Investing in the Future: Philanthropy’s Role in Strategic Public Financing for Children

In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Heather Flaherty of Chuckanut Health Foundation in Bellingham/Whatcom County, Washington, shared the above reflection during a panel conversation that explored the various roles funders can play to generate additional public revenue to support children and to ensure effective utilization of those public dollars. Thank you for registering for this timely and inspiring session.

Elizabeth Gaines of Children’s Funding Project (CFP) moderated the conversation, lifting up three examples of successful local ballot measures and exploring strategies for using a 501(c)(4) philanthropic structure to advocate for increased public financing to support children’s issues. In addition to Flaherty, the session featured Todd A. Battiste of United Way of Southeast Louisiana, September Jarrett, M.P.P., of Heising-Simons Foundation and Heising-Simons Action Fund, and Trevor Storrs of Alaska Children’s Trust.

• Battiste described the years-long journey behind the Yes for NOLA Kids campaign that led to the 2022 passage of a ballot measure generating approximately $21 million annually to support early learning programming in New Orleans.
• Flaherty highlighted the various roles her foundation played over the years leading up to the 2022 passage of a ballot measure that will generate approximately $10 million annually to increase access to quality child care, expand mental and behavioral health, and reduce homelessness for vulnerable children.
• Storrs shared how he worked with partners in Anchorage, Alaska, to promote the 2023 passage of a ballot initiative to direct local sales tax dollars from the sale of recreational marijuana to support early childhood development and education.

The local funders discussed the steps they took, including:

• engaging local partners in examining their local context and existing public funding streams;
• hosting community conversations and conducting polls to understand the issues and messages that resonated with community members;
• supporting public awareness campaigns; and
• advocating for the passage of the ballot measures.

They noted that the pandemic’s impact on the early childhood sector provided a window of opportunity. However, they stressed that the work they put in before the pandemic ensured they were well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity.

“Timing is important in gauging these things. [Alaska Children’s Institute] did the polling, coalition building and all of those things. But it does sometimes come down to timing. We had been talking about it for several years, so when the timing was right, we were ready. Don’t wait for the timing to start, start now. So when the timing happens, you’re ready to go.” – Trevor Storrs, Alaska Children’s Trust

They also discussed the importance of philanthropic organizations advocating for policies aligned with their missions and goals.  

“Our COO is a lobbyist so we understand that lobbying is important, and we set a policy agenda every year for our United Way….Our local Campaign for Grade-Level Reading has a committee that does the same kind of work.” 

–Todd A. Battiste, United Way of Southeast Louisiana 

After the local funders described their ballot measures, Jarrett explained why the Heising-Simons family established the Heising-Simons Action Fund as a 501(c)(4) entity to advocate for significant increases in public investment in the early childhood field, working at the federal, state and local levels. The Action Fund seeks to build the technical capacity of the field to advance best practices in financing and governance. It also works to build the political infrastructure and the power of the early childhood field to ensure that funding for children is prioritized and invested in consistently over time.  

“Over the years, Heising-Simons Foundation hit a limit in wins using only our private foundation strategy, and the family sought bolder and bigger changes and greater investments in young children. They created the Heising Simons Action Fund in 2020 with the specific goal of adding a new tool to our toolkit so we could fund and support communities that were showing up and turning it out at the ballot to fight for greater investment in kids.” 
–September Jarrett, M.P.P., Heising-Simons Foundation/Heising-Simons Action Fund 

In addition to moderating the panel, Gaines shared information on the ways that CFP supports foundations in advancing strategic public financing, by delivering technical assistance, hosting institutes to provide intensive training and organizing cohorts of communities to help them pursue ballot measures. CFP also established the Children’s Funding Accelerator, a 501(c)(4) organization that helps communities translate voter support for early childhood development into dedicated and sustained public investments.

“Each one of these panelists has been embarking on this journey with us for some time. They didn’t just sort of wake up one day and land on a ballot and ask the voters to pass the measure. They really got into this by conducting fiscal maps to understand how much public funding was already coming into their communities and how much it will cost to fund goals in full and by trying to get a handle on what the full funding picture looks like for kids.” 

-Elizabeth Gaines, Children’s Funding Project