goals and fulfill our mission without our interns and volunteers, and we thank them for their service to KID.
By the Numbers
1592+
volunteer hours ($32,905 value)+
3,480=
work study hours ($36,540 value)=
5,072
total hours $69,445 valueHow Interns and Volunteers Spend Their Time
The Year in Action
Programs
Big Data and Technology
KID has been developing a browser extension called Recall.it that will give consumers more information about products they buy online. Shoppers can view recalls, incident reports and injury information while shopping on online sites such as Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist from their computer. With the support of a great team of volunteers and project manager from Simply-bi, Recall.it is reaching Beta phase. Over the past year, we have had several consumers test the extension to provide feedback, and we’re working to get the extension to run faster, smoother, and with greater accuracy.
Design Safety
KID is working to create a Design Safety Toolkit which is a brand-new tool designed to provide small and medium sized children’s products companies with the information and tools they need to design, develop, and market products more safely, is a much-needed resource in the children’s products market. With the assistance of experts in a wide variety of fields such as marketing, manufacturing, human factors, and consumer safety, we are expecting to launch the toolkit in early 2022.
At the same time KID is developing a new tool, the Design Safety Toolkit, for small businesses and entrepreneurs designing and selling children’s products, we are still committed to our Teach Early Safety Testing (TEST) Program, collaborating with university engineering departments. This allows us to instill in tomorrow’s designers and engineers a keen sense of designing with safety and the end users in mind. Teams in the 2020 to 2021 school year from Northwestern University’s Segal Design Institute designed an interactive add on to a tablet device for preschoolers and a safer baby gate, along with a child resistant compartment for coin cell batteries.
Research
Tracking Trends: Children's Product Recalls in 2020
Each year, KID publishes a report analyzing data and trends in children’s products that have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in the year prior. Our report Tracking Trends: Children's Product Recalls in 2020, showed nursery products accounted for the highest number of recalls (16), and six of the nursery product recalls were infant inclined sleep products. Inclined sleepers are inherently unsafe for infant sleep. We also found an increase in recalls of unstable clothing storage units, and products recalled for high levels of lead. Social media usage by the CPSC and recalling companies to alert consumers about recalled products continued to remain low.
Based on the report findings, KID urged policymakers and CPSC to develop strong mandatory furniture safety standards to prevent tip-overs, recall all inclined sleep products still on the market or in homes, and prioritize recall effectiveness by using all tools, including social media to increase the likelihood recalled products are removed from use.
Number of Incidents by Recall Type
Checkup on SaferProducts.gov
KID’s Checkup on SaferProducts.gov analyzed reports submitted to SaferProducts.gov by consumers, healthcare providers, state government officials and others regarding incidents with potentially unsafe products. The report included all children’s product incidents posted from the launch of SaferProducts.gov in March 2011 to December 1, 2020. Almost half (49%) of the reports in the sample listed a victim under the age of three. These infants and toddlers were most affected by juvenile products, primarily sleep products like cribs, mattresses, and cradles. Of the 7,161 reports, there were 82 reports of death, 161 reports of hospital admission and 471 reports of treatment received from an emergency department because of dangerous products.
Since its launch, there have been fewer reports filed every year, indicating that the site can benefit from a greater emphasis on raising awareness of the database among consumers, as well as highlighting its role in preventing injuries and getting unsafe products out of homes.
Number of incident reports decrease over time for all
incident reports submitted to SaferProducts.gov
Public Education and Outreach
Throughout this year, KID staff led seven virtual presentations of our Safe from the Start workshop, educating 157 parents, caregivers, home visitors, consignments, and health professionals about safe sleep and children’s product safety. KID is also conducting research to help us better serve the needs of underserved communities. We conducted 12 interviews with community group leaders throughout Chicago about safety messaging, delivery and impact, and we are currently analyzing our findings to refocus our outreach and materials.
In FY 2021, KID distributed OVER 2,000 booklets and other safety info including:
KID provided 157 health care providers, child care providers, home visitors, consignment sellers and parents with our Safe from the Start and Safe Sleep virtual webinars and workshops:
- Southside Southside Early Learning Network
- Consignment Events Association
- Tuesday’s Child, Chicago
- Our Babies: Safe & Sound, West Virginia
- Care providers, health care professionals, and parents through open Safe From the Start webinars
Events
Conversations with KID
This year KID went virtual with events. In summer and early fall 2020, we held three unique Conversations with KID. In July, KID Board President Shawn Kasserman led a conversation with Dan Mann, an attorney who represents families whose children have died in furniture tip-overs along with Crystal Ellis of Parents Against Tip-overs, who lost her son to a furniture tip-over and has become a fearless advocate fighting for reform. In August, Nancy Cowles led a conversation with past Best Friend Award honoree U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, and Remington A. Gregg, Counsel for Civil Justice and Consumer Rights of Public Citizen to discuss legislative achievements and the current regulatory environment. And in September, Nancy moderated a discussion with journalists Stephanie Zimmermann of the Chicago Sun-Times and Rachel Rabkin Peachman of Consumer Reports on children’s product safety and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Young Professionals Board’s Trivia Night Fundraiser
KID’s Young Professionals Board (YPB) hosted its first virtual trivia night fundraiser on August 27, 2020. Teams competed against each other via Zoom, and everyone had a great time. KID’s YPB consists of engaged young professionals who have demonstrated strong leadership qualities and are committed to KID’s mission. If you’re interested in joining KID’s Young Professionals Board or know someone who would be a good fit, please contact us.
Best Friend Award Night
Each year, KID commemorates our progress, honors the memory of Danny Keysar and other victims of unsafe children’s products and highlights the contributions of child safety champions at our Best Friend Award Night. The 2020 virtual Best Friend Award Night was livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook on October 15, 2020, to honor Danny and Anne Shapiro for over 20 years of support for KID and children’s product safety. The event was interactive, emceed by Lisa Parker of NBC 5 Chicago, and included an auction, raffle, and messages from KID and previous Best Friend Award honorees. Watch the recording here.
Wine and Conversation with KID
On April 29, 2021, KID hosted a virtual wine tasting fundraiser featuring wines from Napa Valley’s Priest Ranch. Guests enjoyed a guided tasting experience from the winemaker, and had the opportunity to speak with KID Executive Director Nancy Cowles, who updated attendees on the new legislative environment and pandemic safety at home.
Financial FY21
Summary of Financial Position as of May 31, 2021
Assets
Liabilities & Net Assets
Summary of Revenues & Expenses
Net Assets Support
Expenses
Summary of Expenses
Sources of Support
Thank You to Our Generous Donors!
Champions ($15,000+)
Defenders ($10,000-$14,999)
Protectors ($5,000-$9,999)
Heroes ($2,500-$4,999)
Advocates ($1,000-$2,499)
Sustainers ($500-$999)
Foundation Grants
In-Kind Donations
Matching Gifts Companies
Workplace Giving Campaigns
Guardians ($250-$499)
Allies ($100-$249)
Supporters ($1-$99)
Auction & Raffle Prize Donors
We Need You!
Read below for ways that you can get involved and help KID fight for product safety
Tell Your Story
KID only learns of some dangerous products from families whose children have experienced an incident with a hazardous product, or in the worst cases, been injured or killed—please share with KID your experience with products. We can help you make an impact on product safety for today’s children.
Advocate
KID is the voice for parents in standards setting, CPSC hearings, and every day as we work to make products safer. Add your voice by joining our KID Action Team to receive monthly emails to take action in your community to protect children. Together we are stronger.
Volunteer or Intern
KID is a small but mighty organization. Our volunteers and interns expand our work to have a real impact. You can work remotely on projects or help with our virtual events. We need great people like you. Pass our message to potential volunteers or interns that you may know.
Support
KID would not be here without the support of people like you who want to see change and a safer world. Make a one-time gift, join our GEM (Give Every Month) Club for sustaining support, make a planned gift, or give in other ways.
Join Our Board
Be a leader at KID. Bring your skills, expertise, and networks to our Executive Board or support KID and gain valuable board experience on our Young Professionals Board. Contact us for more information.