Early Childhood Education Provider Grant

Overview

-- Fall 2024 Early Childhood Education Funding Cycle --

The Stranahan Foundation’s Early Childhood Education grantmaking program focuses on increasing access to high-quality early care and education for young children (birth to five), especially those from low-income families, by investing in developing and retaining a high-quality, thriving early educator workforce.

CONTEXT & FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The fall 2024 funding cycle will support nonprofit organizations and projects that advance our Provider strategy. The Stranahan Foundation defines “providers” as charitable organizations directly providing early childhood care and education in centers, homes, or public school settings. Eligible projects must be intended to improve an organization’s internal professional learning and development systems and/or enhance staff recruitment and retention.  As such, this cycle has up to $600,000 in funding available and is focused on soliciting proposals to support the development, refinement, or enhancements to:

1. Internal professional development and learning system and activities. The strongest proposals within this category will demonstrate how the proposed project:

• Fits into an existing or aspiring coordinated approach for supporting early childhood educators’ professional learning and development.
• Is informed by research and best practices, as well as input from teaching staff and the communities they serve.
• Uses a multi-pronged approach (e.g., training, coaching, professional learning communities, etc.) to support sustained knowledge, skill development, and classroom implementation.
• Use standardized assessment or observational tools to show an increase in the quality of the classroom environment, staff’s teaching practices, and children’s learning outcomes. Outcomes can cover various areas of learning, including academic and non-academic domains.
• If external consultants or training partners are utilized, the project includes building the internal capacity of staff to support long-term implementation.

2. Grow your own or a similar teacher pipeline or retention initiative intended to address staffing and retention challenges. The strongest proposals within this category will demonstrate how the proposed project:

• Fits into a coordinated approach for supporting aspiring and existing teachers’ development that is linked to standardized salary increases based on milestones.
• Is informed by research and best practices, as well as input from teaching staff and the communities they serve.
• Uses a multi-pronged approach (e.g., training, coaching, professional learning communities, etc.) to support sustained knowledge, skill development, and classroom implementation.
• Thoughtfully considers how recruitment efforts reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of the families it serves.
• Includes a plan for evaluating the project's impact on retention, participant satisfaction, classroom environments, and teacher practices.

Additional consideration will be given to proposals that demonstrate any of the following:

• A strong track record of working with early childhood education professionals to produce positive learning outcomes for young children.
• A deep understanding of how race, ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, and other factors impact access to high-quality early childhood education and career opportunities.
• Have organizational leadership (board and senior staff) that reflects the communities of families being served.
• Are an opportunity to expand, pilot, or develop promising early-stage ideas with a clear rationale for how time-limited funding will enable the proposal to reach its long-term goals.
• Have the potential to expand and deepen impact on early childhood professionals and young children after the proposed grant ends.

This call is open to local, state, and national U.S.-based nonprofit organizations, fiscally sponsored organizations, public school districts, and higher education institutions.
[See sponsor website for additional organizational eligibility criteria.]

BUDGET & AWARDS
Applicants may request funding up to $150,000 over three years.
The Foundation anticipates awarding up to five grants as part of this funding cycle.

PROSPECTIVE APPLICANT SUPPORT
Prospective applicants are encouraged to take advantage of the following opportunities for proposal support: 

• Question Period from June 24 through July 24: Our team will answer questions about this funding opportunity and the application process via our [email protected] email box. Please check the FAQ below before submitting your questions, as we will update this document in real-time.
• Open office hours on June 27 and July 12: Staff will host two 90-minute virtual office hour blocks during which prospective applicants can drop in to ask questions directly to staff. See details for these sessions below:
  Thursday, June 27, from 3 - 4:30 pm Eastern
  Friday, July 12, from 11 am to 12:30 pm Eastern

To receive the Zoom link, please sign up here for the session at least 24 hours before the scheduled time. Please note that our staff is in the Eastern Time Zone, and our offices will be closed July 3-5.