1-855-237-1396

Private Grants Alert

PGA Finds Funding for Early Childhood Leadership, Training Efforts

PGA reader Charlotte Hendricks, the coordinator for an early childhood training program at an Alabama Community Action Agency, asked for help in maintaining and expanding the boot camps it holds for leaders from state early childhood organizations.

The Alabama Early Childhood Leadership Academy (http://tinyurl.com/cffn5sd), which operates under the auspices of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, provides two-day retreats for local and state officials who run public and private early childhood organizations. The whole idea is to help these decision-makers improve the quality of early care/education and to enhance school readiness of young children. Programs also address the needs of at-risk kids.

"The Academy brings together a diverse group of leaders from across the state for a series of five two-day retreats," Hendricks says. "Our cost is about $200,000 per year, so we are looking for at least that much in funding to accomplish this."

If the academy was able to win additional funding, they would like to broaden it to a regional effort, she says.

Within the federal funding stream, there is both good and bad news. The president's FY 2014 budget proposes a huge increase for the Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) Head Start program, to $9.6 billion from $8 billion this year. This could mean a huge boost for early childhood and training programs like the ones offered at the academy. However, the budget would cut the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) (CFDA Number 93.569) program to $350 million from the current level of $682 million; CSBG funds the nation's 1,000 Community Action Agencies.

Private Giving

A good place to start, as with any grant search, is in your own back yard. The BBVA Compass Foundation (formerly Compass Bank Foundation), based in Birmingham, is a massive foundation with $1.5 billion in assets, distributing $5.5 million in grants last year.

It (http://tinyurl.com/dxwxdj2) supports communities where they have a presence (AL, AZ, CO, FL, NM, NY, PR, and TX), which may help in Hendricks' intention to spread the scope of their leadership camps. And, education or leadership development programs have been funded by the foundation in the past.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

There is an opportunity under the foundation's Educated Kids funding category. The foundation is significant, distributing about $300 million in grants last year. No deadlines. The Educated Kids account funds early childhood development, literacy, high school graduation and job training programs. It has supported leadership development programs in the past. For example, the foundation made a $1 million award to the Child Care Services Assn. of Chapel Hill, NC, for a technical assistance program to improve early care education by helping in the professional development of low-income teachers (http://tinyurl.com/auy2wu6). And, Michigan's Kalamazoo Community Foundation (www.kalfound.org) recently launched a website for the Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo, partly funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to help with early learning.

There are also a large number of private organizations interested in funding education programs. While they may not offer large grants, their support could help in leveraging more funding, either from other foundations or the state/federal government. No funder wants to be the sole support for a large and costly project.

Other private funders:

Info: This report is the result of a subscriber's question sent to Editor Frank Klimko. You too can get your questions answered. E-mail or phone 301/588-6380, ext. 146.

Login to read the full story or Start Your 7 Days Free Trial!