Posted on October 1, 2002

Funding for Children & Youth: Private Funding Sources

Annie E. Casey Foundation
http://www.aecf.org/
The Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation supports innovative policy and practice initiatives that address the related challenges of strengthening distressed neighborhoods, alleviating family poverty, reconnecting fathers and families, providing better health care, and preventing community violence. Since 1990, the KIDS COUNT program has been the cornerstone of the foundation's efforts to increase public awareness of the condition of children and to foster greater public accountability from improving child outcomes. A national and state-by-state effort to track the educational, economic, social, and physical well-being of children in the United States, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich public discussions about the most promising ways to help children grow up to be healthy, productive adults.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/dorisduke/index.html
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Child Abuse Prevention Program, which was established in September 2000, supports national programs and initiatives that focus on families with children ages 0 to 6, who are most vulnerable to the damaging impacts of abuse and neglect. Presently, the foundation doesn't directly support organizations, initiatives, or individual projects at local, statewide, or regional levels, nor does it support treatment programs or trauma services for victims; child advocacy centers; or legal reform, foster care, or adoption issues.

Duke Endowment
http://www.dukeendowment.org/
Through its Child Care Division, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Endowment awards grants to licensed residential child-care facilities, licensed adoption placement agencies, and Prevent Child Abuse of North Carolina and South Carolina and their affiliates, and under certain circumstances to public children's welfare agencies. Grants are not available for child day-care centers unless they are affiliated with one of these organizations.

Ford Foundation
http://www.fordfound.org/
The Ford Foundation's Children, Youths, and Families program, part of the foundation's Human Development and Reproductive Health unit, supports organizations and promote policies that help families mobilize human and social assets to overcome poverty and discrimination.

Heinz Endowments
http://www.heinzendowments.org
The Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments' Children, Youth & Families program seeks to ensure that the region's young children and adolescents are given the educational preparation and support they need to succeed in school and in life. The program supports efforts to improve the education and development of young children in Pennsylvania, emphasizing the creation of a coherent, high-quality learning continuum for children from birth through age 8; seeks to increase meaningful, extracurricular learning opportunities for young adolescents, ages 10 to 15; promotes parental responsibility and the active involvement of parents and families in the education of their children.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/
The Reno, Nevada-based Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's Early Childhood Development program focuses on the needs of young children with disabilities through an $11.2 million grant to the California Institute on Human Services at Sonoma State University, which operates the Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program. This five-year initiative provides specialized training and ongoing support to Early Head Start and Migrant Head Start programs to improve care and services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. In addition, the Hilton Foundation-funded AVANCE program helps parents to acquire the skills they need to raise successful children, with specific targeting of Hispanic families. The core program consists of training for parents and a child development program that prepares children ages birth to three for learning.

The James Irvine Foundation
http://www.irvine.org
The James Irvine Foundation's Children, Youth and Families program focuses on strengthening community organizations that enhance the educational development of California children in grades K-12 during out-of-school hours. Through the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) Initiative, the foundation works to build the capacity of youth-serving organizations, engage families, and cultivate community-wide networks to sustain a shared vision of academic achievement.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
http://www.emkf.org/
The Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's Youth Development division considers youth in the full context of their families, schools communities, and social and economic circumstances. The foundation works with many local and some national partners to support programs that promote children's development from birth to young adulthood, and provide funding and technical assistance to build quality programs and services in the areas of family support, early childhood care and education, urban K-12 education, out-of-school activities and neighborhoods. Kauffman grants are designed to nurture healthy families, create safe and healthy neighborhoods, and advance educational achievement. Most of the foundation's Youth Development's grants support programs in Kansas City's metropolitan area.

W. K. Kellogg Foundation
http://www.wkkf.org/
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation's Youth and Education program focuses on improving learning for young people so children can enter school ready to learn, more adolescents are able to achieve, and young adults are prepared for meaningful work or further education. The foundation's SPARK initiative (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) was launched to help communities prepare vulnerable children to be ready for school and schools to be ready for children. SPARK serves as a catalyst to help grantees in seven states and the District of Columbia develop plans to foster seamless transitions to school for vulnerable children ages 3 to 6.

McKnight Foundation
http://www.mcknight.org
Through its Youth Enrichment Initiative, the Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation supports quality programs for school-age children and youth during out-of-school hours and summer months. The program, which complements more formal learning in school, enables children — especially at-risk or low-income children — to grow socially, emotionally, academically, creatively, and physically. The Youth Enrichment initiative is targeted to smaller nonprofit organizations and programs. Larger organizations should request funding for enrichment activities as part of their overall request through the foundation's Children, Families, and Communities program guidelines.

New York Community Trust
http://www.nycommunitytrust.org/
The New York Community Trust's Children, Youths, and Families program works in partnership with government and private agencies to develop the strengths of families and young people; to improve their living and working conditions; to improve family and child welfare services; and to advance social work practice. The program's grants fall within the following funding categories: Girls and Young Women; Hunger and Homelessness; Social Services and Welfare; Substance Abuse; and Youth Development.

David and Lucille Packard Foundation
http://www.packard.org/
The Los Altos, California-based David and Lucille Packard Foundation's Children, Families, and Communities Program focuses on children's access to high-quality health care, the development of children and youth, the economic security of families, and the reduction of violence in homes. The foundation is committed to building the capacity and will to support children to enable them to thrive and grow into responsible, productive, and happy individuals. In some instances, funding priority is given or limited to programs which serve children and their families in the foundation's local funding area: San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties in California.

William Penn Foundation
http://wpennfdn.org/
The goal of the Philadelphia-based William Penn Foundation's Children, Youth, and Families program is to promote the full development of children and youth to become capable adults and productive citizens, with special emphasis on key transitions in their lives. The foundation supports two kinds of investment: in areas in which there is a high level of certainty, the foundation invests over a sustained period, engaging major resources and inviting others to invest as well; in areas in which more information is needed, the foundation undertakes limited investments combined with targeted learning approaches to support, over time, the development of comprehensive strategies. The foundation gives priority to school readiness and youth development initiatives.

Skillman Foundation
http://www.skillman.org
The primary goal of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation is to improve children's homes, schools, and neighborhoods so that they are good places for children. The foundation's geographic area is metropolitan Detroit, defined as Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties in southeastern Michigan, with a concentration in the city of Detroit. Within its program areas of interest — Children's Relationships, Learning Opportunities, and Home & Community — the foundation develops initiatives that focus on selected priority goals. Approximately half of the foundation's grantmaking goes towards initiatives and the other half are made in response to applications submitted by nonprofit organizations that clearly fit within the established program goal areas.