Celebrating Five Years of Impact
July 2018
Elizabeth Gaines and Olivia Allen launch Children’s Funding Project to help communities identify how to fund their strategic goals for infants, toddlers, children, and youth.
September 2019
More than 120 advocates and policymakers from 27 communities attend our first Children’s Funding Institute, held in Denver, CO. Attendees receive personalized coaching about how to secure local dedicated funding for kids, with eight community teams successfully creating voter-approved children’s funds in the following years.
February 2020
Children’s Funding Accelerator our partner 501c4 organization forms. It has so far supported 12 successful campaigns for voter-approved children’s funds that collectively raise more than half a billion dollars annually for kids.
November 2020
In a significant victory for children’s funding, voters in five local communities and one state prioritize kids by creating and renewing children’s funds on their ballots. We, and our partner Children’s Funding Accelerator, support all six campaigns to successfully pass these measures, which will raise over $300 million annually for universal pre-K, birth-to-five programs, youth mental health, and more.
February 2021
Wisconsin contracts with us as Children’s Funding Project’s first cost modeling client. The state’s cost model measures the true cost of infant and toddler care in the state.
April 2022
We partner with the Community Innovation and Action Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis to expand our fiscal mapping work. Through this partnership we launch our state child and youth fiscal mapping cohort to help leaders in 15 states build their capacity to track and analyze their public spending for kids.
January 2019
Leaders from Montgomery County, MD, contract with us as our first fiscal map client. The final fiscal map documents all federal, state, local, and private funds supporting early childhood programs and services in the county.
November 2019
Children’s Funding Project officially incorporates as an independent nonprofit organization.
April 2020
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expand our work to help communities understand the newly available pandemic-relief funding and help communities leverage these new funds to support kids.
January 2021
Children’s Funding Project expands our collaboration with long-time partner Margaret Brodkin and becomes the fiscal sponsor for Funding the Next Generation, a California-based project that promotes local public funding measures for services that support children, youth, and their families.
October 2021
Our new American Rescue Plan database debuts, highlighting funding available for all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia as well as more than 27,000 counties, cities, and towns; nearly 17,000 school districts; 3,500 higher education institutions; and 577 tribal nations.
November 2022
Three local communities and one state create new children’s funds via ballot measure with our support. Together, these new funds will raise $200 million annually for youth mental health, early childhood education, child care, and more.
41
number of states, plus Washington, DC, where we have worked
with local and/or state leaders and advocates
95
local fund managers, advocates, and campaign organizers received ongoing coaching through our cohorts and communities of practice
72
clients received our direct technical assistance with their strategic finance planning
376
campaign leaders and local advocates received training at our three Children’s Funding Institutes
8
community teams that attended our institutes successfully created voter-approved children’s funds
465
examples in our American Rescue Plan database of how states and communities are using federal relief funds to support kids