Hiring an employee, even if it’s someone to help you out on those days when you need to take care of your own personal business or you are too ill to look after the children, is making an investment in your business. When you hire someone to work for you, you will invest time, money, training, and trust.

There is a lot to think about when you’re hiring someone. It’s an important process you should put some time in to examining your needs and to hire and recruit in a systematic, legal way.

Publicizing a Job Opening

When most people think of hiring an employee, they tend to think only of classified ads. But there are several ways to let people know about your job opening:

Advertising

The most common means of advertising is in newspapers, which are relatively inexpensive and get quick, good response. Trade magazines or newsletters are more expensive and generate less response, but can be used effectively for recruiting people from other parts of the country if there is a lack of qualified caregivers in your area. Other popular forms of advertising include radio and online posting.

With regards to online posting, please take a moment to visit child care online’s Job Posting Board featured in our Career Centre. The Career Centre offers a lot of great advice and links to help your with resumes, interviewing, child care jobs and wages, employee retention, and so much more.

Personal Recruiting

This involves going to places such as local colleges or schools to find and attract job candidates. It can also include personal referrals.

Outside Services

If you tend to hire frequently or you need to hire several employees at once, this is a good route to use because they do a lot of the legwork. It can be expensive, though.

Writing a Job Advertisement

Once you’ve chosen where you want to advertise, you’re ready to draft an ad. If you have a job description, this will give you a basis with which to start. You can use main points from your job description in your ad and save yourself some time trying to figure out what to say.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when you’re drafting a job advertisement: including the right information in your ad and avoiding the use of discriminatory language, for legal purposes.

Some handy tips: Tell enough about the job so that those reading the ad can decide whether they are interested and qualified. Give the job title along with a brief description of duties. Use your job description. List the minimum education, experience, and skill levels that are acceptable. Don’t overuse abbreviations that make it difficult to read or understand the ad. If you must use them, stick with the simple ones. Remember, writing it right saves you and applicants a lot of time and energy. They want to find the right job as much as you want to find the right employee, and a clear, specific job ad goes a long way toward that end.

 Job Descriptions

There are ways that you can create a simple job description without spending a lot of time researching and writing. For example, you can make a list of activities to be involved on the job, and you can rank them in importance.

Just jot down a key word or two for each task that will clearly mean something to you when you use this information to write your job description. For example, a task would be “greeting parents and children.” Rank the task in terms of its importance. List the activities involved in doing each task. For example, using “greeting parents and children” as the task, activities might include answering phones, welcoming families into the facility, helping the children say good-bye and getting settled in, etc.. List the skills necessary to perform that activity. Using the example above, skills might be “pleasant and outgoing personality,” “knowledgeable in dealing with children and families (if an E.C.E. or Child Development training is not required),” “a working knowledge of the business.”

Interviewing

Preparing beforehand is the key to a successful interview. Here are some steps to take: Narrow your selection to three to six candidates to interview. The more you pick, the more time it will take. Decide where you will hold the interviews, which would probably be at your home or facility so the applicant can get a better understanding of your business. Prepare questions to ask the candidate. Good questions will allow you to take good notes. Be sure to allot plenty of time for the meeting. You don’t want to rush. Unplug the phone or do whatever you have to in order to make sure that you are not interrupted during the interview. Go over the resumes and compare each applicant’s background with what you need. Practice asking questions. It will make the interview process a lot more productive.

Background Checks

After you’ve collected information about applicants and done an interview or two, you’re ready to check the background of your most promising candidate.

As liability is high when working with children, you’ll want to be particularly careful about doing a thorough background check, including a check of criminal records to the extent permitted by law. For more information on how to do a proper background check, consider the following: employment references, personal references, education records, driving records, criminal records documenting the reference check. In the child care field you would be well-advised to follow through on all of these methods.

Be upfront during your interview and tell each applicant that no employment offer will be made until satisfactory reference checks are made. Then call or write to each reference given. A call will generate a better real-life description of the candidate than a written response. Be aware that many employers are reluctant to disclose much about a former employee because they are afraid of being sued. Document all information that you receive. Also document unsuccessful tries at gathering information, to protect yourself from negligent hiring claims. Don’t make a job offer until you’ve completed your reference checking.

Making the Job Offer

After you’ve done the necessary background checks and are prepared to offer a candidate a job, your offer should include the following information: the position offered, location and working hours, rate of pay or salary, benefits if applicable, starting date, any certifications you need to have on file, etc. For legal purposes, don’t give a job to anyone without a written statement of the offering. It’s okay to call a candidate to offer the position over the phone, but always have a meeting to sign the paperwork and ensure everyone is clear about the ABC’s of the position.

After the Hire

After you’ve made the job offer and the candidate accepts it, complete the required paperwork as per your local employment standards regulations, set up personnel files, orient the employee and introduce her/him to the parents and the children in your care.

For more tips on interviewing and hiring employees or for posting child care or teaching position, please visit child care online’s Career Centre.

Before you begin your 8 Steps to Obtaining Grants, there is some very important information you need to understand 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. 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, as fundraising expert Tony Poderis, author of It’s a Great Day to Fund-Raise! so eloquently puts it, “When it comes to private enterprises — no matter how worthy or socially relevant — unless they seek and obtain non-profit status, there is not I (or they) can do.” Tony offers some great advice and a lot of valuable information both in his book, and on his Website: raise-funds.com.

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 Care Food Grant 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. Other than that, the best way to locate financing for their 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.

——————————————————————————–

8 Important Steps to Obtaining Grants for Your Child Care Program

Step 1. Conduct Research

Begin with a search for local, provincial/state, federal and private funders. Most of your research can be conducted online. We’ve set up a complete Grants section to get you started.

Your first stop should be your local licensing office, child care resource and referral agency, and child care organizations. They’ll have the scoop on local initiatives as well as the other major funding programs such as:

Head Start

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)and TANF

Social Services Block Grant (SSBG)

Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)

Even Start

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

While the list above represents the vast majority of funding for child care, you may be able to unearth a valuable grantor right in your own community from such community service organizations as the Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, United Way, Junior League, college fraternities and sororities, and so on. Check your local telephone Yellow Pages under “Clubs” for these and other service organizations in your area.

County or city governments may have special funding initiatives for child care, as may local early childhood professional organizations or child care resource and referral agencies. If your program serves families from a core group of employers in your community, you may consider asking these companies, and any professional organizations associated with them, for assistance.

In addition to monetary resources, you may wish to investigate possibilities for “in-kind” contributions from these same sources. Volunteer services, goods, materials, or equipment may be offered to assist program development or operation. Again, your local Yellow Pages may list Fundraising Counselors and Organizations that can provide further technical assistance in your search for child care funding.

Write down every funding lead you find using a Grant Search Lead form, like the one available on childcare.net. This will allow you to gather the sources in a logical way and help you to determine if the lead is worth pursuing.

While you’re on the hunt for potential funders through the avenues listed below, there are a number of online resources that can help you make your way through the grantseeking maze.

Local Community Funders (United Way, service clubs, Chamber or Commerce and Women’s business groups, unions, other organizations that make charitable contributions to your community)
Corporations (Sponsorships, employee contribution programs, in-kind donations and services, joint promotions, etc.)
Public charities (Foundations, government programs, etc.)
Individuals (Drives through local campaigns for public support, which could include bingo, raffles, direct mail donation cards, door-to-door canvassing, etc.).
You can learn more about the fundraising strategies listed above in the best seller used by fundraisers, household name charities, and neighbourhood groups in Canada, America, and worldwide: .Fundraising for Non-Profit Groups, available from childcare.net in our Online Catalog.

Online Research Sources

Canada
Charity Village – Nonprofit Neighbourhood – http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/nonpr/index.asp

CharityVillage.com – Government Departments and Agencies

University of British Columbia’s Office of Research Services – Funding Resources – http://www.orsil.ubc.ca/funding/index.htm

U.S.
The Foundation Center – http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/index.html

The Craftsman Center Funding Resources – http://www.tgci.com/funding/resources.asp

Please Visit Our Sponsor

Step 2. Requesting Guidelines and Applications

Once you have completed your initial research to find potential funders, Step 2 involves contacting the ones you checked off to pursue and request their latest application and funding guidelines. If the program is operated by a foundation, also request their annual report. You want to do as much research on the Funder as possible. This will help you to determine if there is a good fit between your needs and the funder’s criteria for doling out the money. To further your research you can also review the funder’s IRS Form 990 using online sources such as GuideStar ( http:www.guidestar.org), or GrantSmart.com (http://www.grantsmart.com/search/search001.html).

It might help you to view some common grant applications online so you know what to look for when your information comes in. You can do so by visiting the Foundation Centre at: http://fdncenter.org/funders/cga/index.html

You’re probably wondering why you need to do so much research just to find the money to fund your program. Author Lisa L. Hollis, explains it perfectly in her booklet, Writing Grants, (The Center for Nonprotit Resources). “Prospect research helps to determine:

whether a prospect’s interests match your organization’s or project’s purpose
how and when to approach the prospect (grant application guidelines)
how much money to request and for what .”

Step 3. Grant/Funder Information Processing

As the funding and application guidelines trickle in, read them carefully and make notes about specific guideline information such as:

The type of program funded
Eligibility requirements
Location and populations served
Application deadlines, and so on.
To assist you with this part of your project, childcare.net has developed a Grant/Funder Information Form that will help you lay out the important points in an easy to follow fashion. The forms will also help you to view the information for each source at a glance, so you can eliminate the ones that obviously won’t coincide with your proposal. You’re looking for strong leads, not ones that will have you wasting your time and the funder’s time.  The Grant/Funder Information Form also have space for you to compile a to-do list or to write down any questions you might want to ask a particular Funder if you need clarification on something.

Step 4. Write a Brief Program Description

Write a brief description of your program and why the funds are needed. In their book, Fundraising for Non-Profit Groups,
authors Joyce Young, Ken Wymanand John Swaigen offer this simple outline for your funding proposal.

“To begin planning, determine the following:

Why should the project be done? (Prove it hasn’t already been done.) Help the donor understand what societal problem you are trying to fix.
How will it be done?
How long will it take?
How much will it cost?
Who will do the work and why they are the right people?
What end product or impact will result and how will it be measured and evaluated?”
Resource: Fundraising for Non-Profit Groups,
by Joyce Young, Ken Wymanand John Swaigen. Self-Counsel Press Page 53, Section 2.3.

Step 5. Contact Funders Directly

Call the prospective funders you’ve short-listed If you have a list of questions prepared on your Grant/Funder Information Form, have these ready. Let the contact person know you’ll only take up a few moment’s of their time but that you’d like to be certain there’s an actual fit before you send in a proposal. Most funders will appreciate your effort in getting all the facts before submitting a proposal.

Step 6. Get organized

Make a folder for each Funder you are now going to pursue and put all the other information you’ve gathered away for the time being. You want to focus your attention now on getting your proposal completed and submitting your information to the funders in an appropriate time frame or before their closing deadline. Make notes of deadlines on a calendar so you don’t miss any opportunities.

Step 7. Prepare Your Proposal and Cover Letter

Now is the time to draft up your proposal. Take what you’ve outlined above and expand on why you need the funds, who will benefit from the award, and how you plan to spend the money. This is your sales pitch to the Funder. You need to plead your case on paper and make the Funder take notice.

“Donors, especially major donors, almost invariably fall into one of two groups: Those who are personally touched, inspired, or motivated by the organization’s programs and services; Those who, while not personally touched by an organization, are influenced and impressed by what it does.” Tony Pederis – Fundraising Forum

Your Final Proposal Should Include The Following:

A brief cover letter explaining the proposal. Don’t forget to include your contact information.
The reason for your proposal. Tell the reader what problem you are addressing, who it affects and how it affects them, and what solutions you are putting forth to help correct the situation.
The benefits of your program to the population you will serve. Clearly demonstrate how the funding will have a positive impact your parents or children. In other words, lay out your objectives by describing what you want to accomplish and the methods you will use to accomplish it.
Statistics, demographics, successful outcomes from other similar programs that will prove why the funding will make a difference in your community. Demonstrate that you know your community and its needs well.

An explanation of how you will measure the results of your proposal and know if you have accomplished what you set out to. Let the Funder know how you will evaluate your progress, how you will verify these results, and what procedures you have in place to ensure the desired outcome.
Details of your background, competencies and dedication to your cause, as well as those of your key personnel and, if applicable, your Board of Directors. Funders want to know you and your team have the skills to accomplish your goals and are totally committed to seeing the project through not only the funding period, but as long as it takes to solve the problem you set out.
Attach any letters of support you have received from parents, other organizations, or professionals that can demonstrate a need for your proposal. You should also include a breakdown of the key personnel involved in your program, such as your board of directors, assistance from other organizations, etc.

Financial information such as a detailed and finely tuned budget, financial statements, and tax exemption paperwork. Ensure that your figures are painstakingly accurate and that only those items that are truly necessary to operate your program are listed. Funders watch for attention to detail and will reject any proposal that has the slightest hint of budget padding. Sample budgets can be found in Fundraising for Non-Profit Groups, by Joyce Young, Ken Wymanand John Swaigen. Self-Counsel Press
Any forms or documents specifically requested in the funder’s guidelines. The last thing you want is to have your proposal or application send back to you because it was “incomplete”.

Finally, have your proposal proofread by a third party. You want to make a good impression. Typos, bad grammar, spelling mistakes, inaccurate calculations could all cost you the funding you’ve worked so hard to receive. You should put the proposal into someone else’s hands for a few days after you have it completed. That will give you a much needed break from your work, and give you a fresh pair of eyes for that final review before you ensure all the necessary signatures are on the document and you send it off.

Step 8: Don’t Give Up

The best advice you can receive as you begin your quest for funding for your child care program is not to become discouraged. Funders typically receive a lot more proposals than they fund. So apply to more than one funding organization, and follow each organization’s instructions very carefully as to what they want in a proposal, and you’ll have a much better chance of obtaining funding for your child care project.

Resources:

Grants & Funding Sources for Child Care
Canadian Grant & Funding Sources
American Grant & Funding Sources
Financing Child Care Sources
Grant/Funder Information Form

 Fundraising for Non-Profit Groups

By Joyce Young, Ken
Wymanand John Swaigen. Self-Counsel Press.
It’s a Great Day to Fund-Raise!, by Tony Pederis.
Tony offers some great advice and a lot of valuable information both
in his book, and on his Website: raise-funds.com.
Tony Pederis – Fundraising Forum
Finding and Writing Grants, by Lisa L. Hollis The Center for
Nonprofit Resources 3801 Canal Street, Suite 309 New Orleans,
LA 70119 – www.nonprofitresources.org
Glossary of Terms used by Grantmakers and Grantseekers,
from The Foundation Center.

Book and Product Reviews

Fundraising for Non-profit Groups

By Joyce Young, Ken Wymanand John Swaigen.
Raising money is the most essential and also the most difficult task for any nonprofit organization, and child care is no exception. Explaining in detail the process of fundraising, this comprehensive book has recently been expanded and updated to explore fundraising through telemarketing and the Internet. With new samples and examples, the authors tell you how to raise a lot more money for less effort.

Fundraising for Non-profit Groups comes with a large appendix of resources and courses for grantseekers.

Getting Publicity

ByTana Fletcher and Julia Rockler
If you’d like to know all the inside secrets for attracting publicity to your child care business, your association, or yourself, you need this book. Step-by-step instructions illustrate just what it takes for any enterprise to generate media attention. The authors, both award-winning journalists, show how you can make the most of every opportunity for free coverage in print, broadcast, and Internet media. From newspaper articles to radio interviews, from television appearances to the World Wide Web, this expanded and updated edition includes all the advice you need to sparkle in the publicity spotlight.

Grant Search Leads and Funder Information Forms

The Grant/Funder Information Form helps you lay out the important information you gather from guidelines and applications in an easy-to-follow fashion. The forms will also help you to view the information for each source at a glance, so you can eliminate the ones that obviously won’t coincide with your proposal. You’re looking for strong leads, not ones that will have you wasting your time and the funder’s time. The Grant/Funder Information Form also has space for you to compile a to-do list or to write down any questions you might want to ask a particular Funder if you need clarification on something.

The easy to use Grant Search Sheet helps make an easy-to-use list of grant makers and Funders in the 4 major fundraising categories ; Local Sources, State/Provincial Sources, Federal Sources, and Private Sector Sources.

Child care grants are essential to funding a quality program. To assist our visitors, child care online has done extensive research into the question of “Where to find grants for child care programs” and brings you this feature article.

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.

Grant Resources for Non-Protit Child Care Businesses

Grants Available in Canada for Non-Profit Child Care

Most of the grants available in Canada are through the provincial governments. These generally included fee subsidy, salary enhancement or rent subsidy grants which vary from province to province, or in some cases, are not part of the province’s subsidy structure for daycares. Operating/equipment grants tend to fall under federal jourisdiction.

childcare.net struggled to find any good sources of information regarding outside funding programs, though undoubtedly they do exist. We will update this story as we locate other sources. Please see our Child Care Registry page for provincial contacts where you live.

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

Federal and Provincial Government Agencies
Links to to the Home pages of federal and provincial government agencies and departments.

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.

Big One
Canadian Page on North America’s most fact-filled, comprehensive and current source of fundraising information for non-profits and charities, with more than 7,500 available funding sources representing billions of dollars in annual funding.

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.

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.

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.

Federal Funding for Child Care in the U.S.A.

Please note that the majority of funders listed below only work with non-profit organizations.

The Child Care and Development Fund helps States, Territories, and Federally recognized Tribes and Tribal Organizations provide child care for low-income families and increase the affordability and quality of child care and development services. For additional information, contact the office of the state Child Care Administrator.

Child and Adult Care Food Program
Funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides Federal funds for meals and snacks served to eligible children in child care centers and family child care homes.

The Children’s Defense Fund’s Head Start Program
Every child deserves the child care and early education – the “head start” – that they need to get a strong start in life, and to be safe and secure while their parents are at work.

School Grants.org State Grant Opportunities
This page has opportunities that are available through your State Departments of Education or other State agencies. These opportunities will be federal flow-through funds or state-legislated programs.

USDA Office of Rural Development – low interest loans available for child care facilities

U.S. Department of Education
Through the Department of Education, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CLC) program provided $450 million to rural and inner-city public schools during FY 2000 to address the educational needs of communities during after-school hours, weekends and summers.

* A guide called What I Should Know About ED Grants? by the U.S. Department of Education that covers the discretionary grants process is available at: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/guides.html

The Foundation Centre
The Foundation Center is an independent national service organization established by foundations to provide information on foundation and corporate giving. You can access child care related funding foundations through the site’s new “searchzone” by typing in “child care grants.”

You might also want to check out The Foundation Centre’s list of Web Site of Community Foundations which is broken down by state.
http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_comm/comm.html

GrantsNet
GrantsNet is a tool for finding and exchanging information about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and selected Federal grant programs. The Web site provides information on how to find grant information, search for funding, how to apply, useful resources, and administering grants.

eSchool News
A great site listing up-to-the-minute grant programs, funding sources, and technology funding information. Also offers information on grant proposal writing.

Grants Web
The Society of Research Administrators offers another source of funding for child care and educational related proijects.

National Endowment for the Humanities
The official website of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the largest funder of the Humanities in the U.S.; includes grant opportunities for K-12 & higher ed. teachers; reports, etc. A site not to be missed.

The National Education Association
Created by the National Education Association, The NEA Foundation empowers public education employees to innovate, take risks, and become agents for change to improve teaching and learning in our society.

Child Care Partnership Project
The Child Care Partnership Project was established through the Child Care Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to provide information and technical assistance to build and sustain partnerships that improve the quality, supply, and access to child care for working families. The work of The Child Care Partnership Project is carried out by The Finance Project, in collaboration with the Families and Work Institute and the National Governors’ Association.

National Center for Community Education
Through the National Center for Community Education, information is available on the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CLC) program and other initiatives to promote community education by providing leadership training to people who are interested in community schools, as well as leadership training to further the development and skills of those implementing community education. The Web site includes links to funding resources, other organizations and materials that may be useful to community organizations.

National Children’s Facilities Network and Community Investment Collaborative for Kids CICK)
The National Children’s Facilities Network is a coalition of nonprofit financial and technical assistance intermediaries involved in planning, developing, and financing facilities for low-income child care and Head Start programs.

Educational Renaissance Planners
Find, prepare, and win the grants your school can use.

The Chalkboard
The Chalkboard contains information on corporate education programs, curriculum materials, grants and scholarships, and services.

Scholastic Awards and Grants
From Scholastic, numerous award programs designed to inspire and reward excellence among students and educators, prestigious awards and grants.

TeachNet
Sponsored by the AT&T Learning Network, seeks to improve student achievement by providing training, grants, networking and resource sharing to teachers.

Grant-related Links
Numerous links maintained by the Santa Clara County Office of Education

Dow Chemical Company Grants
Supports many school districts/school boards and efforts in and around communities in which Dow is located.

IBM Philanthropy
Provides corporate giving at local, national, and international levels.

National Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program
Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

PhilanthropySearch.com
Gateway to the online world of philanthropy, charity, and the nonprofit sector.
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Additional Resources for Non-Profit Child Care

The Pew Charitable Trusts
Their grants information page contains information on our six program areas and our Venture Fund, which supports independent projects that take an interdisciplinary approach to broad issues of significant interest or concern. This includes education and human resource service grants.

The Future of Children is a publication of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation that considers present funding and financing strategies for child care and examines possible new alternatives.
Visit the Children, Families, and Communities section of their site for more on where some of their their grant money goes.

There may be a number of potential funding sources to consider in your own community, including:

* Community service organizations, such as Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, and Junior League or college fraternities and sororities, may donate funds to projects, which help the community. Check your local telephone yellow pages under “Clubs” for these and other service organizations in your area. Also, you may wish to look into opportunities available through the United Way in your locality.

* County or city governments may have special funding initiatives for child care, as may local early childhood professional organizations or child care resource and referral agencies.

* If your program serves families from a core group of employers in your community, you may consider asking these companies, and any professional organizations associated with them, for assistance. In addition to monetary resources, you may wish to investigate possibilities for “in-kind” contributions from these same sources. Volunteer services, goods, materials, or equipment may be offered to assist program development or operation.

* The local Yellow Pages may list Fundraising Counselors and Organizations that can provide further technical assistance in your search for child care funding.

* In several localities, special loan programs are being developed to help child care programs access immediate funds at affordable rates. You may call the Small Business Administration (SBA) to learn about local contacts for information about financing child care as a small business opportunity. There may be special initiatives available through the SBA to help finance women-owned and -operated businesses as well.

Parents and child care providers seldom agree on the cost of child care. Some parents think they pay too much. Caregivers think they are underpaid.

It is an unfortunate fact that daycare is expensive, costing the average family approximately 20%
of their yearly income. Not an easy pill to swallow.

That cost is low, however, compared to the paucity of wages child care providers earn. It is these low wages plus a lack of benefits that, unbeknownst to parents, actually helps to subsidize their child care fees. According to Current Data on Child Care Salaries and Benefits in the U.S., a report by the Center for Child Care Workforce, and You Bet I Care Report 1: A Canada-Wide Study on Wages, Working Conditions, and Practices in Child Care Centres from the University of Guelph, child care ranks among the 15 lowest paid jobs. Average salaries are only one-half the national median. Those who earned higher wages include service station attendants, tree trimmers, and food servers.

That translates into a mean hourly wage for child care teaching staff of only $7.42 per hour in the U.S., and $10.92 per hour in Canada, a fact that makes it difficult for many to remain in the profession, says the Child Care Action Campaign in their Information Guide 27, Wages and Benefits in Child Care. The turnover rate for daycare workers ranks as one of the highest.

The High Cost of Staff Turnover

“High turnover erodes the quality of care”, notes the C.C.A.C. “Children need continuity in order to form trusting and loving bonds with their teachers and caregivers. But constant turnover makes that almost impossible.”

Indeed, high staff turnover has been associated with poor developmental outcomes for children. In their statement, Why Child Care Matters, Preparing Young Children for a More Productive America, the Committee for Economic Development (C.E.D.), says that even with the increased cost of “providing care of a constant quality … providers are hesitant to raise fees beyond what they believe parents are willing or able to pay.” In essence, keeping labor costs low is the only way providers feel they can keep fees down.

Are Current Parent Fees Enough?

Do current parents’ fees cover the true cost of child care? Not really. In fact, C.E.D.’s statement points out that what parents pay covers only a fraction of child care’s full production cost. “Numerous subsidies, including financial and in-kind (for example, the common use of churches or community facilities for nonprofit centers), masks true production costs …”

Factors affecting the cost of child care include:

* location;
* type of setting and program;
* age of the children (infants and toddlers generally cost more);
* the amount of funding a center is able to procure through various sources such as fundraising efforts and government sponsored programs; and
* the use of voluntary services.

Cost of Child Care for Parents

And just as child care providers and centres have to struggle, child care fees are also a major burden to working parents. On average, parents spend $4,000 to $6,000 per year on child care for one child, and in some cities the cost is as high as $10,000, notes the Children’s Defense Fund in their publication, The High Cost of Child Care Puts Quality Care Out of Reach for Many Families. “Given the high costs of child care,” the CDF says, “parents can easily spend more in a year on child care than they would on public college tuition.” In fact, the costs in some cities for a four year old to attend child care is twice what it costs for college tuition.

As governments across North America scale back their subsidy programs while increasing back to work legislation for welfare recipients, families facing high child care costs have few places to turn for assistance. Even where families meet the income guidelines for support, the amount of subsidy available often leave them little choice, after limiting their budget in other places, but to choose lower end child care and placing their child(ren) at risk. The result is often detrimental to the parent’s work abilities as well. Where child care is inadequate, parent’s are less productive on the job, need to take take time off to deal with child care issues, or have to quit work all together when their child care arrangements fall apart.

“Neither parents nor child care providers can solve the challenge of high child care costs on their own,” concludes the CDF. “The federal government, states, local communities, and the private sector must all play a larger role in helping families afford quality child care.”

If there is a positive note to be made of the costs of child care, it is that despite the low wages, caregivers are dedicated to the children they serve. Most believe they can make a difference, that they can greatly enhance the quality of a child’s life in daycare. One would be hard-pressed to put a price tag on that.

Child care grants are essential to funding a quality program.  To assist our visitors, child care online has done extensive research into the question of “Where to find grants for child care programs” and brings you this feature section.

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.

Other Sources

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.

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.

Below is a list of the basic information that you can use to make building your Web site as simple as possible.

Choosing Your Domain Name

The first step in getting your site on the Internet is to purchase a Domain Name . A domain name, like choosing your business name, should identify your organization and be easy to remember. It’s best to keep your domain name as short as possible too. You can choose a domain name with either .com, .net or .org at the end of the name. For example, Susie’s Home Child Care may want the domain name susieschildcare.com or susieshomecare.com.

It’s always best to do some brainstorming and write down a number of domain names you’d like for your business. Then go to our Domain Name Registration page to find out if the name you are considering are available.

Hosting Your Web Site

Once you have decided on a Domain Name the next step is having a company host your Web site. Hosting companies have servers that are connected to the Internet 24/7. Without the hardware, software and Internet connection, your Web site is basically non-existent, despite all your development. Your site needs a server to be accessed.

Building a Web Site

Once you’ve purchased your domain name and chosen a host to serve your Web site up to the Internet, you need to purchase your Web site template. A Web site is created using a coding language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). At childcare.net, we offer professionally designed Web Templates at extremely affordable prices. Click here to see our Web Template packages and to learn more.

Determining Your Web Site Requirements

Ask yourself the following:

1. What type of audience are you trying to reach with your Web site?
E.g.: Parents, employers, other caregivers, etc.
2. What function do you want your Web site to perform?
Would you like you site to provide information on your business?
Would you like your site to provide all the answers to the frequently
asked questions parents ask when they call about your services?
Would you like to provide parents with all the registration forms and
requirements they need so they can make the registration process
easier and faster?
Would you like to put monthly information online for your parents to
view at their convenience, such as activities, upcoming events, your
newsletter, menu, etc.
Do you have products you’d like to sell online and need an
e-commerce site with a shopping cart?

Cheapskate Marketing Tips and Tricks

It may have worked for Field of Dreams, but just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come in droves to sign up for your child care services. Well, at least not unless you market your services to the masses.

Marketing certainly doesn’t have to take a chunk of cash to be successful. Keep
as much of the jingle in your pocket as you can by applying the following cheapskate marketing tips and tricks:

Tricks Of The Trade

Have a business card and business stationery made up — immediately. Let prospective customers know you are a professional who takes your business seriously. Get your business cards into as many hands as possible. Hand them out to everyone. Post them everywhere. Use your stationary for brochures, flyers, etc. and circulate them to every business and organization in your vicinity. Don’t forget to send on to the Chamber of Commerce.

Use testimonials on your flyers, brochures, parent handbook, even on the back of your business card. A small tesimonial from parents or your ECE teacher is you’re just startin gout will work wonders, such as “I don’t know what I would do without the great care Tanya profides for my child.” Don’t be afraid to ask parents for a testimonial.

Use the Word of Mouth process. Tell anyone and everyone about your business. Talk to family, friends, associates, former employers, etc. Ask your spouse to spread the word to his associates and work buddies.

Join your local child care association or family daycare provider’s network. These groups happily refer each other to parents in need. Look around your community for other groups to join who could benefit your cause such as the parent council, school association, etc. Now is not the time to be shy.

Contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency and find out how to get on their list.

If you can (check with your local zoning regulations first) post a sing in your window or somewhere it’ll be seen by all who pass by.

Put a sign in your car window or on the side of your vehicle. You can make one up yourself or your local stationary store can do one for you relatively cheaply.

Hold an open house. Broadcast the news everywhere you can; on the radio (public service announcements), on the free cable listings, on local media Web sites (who have public service announcements), plaster posters everywhere, put a small ad in your local parenting paper.

Make up a fun button to wear on your blouse or coat that has your business name and logo. You could even say “Openings available” on the button.

Put your ad online everywhere you can, including in childcare.net’s Member Classifieds (watch for our free registry coming soon).

These are just a few cheapskate ways ways you can market your daycare. Do you have a low-cost idea or tip for marketing your daycare? Share your information in other childcare.net visitors in our Discussion Forms, a popular Member Services feature.