Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood – May 31

Posted by Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood on March 19, 2019

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood supports early-stage projects and promising research with the potential to significantly enhance the development, physical and mental health, safety, education, and/or quality of life of children from infancy through seven years of age.

Seed grants are awarded to innovative proposals with the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children on a national scale. Because the foundation has limited funding resources, it seeks to maximize the potential impact of every grant it makes.

To that end, the foundation has identified the following opportunities:

Early Childhood Welfare: Children can only reach their full potential when all aspects of their development — intellectual, emotional and physical — are optimally supported. Providing a safe and nurturing environment is essential, as is imparting the skills of social living in a culturally diverse world. Therefore, the foundation supports projects that seek to improve and perfect child-rearing practices and identify models that can provide creative, caring environments in which all young children thrive.

Early Childhood Education and Play: Research shows that children need to be stimulated as well as nurtured early in life if they are to succeed in school, work, and life. That preparation relates to every aspect of a child’s development, and everywhere a child learns — at home, in childcare settings, and in preschool. The foundation seeks to improve the quality of both early-childhood teaching and learning through the development of innovative curricula and research-based pedagogical standards, as well as the design of imaginative play materials and learning environments.

Parenting Education: To help parents create nurturing environments for their children, the foundation supports programs that teach parents about developmental psychology, cultural child-rearing differences, pedagogy, issues of health, and prenatal care and diet, as well programs that provide both cognitive and emotional support to parents.

The foundation only funds grant proposals that define measurable outcomes, include credible methods for documenting and assessing results, provide for financial accountability in the application of funds, and include prudent, detailed implementation budgets. The foundation does not fund arbitrary or excessive allocations of indirect expenses, even if a project is deemed worthy. The foundation’s board will only approve a maximum of 15 percent of a project’s direct expenses when earmarked as general and/or administrative overhead.

The foundation employs a two-step grant application process that includes the submission of both a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) and a full proposal — the latter only by those applicants requested to do so. Letters of Intent must be received no later than May 31, 2019. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.

See the Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood website for complete program guidelines and application procedures.

Deadline: May 31, 2019 (Letters of Intent)

https://earlychildhoodfoundation.org/