The William & Lottie Daniel Fund Child Care Scholarship (Daniel Fund) is administered under the Foundation’s Child Care focus area for licensed nonprofit child care facilities that align with both the donor’s intent, and other community initiatives for child development.
Donor Name: Santa Barbara Foundation
State: California
County:
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/05/2023
Size of the Grant: $50,000
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
Focus
Quality child care programs provide children with healthy and safe environments, caring relationships, social-emotional stimulation, and age-appropriate activities that enrich learning. Research shows that children get their best start in life when they have environments that foster their development through stable, nurturing and stimulating environments. These kinds of high-quality early learning opportunities lead to improved academic and life success. Child care scholarships are intended for year-round child care facilities that can demonstrate an alignment with the priorities below. Scholarships will be awarded to licensed nonprofit child care centers serving children 0-5 years of age and school-age children (grades TK-6). Priority will be given to organizations serving 0-5 years of age.
The Daniel Fund guidelines specify that families selected to receive funds must:
- be Santa Barbara County residents,
- be working parent(s)/guardian(s),
- have an agency adopted sliding fee scale,
- contribute some portion of the tuition costs, and
- have a child enrolled in the program on a full-time basis.
Priorities
For organizations serving children 0-5 years of age, priority will be given to organizations that:
- include age-appropriate curriculum for kindergarten readiness,
- demonstrate quality improvement planning or participation in a quality improvement process, such as Santa Barbara County’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and/or NAEYC accreditation,
- demonstrate adoption of or progress toward the use of best practices for parent engagement, such as the Family Standard in accreditation and/or the Five Protective Factors Framework, and/or
- demonstrate the use of or progress toward a standardized child development assessment or screening tools, such as Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) or the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile.
For organizations serving school-age children (grades TK-6), priority will be given to organizations that:
- include specific elements/curriculum that build language arts literacy and math proficiency; and
- demonstrate quality improvement planning or participation in a quality improvement process, such as Child and Youth Development Program Accreditation, or show alignment with student achievement goals set out by the local school district.
Funding Information
Funding amounts vary by the age of the child served. The maximum award for Daniel is $50,000. The grant period is up to one year from the award date. A final report using the SmartSimple platform is required and is due within 13 months of the grant award, preferably no later than 30 days following program completion.
Eligibility Requirements
- Organizations must be certified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered.
- The foundation accepts applications from public entities such as schools, universities, and libraries through an affiliate or supporting 501(c)(3) organization.
- The applicant must be fully licensed by the State of California to provide child care for the age groups it is serving and be in full compliance with the applicable codes governing child care facilities.
- The applicant’s staff must be well qualified to work with the age groups served.
- The agency and program financial budgets must be commensurate with the costs associated with the care and supervision of children.
- The applicant must currently serve children from economically disadvantaged families through established child care programs. Funds may be used to expand the number of slots of existing established programs. In order to accommodate centers that care for children in transition, such as infants in foster care or families experiencing homelessness, the scholarship may be transferred to other eligible families if there is a change in placement.
- The funds applied for may only be used to subsidize program fees/costs for current Santa Barbara County residents.
- Children receiving scholarships through this fund must have a working parent(s)/guardian(s). Please note: for the purposes of the fund, the term “parents” includes both single and dual parents and the authorized representatives of children not in the care of their natural or legal parent(s).
- The foundation believes that every family should contribute to their child’s care. Often the amount depends on the sliding fee scale adopted by the applicant agency’s Board of Directors. The total cost per child must be reasonable and based on the sliding fee scale. The scholarship award will be based on the amount still needed to cover program’s costs after the family’s contribution has been taken into account.
- Because the fund’s purpose is to help working parents, an applicant agency must be open at a minimum during the regular work hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Licensed child care for school-age children must be open when school is not in session during the workweek. In addition, the child care program must run year-round and not be closed for more than two consecutive weeks during the year.
- If an applicant receives a child care scholarship, all advertisements and other announcements about the program must state that scholarships are available and made possible through the William and Lottie Daniel Child Care Scholarship Fund and the Santa Barbara Foundation.
For more information, visit Child Care Grant.
