Claudia King, the former development director for Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault, has a new job. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native is now a regional director of philanthropy for Bethany Christian Services.

Founded in 1944 in Michigan, the faith-based nonprofit operates in more than 30 states and a dozen countries, helping over 50,000 people every year with adoption, foster care, refugee support and other services.

“The way I look at it is, every dollar that I make is a dollar that is going to help a child or a family,” King said.

Helping people is important to King. The former police officer came to Summit County seven years ago. She initially worked remotely in marketing for brands like General Motors and Jaguar, but the spirit of the mountain community moved her.

She loved Breckenridge so much that she joined the Breckenridge Police Department to serve its residents, and then King became a part of Summit Advocates in November 2019.

“Being at Advocates was a great opportunity to take what I knew about law enforcement and how those people interacted with victims and how we can help them do a better job for our victims in the community,” King said.

The position also utilized her marketing background as she worked on events, branding, fundraising and outreach for the nonprofit. One program she assisted with is called Empowered Intervention, which focuses on educating health care and hospitality industries in bystander intervention and victim support. This may involve health care providers noticing warning signs or a patron ordering an angel shot at a bar to signal that they feel unsafe.

King, a Quaker, believes everything happens for a reason, and Bethany contacted her about the position. She hadn’t heard of the organization prior and doubted she would be hired. Yet King’s first day was Dec. 6.

“As I talked with more and more people with the organization, I really knew it was a place I was meant to be because now I’m able to solely focus on what I’m really good at and passionate about, which is foundation grant writing and connecting with donors,” King said.

She is responsible for major donors in Colorado, Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as helping the branches in those three states get the funds they need to operate. King has been spending the early days of her new career learning about all of the programs Bethany does since each branch participates in different ones.

For instance, King said Wisconsin now has a new women’s recovery center. Women can go there if they’re struggling with alcoholism or addiction, and children can also go so that the family unit remains together.

King said the refugee program in Colorado has grown quite a bit in the past year, and adoption and foster care are other primary programs. She likes how Bethany’s home study and post-release services mean the organization checks that the family member or sponsor is actually a safe and stable environment for that child to be going to and then performs continual follow-ups to make sure the necessary support is provided.

While there are offices in Colorado Springs and Aurora, King will stay in Summit County and work for Bethany remotely. She hopes to implement local fundraising events in the future, though nothing is currently planned.

“Finding something where I can work from here, still contribute to the community and be a part of the community was really important for me,” King said.

Summit Advocates’ search for a new development director to replace King is ongoing.