Announcing: Early Childhood Local Financing Support

New Buell Foundation Toolkit and Open Funding Opportunity

At the Foundation, we have big dreams for the early childhood field across Colorado. We know that families with young children struggle to find affordable, accessible, and quality care—and that the caregiving workforce is underpaid and undervalued. And we’ve heard how this impacts employers and economic development efforts. Buell believes that local community funding is a part of this solution. We’ve been heartened by successful public funding efforts from Dolores to Denver, from Eagle to Estes Park, and from legislative changes that now allow for child care to benefit from lodging tax revenue and the creation of special taxing districts.

To encourage advocates and local leaders, the Buell Foundation has commissioned, and is now releasing, an ECE-focused local financing toolkit: Supporting Families, Children, and the Caregiving Workforce: A Local Financing Toolkit for Colorado. We hope that it aids conversations among early childhood professionals; business, civic, community, and elected leaders; and everyday residents who are working to build a system where children and families can thrive.

This toolkit contains:

• Practical and straightforward tips on how to get started
• A roadmap from convening to campaigning
• Support resources and links
• Colorado community case studies

In alignment with the toolkit, we are announcing a new grant opportunity to support local and regional efforts to increase public funding to meet early childhood needs. This opportunity will remain open for multiple years with grants being reviewed on a rolling basis. For details, click here.

Grants can be used for convening and learning, needs assessments, cost modeling, public opinion polling, education campaigns, implementation efforts, and more. This opportunity is open to communities that are seeking public financing in the future or those that already have funds available but require additional support to determine how available funds should be used locally. Applicants must be invited to apply by the Foundation.