MCAP advocates for children who are abused or neglected, Hedwig House aids adults recovering from mental illness, and Women's Center supports victims of domestic violence.
Jurors activate the donation by checking a box on the orientation form they sign when appearing for duty. The earnings, roughly $9 to $12 a day plus 17 cents per mile for transportation to and from the courthouse, will be paid to the designated charities in quarterly installments. Jurors receive a receipt they can use for tax purposes.
President Judge Richard Hodgson, one of the county's three jury board commissioners, borrowed the idea from Delaware County, where it has raised $450,000 since 2003.
"I saw no reason we couldn't do it here," Hodgson said during a news briefing in Norristown.
That program's founder, Delaware County District Court Administrator Gerald C. Montella, said he got the idea from a court-related magazine in 2001 and contacted officials in Allegheny County for help with the logistics.
Hoping to raise a few hundred dollars, he was amazed when the program took off; between 25 percent and 35 percent of jurors now donate, he said.
"In the first month, we raised a couple of thousand, and here we are at almost the half-a-million-dollar mark," Montella said.
To date, donations include $210,103 to Delaware County Children and Youth Services, $100,000 to the Hero Scholarship Fund of Delaware County, $97,100 to the Domestic Abuse Project, $28,363 to Operation Warm, and $6,706 to CASA Youth Advocates to help children testifying in court.
Sanford Miller, vice president of regional development for Operation Warm, in Chadds Ford, said the donations had helped his nonprofit organization distribute 15,000 coats to area children over the last half-dozen years.
"Most of us take a winter coat for granted," he said, but families and schools call asking for them. "These kinds of programs really make a difference for us, and we're extremely grateful."
MCAP, founded in 1999 by Montgomery County Court Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy and now-District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, provides support, free legal help, and social services to children who are victims of abuse.
Hodgson said he chose groups that served the county's "needy and dependent population" and had no religious or political affiliation.
"The judges are not getting involved in telling jurors they ought to be doing this," he said, calling the program a "no-pressure" situation.
Ferman said she was gratified not only for the financial backing, but for the implicit recognition such funding signified.
"I think back to the earliest days, when it was a brand-new program. We had no idea if it would succeed and be accepted," she said.
"It speaks volumes about where we've come over the past decade."
Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at 610-313-8232 or bcook@phillynews.com.
