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 Early Childhood and Child Care Grants

For-profit Child Care - The Straight Facts First

While there is a lot of talk about "how to find grants" in the child care field, most caregivers, especially independent home child care operators or persons starting a private or for-profit child care facility, don't realize that it is almost impossible for them to find grant money from any level of government or from almost all of the sources listed in childcare.net's or any other grant list. That is of course, with the exception of perhaps that which might be obtained from new business startup programs and the odd program operated by their provincial or state governments, generally under the Department of Children and Family Services.

The truth is, and it seems no one else wants to acknowledge this fact, unless you seek and obtain non-profit status, there is not a lot of help available in the way of grants for your child care business.

For-profit child care business operators, large and small, may, that's a small may because they aren't all that many programs available with the exception of the Child and Adult Care Food Program in the U.S., be able to apply for local state/provincial programs being offered through their licensing office, Children's and Family Services Office, and/or Child Care Resource and Referral Agency. childcare.net's advice for for-profit child care operators is to inquire at these locations first. Other than that, the best way to locate financing for your child care business is to:

• Look into bank loans
• Obtain venture capital
• Seek gifts and loans from family and friends
• Look for advice from incubator organizations, or
• Obtain counsel from local small business and women's associations.

In a few states, special loan programs have being developed to help child care programs access immediate funds at affordable rates, like Washington and Oregon's Cascadia Child Care Fund. Contact your local licensing office or Small Business Administration (SBA) for information about financing child care as a small business opportunity. There may also be special initiatives available through the SBA or through local women's organizations to help finance women-owned and -operated businesses as well.

In Canada, small business owners can learn about financing initiatives of all sorts on Industry Canada's Sources of Financing Web page.

Independent child care business owners can also try the Foundation Grants to Individuals OnLine, a service of The Foundation Center. http://www.fdncenter.org. For $9.95 per month (payable by credit card) the Foundation Center offers an online listings of Grants to Individuals in the U.S. To learn more, visit heir About Foundation Grants to Individuals online at: http://gtionline.fdncenter.org/gti_help/1aboutfd.htm.

Visit our Financing Child Care Sources page for more detailed information on financing resources for child care.

Finally, while we take no pleasure in telling it like it is, we believe our visitors need to know the truth and understand the facts about grants. If you are a for-profit child care operator and have been successful in securing funding for your program, please share your information with our visitors by sending us an Email at: info@childcare.net so we can post the resource and help others.

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To make your search even easier, we've dedicated specific pages for Canadian and U.S. grant sources, and alternative financing sources.

Grants & Funding Sources for Child Care
American Grants & Funding Sources
Financing Child Care Sources

8 Important Steps to Obtaining Grants for Your Child Care
   Business. This no-holds-barred, comprehensive article will get you
   started on your search for child care grants.

Have a question about searching for grants or putting a grant proposal together? Need help just figuring out where to start? Let childcare.net help with our ALL NEW Consulting Service.

For even more great resources visit our Online Catalog.

We've done the research so you don't have to!

City of Vancouver Childcare Grants Program
The Childcare Grants Program is a vital part of the City's overall goal to help develop accessible, affordable, high quality childcare services, especially in the areas of the city that need them most.

Canadian Rural Child Care Pathfinder
The "Rural Child Care projects" section includes contact information for specific rural child care initiatives across the country.

Fundsnet Canada Grantmakers
So many great resources on this site it should be one of the first places you stop for funding and grants in Canada.

Bernard van Leer Foundation's Early Childhood Development
All projects supported by the Foundation concentrate on young children. Grants are only made for projects concerned with the development of children (aged 0-8 years) growing up in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage.

FoundationSearch.ca
FoundationSearch.ca is breaking new ground by providing a complete and fully searchable, online database of all Canadian Foundation (Form T3010) information returns, for the serious prospect research organization.

The Sponsorship Report
Canada's only publication focused exclusively on corporate sponsorship of: the arts and entertainment, sports, charitable causes, festivals and events

Bell Canada
Bell supports educational, community, health and cultural initiatives which demonstrate leadership and innovation. Programs we support such as Kids Help Phone, Leaders Are IT and Dictee PGL are dynamic and innovative examples of how communication can make the world a better place.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
As one of Canada's largest corporate donors, CIBC provides support to a broad range of programs. With our eye on the future, we focus special attention on the well-being of young Canadians. CIBC funds hundreds of initiatives that combine education, mentoring, research and skills development, initiatives that encourage youth to stay in school and plan for their future.

Charity Village
Links to to the Home pages of Canadian foundations with grant programs.

Links to funding agencies across Canada
Highly valuable resource from University of Alberta's Research Grants Office. Provides links to to the home pages of foundations and agencies, organized by country.

Adobe
Adobe's Community Relations Program goal is to positively impact, strengthen, and make our local communities better and healthier places in which to live, work, and do business.

Air Canada
The company considers requests for donations from organizations working to improve the lives of Canada's youth as well as those conducting research into diseases. In some cases they make cash donations, in many others they donate promotional tickets.

BC Hydro Employees' Community Services Fund (HYDRECS) HYDRECS is an employee-run committee that provides assistance to registered charities working in British Columbia in the areas of health and social services.

Canadian Council on Social Development
A content-rich site containing a veritable wealth of links, social policy data, statistics, and research reports about social and economic issues.

Children's Foundations
This extensive and valuable list of foundations that support children is from FundsNet.com.

Child Welfare.ca
This site is a must-see for anyone involved in the welfare of children. Covers everything from adoption to social services and from youth help hines to statistics and research.

Clarica Life Insurance Company
The company Invests approximately one-third of corporate donations in programs that promote the best possible future for Canada's children and other programs.

Imperial Oil Charitable Foundation
Over half of the foundation's grants are in the field of education, some under the umbrella of their Esso Kids Program.

Microsoft Canada Kidreach
KidReach is a Microsoft Canada's national donation program that empowers young people by providing access to technology that they could not have otherwise. Primarily, KidReach assists non-profit and charitable organizations across Canada that work with young people by providing them with donations of software.

Royal Bank After School Care Program
The After-School Grants program is designed to channel support to organizations who serve primary and secondary school-aged youth. The bank also supports a number of other community-based programs.

Sears Young Futures Program
Sears supports many charitable organizations directly through its charitable givings program. The Sears Young Futures Program is committed to the positive development of children and youth.

Zellers Friends of the Family
Zellers Friends of the Family was developed to provide financial assistance and employee involvement to charities that support the health, well being and education of Canadian families.

A best-seller in multiple editions for more than a decade is back in a major new edition!

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Find the money to operate your child care facility!

With new samples and examples, the authors tell you how to raise a lot more money for less effort, and answers the following questions:

• Who gives money to nonprofit organizations?
• Which potential funder is best to approach for your organization?
• How do you prepare a funding proposal?
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Reviewer comments:
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Visit our Online Catalog for more information on this valuable resource.