We Fund What Works
At the Each Child Foundation, every grant, investment, and partnership advances a clear purpose: to improve the lives of children facing systemic barriers. We prioritize approaches supported by evidence, informed by community experience, and aligned with our mission.
Our investments focus on the areas that shape a child’s daily life: early learning, food security, housing stability, health and wellness. We support proven organizations, community‑rooted partners, and innovative solutions that create measurable, lasting change for children and families.
When funding is strategic, coordinated, and grounded in evidence, it strengthens far more than a single program; it strengthens the entire ecosystem around a child.
Our Funding Philosophy
We believe that improving children’s lives requires addressing the interconnected conditions that shape their daily experience. That means investing in organizations and initiatives that strengthen children, families, and communities from multiple angles, education, health, stability, and opportunity. We look for partners with proven models, deep community trust, clear outcome metrics, and the capacity to expand their impact with additional support.
We approach every investment as a partnership. When we support an organization, we work alongside them to strengthen coordination, share strategic insight, and connect them with relationships and resources that deepen their impact. Complex challenges shift when support, strategy, collaboration, and accountability move in the same direction, and that is how we aim to contribute.
Our Priority Funding Areas
Early Childhood and Education Support
The most powerful investment we can make is in a child’s learning journey, starting in the early years and extending across their development. We support high‑quality early learning programs, developmental assessments, parent‑coaching initiatives, early literacy efforts, and kindergarten‑readiness supports, particularly in communities where access to early education is limited by geography, economics, or systemic barriers.
As children grow, we continue that investment. We fund tutoring and homework support, after‑school enrichment, school‑based mental health services, and college and career preparation for older youth. We prioritize partners who work to close the academic achievement gap while strengthening the social and emotional foundations that make learning possible.
Food Security and Nutrition
Access to nutritious food is fundamental to a child’s health, learning, and overall well‑being. We support school meal programs, weekend and summer food supports, community‑based nutrition education, and organizations that bring healthy food directly to families in under‑resourced communities. We also invest in food banks and distribution efforts, and we prioritize programs that connect nutrition to broader family stability because consistent access to healthy food is essential for a child’s ability to learn, grow, and thrive.
Housing Stability and Homelessness Prevention
A safe, consistent place to live shapes every aspect of a child’s development. We support emergency rental assistance, transitional housing programs, rapid‑rehousing initiatives for families with children, and organizations that provide legal support to families facing eviction. We also invest in services that strengthen a family’s financial situations, including workforce training and benefits navigation because housing stability and economic stability are deeply connected.
We additionally support children’s residential care programs that provide safe, nurturing environments for children who cannot remain at home. A consistent place to live anchor a child’s sense of security and remains one of the strongest predictors of long‑term wellbeing.
Health, Behavioral Health, and Care Coordination
We fund mobile health clinics, school‑based health programs, trauma‑informed mental health services for children, and family counseling initiatives. We also support partners serving children with chronic or complex health needs, recognizing that consistent, coordinated care is essential for learning, stability, and long‑term wellbeing. We prioritize organizations addressing the behavioral and mental health needs of children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), because healing is foundational to a child’s development.
We invest in the systems that make coordinated care possible, shared tools, strong partnerships, and networks that help organizations work together on behalf of children and families. These investments are often the least visible and the least funded, yet they are among the most transformative.
What We Do Not Fund
We do not fund individual requests, political organizations or advocacy campaigns; capital projects unrelated to direct services, or organizations without a demonstrated record of community impact.
Our Funding Approach
Every funding decision we make flows from our mission: to break the cycle of childhood poverty through coordinated, comprehensive, community‑centered support. We welcome applications from nonprofit organizations whose work reflects that mission, with particular appreciation for partners rooted in communities that philanthropy has too often under‑resourced.
Ready to apply? Start with our Grant Guidelines.
