First Children's Finance

First Children's Finance - Growth Fund

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	Growth Fund
	Combining Passion and Expertise
	What happens when you combine the passion of a group of highly effective child care providers with the expertise of volunteer business and child care leaders?

The answer: strong centers that become more successful at serving children from low-income families.

This philosophy is the basis of First Children’s Finance Growth Fund, FCF’s initiative to improve the quality, sustainability and accessibility of early care programs. Established in Minnesota in 2006, the Growth Fund helps providers identify and tackle critical business challenges. Plus, centers receive FCF grants to implement what they learn.

The Growth Fund recognizes that quality care for children in their earliest years yields tremendous human, economic and social benefits — and reduced costs to individuals and communities later. Yet, too many children enter kindergarten less than fully prepared for school. Every dollar invested in quality early childhood development produces a return of 12 -16 percent, with the greatest returns realized among children in low-income families.

Growth Fund Program Description
The Growth Fund combines the funding with the expertise early care and education programs need to not only identify their most critical business challenges but to actually tackle them.

Growth Fund Project Participants - Class 1
The five nonprofit centers selected to participate in Class 1 included a range of business models, program emphases, and stages of development to create and sustain access to high quality care for lower income children.

Growth Fund Project Participants - Class 2
The four nonprofit centers participating in Class 2 were selected in the spring of 2007 and completed their business plans in late fall. They are in the middle of their first year of implementation.

Iowa Growth Fund Accepting Applications
First Children's Finance is accepting applications from child care centers located in Iowa’s CCR&R Region 4 (Central) or Region 2 (Northeast) for our first Growth Fund project in Iowa. Applications must be postmarked no later than December 18, 2008. Click here for more details.