The Santa Barbara Foundation’s intent in offering this funding is to support and strengthen child care providers (for children between birth and five years of age) and the integral direct service providers that support them.
Donor Name: Santa Barbara Foundation
State: California
County: Santa Barbara County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/17/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
To increase organizational capacity amongst nonprofit child care providers and meet the critical needs of the communities’ youngest members, the Santa Barbara Foundation is offering a grants program in support of quality early care and education programs and the services that support and enable their success. This year’s grant cycle will support the Foundation’s Child Care Initiative by focusing funds on child care sector resiliency efforts that strengthen the childcare system in the County of Santa Barbara.
Focus Areas
- Childcare Workforce Pathway and Skill Development
- Supportive Organizational Business Model
- Family Engagement
- Building Content Specific Areas of Leadership.
Priorities
Priority will be given to organizations that:
- Increase Child Care Workforce Pathway and Skill Development; support career paths for early care and education professionals, foster leadership and ongoing professional development opportunities, and other strategies that will attract and retain high-quality educators;
- Foster an organizational business model to retain and support Child Care Workforce;
- Support child health, nutrition, and social-emotional well-being in a language-rich learning environment that respects diversity;
- Demonstrate adoption of, or progress toward the use of, best practices for parent engagement, such as Standard 7: Families in NAEYC Program Standards and/or the Protective Factors Framework;
- Demonstrate participation in, or a plan toward participating in, the Santa Barbara County’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and/or the NAEYC Accreditation process; and
- Demonstrate engagement and or alignment with community-wide child development goals, i.e. CAPC, Child Care Planning Council, etc.
Funding Information
The maximum award for Child Care Grants is $15,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- 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.
- An agency acting as the fiscal sponsor on behalf of a community collaborative may be eligible to submit proposals on behalf of its own agency needs as well as the needs of the collaborative.
- The child care provider receiving funding must be fully licensed by the State of California to provide childcare for the age groups it is serving and be in full compliance with the applicable codes governing childcare facilities.
- If the applicant is not a child care provider, the organization must be providing a direct service either on behalf of a child care provider to the children or families of the provider or be providing professional development or a training activity to staff of the provider. In addition, there must be an MOU, service contract, formal agreement, or staff enrollment process in place prior to applying.
For more information, visit SBF.
