William Penn Foundation, Vanguard Strong Start for Kids and Reinvestment Fund are collaborating to support Philadelphia childcare providers who are struggling to sustain their businesses through closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE) is seeded with a $5 million grant from William Penn Foundation and $2 million from Vanguard's Strong Start for Kids program, which will help ensure that Philadelphia continues its important progress in ensuring access to high quality early learning.

Individuals or institutions can contribute to the fund through a charitable donation.

The supply of high-quality childcare in Philadelphia has increased from serving 21% of children in 2014 to serving nearly 30% of children in 2019, according to an analysis by Reinvestment Fund. This is an increase of approximately 10,000 children per year.

Loss of high-quality childcare capacity due to the financial distress caused by COVID-19 has the potential to undermine years of hard-earned gains to improve access to high-quality early learning for Philadelphia children. Research from the Nonprofit Finance Fund and the ECE Fiscal Hub noted that early childhood education programs in the Philadelphia region have about one month of liquidity to sustain operations. While the state of Pennsylvania and City of Philadelphia will continue to provide public funding streams for childcare during this crisis, private payments including tuition and family co-payments for many providers have ceased, endangering programs.

A donation to PEFSEE can help keep quality early childhood an option for all families in Philadelphia.

Institutions interested in providing grants or donations to PEFSEE, should contact info@reinvestment.com .

100% of donations to PEFSEE will be directed to grant awards for eligible programs. Administrative overhead has been covered by the William Penn Foundation and Vanguard Strong Start for Kids.