Deadline: 16-Jan-24
The Stranahan Foundation is seeking proposals for funding to support organizations and projects that advance the Innovation and Proven Professional Development strategies.
The Stranahan Foundation’s Early Childhood Education Strategy focuses on increasing access to high-quality early care and education for low-income children (birth to five) by investing in developing and retaining a high-quality, thriving early educator workforce.
Funding Information
- Applicants may request funding up to $300,0000 over three years. Applicants should submit a project budget that aligns with the project’s scope, supports proposed activities, and connects those activities with line-item requests.
- The Foundation anticipates awarding up to five grants as part of this funding cycle.
Eligible Projects
- Development, piloting, and refinement of new approaches for improving knowledge, skills, or practices or growing and sustaining a thriving workforce of early childhood professionals. Innovation requests must have the following:
- A clearly defined logic model and plan for evaluating implementation and outcomes related to classroom environments, teacher practices, and, ideally, child learning.
- Provide preliminary evidence to advance the applicant’s and Foundation’s understanding of “what works,” for whom, and under what conditions” by the end of the grant period.
- Have an intention to repeat or scale the innovative approach, if proven successful, to multiple early childhood settings or various geographies.
- Expansion or modifications to a clearly defined, proven professional development model enabling future expansion or implementation in a new childhood setting. Proven Professional Development requests must have the following:
- Substantial evidence of positive outcomes for early childhood professionals, classroom environments, and, ideally, child learning. The Foundation defines “substantial” as consistent with the definitions of What Works Clearinghouse or ESSA Tier 1 or 2 evidence.
- Clear evidence of repeated, successful implementation in multiple early childhood settings or various geographies.
- This cycle, they are particularly interested in approaches and models designed to 1) build early childhood professionals’ knowledge, skills, and classroom practices to support children’s behavioral and social-emotional health and/or 2) grow the pipeline of high-quality educators in early childhood settings. These were the most requested needs by more than 50+ early childhood providers in their summer 2023 Provider cycle.
Eligibility Criteria
- This call is open to local, state, and national U.S.-based nonprofit organizations, fiscally sponsored organizations, public school districts, and higher education institutions.
- Additional organization-eligibility criteria include having a demonstrated:
- Commitment to serving early childhood providers and professionals whose student populations comprise at least 60% of children from low-income families.
- Understanding and track record of directly collaborating with families, communities, and the early childhood professionals they seek to impact.
- Organization capacity and leadership to execute the proposed work, ensure quality, and use data to inform continuous improvement.
Ineligible
- They will not consider proposals that request funding from the Stranahan Foundation for:
- Ongoing program operations
- Scholarships or tuition assistance (this can be part of the larger project)
- Significant levels of staff incentives (i.e., stipends, gift cards, pay)
- Ongoing or repeat funding for a project that the Stranahan Foundation has previously supported.
- Projects primarily focused on a single early childhood provider or staff internal to the applicant organization.
- >10% indirect/overhead expenses
For more information, visit Stranahan Foundation.