Friday, November 16, 2012

A $50,000 Grant Program For Existing Licensed Child Care Facilities!

There is another grant program that grants funding to enhance the quality of existing licensed child care through facility and / or equipment improvements for sites participating in, or interested in participating in a preschool program.

The Grant Program shall award funds for moderate facility improvements or renovations and other quality improvement projects designed to prepare the site for participation in the preschool program.

Grants of up to $50,000 are awarded!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

$200,000 Grant Program For Non-Profit Organizations Who Are Planning To Open A Childcare Facility!

I'm always getting (and seeing) questions that ask about grant programs that will provide money for purchasing a building and / or even paying for construction costs. While gathering grant information for a client I found out about such a grant program for non-profit organizations who want to start their own childcare facility. So the next time someone says that there are no such grant programs, I suggest that they read the information below!




This grant program supports the planning and development of viable, well-designed child care facilities and sites.

This grant money can be used for

  • Planning and pre-development costs;

  • building purchases;

  • construction costs

  • renovation costs, or equipment purchases that increase or maintain the number of child care slots

  • consultant(s) to assist with the physical development / licensing of the facility; equipment purchases

  • quality improvements on a case-by-case basis.

Non-profit organizations who are planning to or currently serve children 0-5 are eligible to apply for this grant.

Grants up to $200,000 per facility are available.


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Another Grant Program That Is Available To For-Profit DayCare Centers!



An after-school program at a local area church has come into some money!

Officials at the Baptist Church will have an extra $126,000 to play with this coming academic year, thanks to a grant program aimed at supporting after-school programs across the state.

As was the rule nine years ago when the grants program was established, only school districts were eligible for funding. Today, grants are available for public and private organizations, including faith-based organizations.

Other school districts also received grant funds, as did an after-school program.

In total, the grants, funded through the program, will award more than $4 million to 25 community learning centers. The grants given to this year's 24 recipients range in amounts from more than $299,000 to $75,000. The funds will be used to "establish and expand academic enrichment activities in after-school programs."

Most funds were awarded to organizations in high-poverty areas and to low-performing schools in both rural and urban communities.

The grants also fund literacy and other educational programs for the families of these students as well as remedial education, tutoring, mentioning, limited English proficiency programs, counseling programs, character education programs and leadership skills training. "These programs enhance the services that schools provide during the traditional school day," said a spokesperson in a press release. "Students who are struggling in class can get a real academic boost in a well-run after-school setting."


Past year recipients include 14 school districts, two community-based organizations, five faith-based organizations, two nationally affiliated nonprofit agencies and one daycare center.

For more information about this program and whether or not your program meets the eligibility requirements, you can visit the website for more information.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Question: I'm Just Starting My Daycare And Where Can I Find Grants For My Daycare?



I am in the process of opening a licensed daycare center in Indiana & I will be serving low-income children, special needs, and diverse races, and also I will be operating 24 hours a day. I am in the start up phase (buisness plan), and have found location,ect. Population is 45,000 with only 458 slots available in licensed child care facilities or homes, but almost 1800+ pre-kindergarten children not counting school age, and all dayshift care. There are 2 questions in which I have. The first is I am struggling on my structure- for profit, or not for profit. I think I am leaning to not for profit, due to this is a need of the community, and I am happy just with a salary. Which has more funding available? The next is where can I find grants for this endevor. I want to be able to serve about 107 children (per shift if needed), so as you can see, this is a costly adventure.


Thank you for your email.


It is my honest opinion that you should make your daycare a combination of both profit and non-profit. It is something that a lot of non-profits have been doing lately and it gives you the best of both worlds in that you will still be eligible for funding for both profit and non-profit endeavors of your daycare. This also answers the question of which has more funding available because you will be eligible for both categories.


You should not rule out operating as a for-profit daycare only because I know that there have been those who have made a lot of money from the government grants that they have gotten for their for-profit daycare business. My last daycare-related client got over 10 pages of information about grant programs that their for-profit daycare was eligible to apply for!


Now since you are just starting your daycare you should also realize that a portion of the information that I have sent to the above-mentioned client also included information for start-up for-profit daycares - so you should be glad to know that such grant programs exist for startups. You should read both my Grant Basics 101 Blog to find out more about the daycare-related grant programs for daycare start-ups.


In answer to your 2nd question you have to understand that since you are not a client you will have to find this information yourself. Finding available grant programs and doing grant research involves a lot of work but it is something that can be done by a non-professional like yourself. All you have to do is invest your time and effort and you should be able to find some grant programs that you are eligible to apply for.