grantmaking guidelines

The Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation is focused on both expanding and increasing the effectiveness of programs and practices that have proven successful in providing high-quality services to at-risk children from the prenatal stage to five years of age.

Our goal is to fund sustainable programs which will be in existence for years to come.  Our experience indicates that successful adoption of a program or a best practice:

PECF awards grants in three categories, whose collective goal is to permanently strengthen effective programs or practices and improve the lives of young children and their families and caregivers.

1.  Replication – defined by the Foundation as the process by which an organization that has created a proven program assists other sites or agencies to incorporate the program.  A program for PECF is a service package that includes a set of procedures and activities geared to achieving multiple outcomes. Examples are home visiting, early childhood education or parent education/engagement.

PECF supports a replicating agency's efforts to create or improve outreach, training curriculum, materials, quality assurance processes, data collection methodologies and other tools needed to help other sites adopt and maintain an effective program over time.  PECF's grants also support training and technical assistance by replicating agencies as part of the 

Planning for and then implementing replication is a difficult and complex process. PECF expects grantees to have a disciplined approach to replication that includes careful strategizing and goal-setting; the systematic cultivation of, communication with and support of new sites; ongoing support to a network of replicating sites; and a commitment to use the lessons learned through evaluation to continually improve the basic model.

2. Professional Development - defined by the Foundation as a process for enhancing the skills of practitioners and service providers in carrying out existing programs or services.  Like replication, the goal is to change and improve practice - both permanently and systematically.  Examples are a new approach to early literacy for early childhood teachers or strategies that home visitors can use to increase breast-feeding rates.

Grants are awarded to: 1) service-providing organizations to train their staff at multiple sites to implement a new program element or approach; or 2) agencies that conduct trainings and provide technical assistance to the staff of other organizations. The Foundation is most interested in professional development grounded in evidence-based best practices and strategies.

3. EQUIP - (Early Childhood Quality Improvement Program) helps licensed, non-profit early childhood centers in Cook County improve the quality of care and education they provide to children ages 0-5.  EQUIP is a collaboration of five Chicago area funders with a strong interest in early childhood.

One-year grants of up to $7,500 are used by centers to plan, implement and institutionalize a specific quality improvement which directly benefits children and their families.  With grant funds, centers hire an external consultant to work with the entire staff and families when relevant over the course of the grant period.  Second-year follow-up grants of up to $4,500 are available to centers that clearly demonstrate they have made substantial progress but still need additional time and support to ensure sustainability of their project.

	Planning better communication with parents/home caregivers and supporting effective parenting
	Improving the curriculum in early literacy, science or mathematics
	Incorporating multicultural approaches
	Establishing new ways to handle behavior management
	Using arts and music to facilitate young children’s development
	Improving nutrition and/or nutrition education for children and parents/caregivers
	Developing a better understanding of children's social/emotional development and incorporating approaches to respond to children's developmental needs

 Click HERE for the 2012 EQUIP guidelines.

	individuals, fraternal organizations, or private foundations
	political activity
	capital campaigns or conferences
	workshops or the production and/or distribution of materials that are not part of a comprehensive training
	ticket purchases for benefits
	loans

Applicants must be tax-exempt public charities under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Tax Code.