A growing body of research shows that the first five years of a child’s life define their future. While their brain and body are rapidly forming, the care that they receive improves their ability to lead healthier adult lives, physically and emotionally. Accordingly, philanthropy has grown increasingly interested in supporting early-childhood programs. But the authors of a new guide on the topic found that many would-be funders don’t know where to start.

“We repeatedly hear from donors that they understand the importance, but don’t really know where to go within this space,” Maggie Davies, partner at The Bridgespan Group consulting nonprofit and co-author of the guide, told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

“A 15-page guide is never going to be enough,” she said of the document, titled “Investing in Our Future: Critical Ways Philanthropy Can Help Every Young Child and Family Thrive.” So the important thing, she stressed, is for philanthropists to just jump in.

The guide, which was released last month, is a follow-up to the organization’s 2015 guide, created alongside the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, which was titled “Achieving Kindergarten Readiness for All Our Children: A Funder’s Guide to Early Childhood Development from Birth to Five” and remains one of the nonprofit’s most accessed resources.

In the decade since its first guide was published, there is more research available proving the importance of early-childhood care for a child’s brain, metabolic, nervous and emotional regulation systems. There is also a greater awareness of the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, which are potentially traumatic events such as neglect that are tied to everything from jail time to substance abuse. Additionally, the field no longer sees the child as the sole focus of care; it now includes families and the broader community in interventions.

Investing in early-childhood initiatives intersects with many issues philanthropists care about, including education, racial equity, health, housing, gender equity and economic justice, Katherine Kaufmann, a Bridgespan partner and co-author of the guide, told eJP. Affordable health-care benefits women, who often bear the brunt of childcare, and helps with family economic stability. Because everything trickles down, donors’ dollars are amplified.

“There is no higher ROI place to put that incremental dollar or million dollars or billion dollars for the country, than investing in that critical developmental stage from prenatal to 5, and in particular, prenatal to 3,” Davies said. “That is when so much of the brain and the physical wellness and ability of that child to thrive as a future student, as a future adult, and contributor to our society” is formed.

The guide offers four recommendations of “critical areas for philanthropic investment,” providing examples from case studies of initiatives across the country.

The first recommendation is ensuring that initiatives don’t aim to be a one-size-fits-all solution to help every child. Philanthropists should invest in initiatives that continually refine their offerings to be tailored to the communities, families and the children they serve and expand access to more families. 

The guide offers several examples of ways this can be done, by increasing the languages services are offered in, expanding funding streams to allow different forms of insurance, offering telehealth options, broadening where initiatives are held and bringing in community leaders to gain trust from the clients served. Additionally, initiatives need capital to continually measure and learn from impact data.

The second recommendation is to support initiatives that take a holistic lens to caring for children, involving local leaders and the families being served in shaping the initiatives supporting children, compensating them for their time and expertise, elevating their voices in local policy decisions and keeping them updated on how programs are running. 

The third recommendation is to build a “chorus of supporters,” including elected officials and influential citizens, such as philanthropists, through storytelling to bring awareness to the realities facing children and their families. The guide suggests equipping parents, caregivers and community leaders with the skills to share their stories to advocate for policy changes themselves. 

One example given in the guide is of the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail, which partners with Hollywood professionals to weave lessons about early childhood and literacy into streaming services and television shows, such as “Law & Order SVU,” “Doc McStuffins,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Pequeños Gigantes,” a popular Spanish-language talent show. 

The final recommendation is to strengthen public investment through strategic, ongoing, bipartisan advocacy, lobbying and cultivating relationships with think tanks, policy coalitions and community, business and faith leaders.

“None of these opportunities on its own will guarantee that all families and children in the United States will thrive,” the guide says. “However, each represents a significant contribution to that future.”

If asked where someone should focus their investment, Kaufmann would reply with more questions: “What do you care most about? Do you care about your community, the city you live in? Do you care about your state? Are you really interested in expectant moms? Are you really worried about or thinking about nurturing care and how we provide the array of options for families? There are so many options for making a difference in these earliest years that there’s almost no wrong door.”

Davies recommends that after choosing an area of interest, philanthropists dive into research and case studies. They should reach out to others in the field, including donors and foundations. “Just get started,” she said. “Don’t sit and try to learn everything possible and craft a strategy and spend a lot of time before actually getting any dollars flowing.”

At times, early-childhood initiatives have “gotten short shrift” because even though they are seen as an important issue, they are not seen as urgent, and some people believe the early years are a family matter, not a national priority, Kaufmann said. But families are under more stress since the pandemic, and need help now.

The guide was funded by the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, Imaginable Futures and the WK Kellogg Foundation, which Kaufmann said, shows that “existing donors are excited for new ones to join.”

Many of the largest donors in early-childhood initiatives are Jewish, which is not a surprise, Rebecca Brondfield, Bridgespan principal and co-author of the guide, told eJP.

“So many of the solutions here really speak to the Jewish way of supporting families in a community-based kind of delivery system, focusing on families, supporting early education, and we want to see more of that,” she said. “All children really deserve that kind of support and care across the country, too.”