Child Care Grant Program

Child Care Grant Program

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Santa Barbara Foundation
Amount: Up to US $15,000
Last Updated: November 21, 2025

Summary

The Child Care Grant Program by the Santa Barbara Foundation aims to enhance the quality of early child care and education in the community. It offers grants of up to $15,000 to nonprofit providers, focusing on workforce development, family engagement, and equitable access for children aged 0-5. With rising demand for quality child care exceeding supply, this initiative seeks to strengthen the sector and ensure that every child has access to safe, nurturing environments for their development.

Overview

Background The Santa Barbara Foundation believes that every child deserves safe and quality child care and education. The quality of child care is important as it directly impacts a child’s development, including the ability to learn and to build healthy relationships. The demand for child care services exceeds the supply of available spots. This has led to an increased need for child care providers. However, if providers are unable to staff their centers adequately, they must limit the number of children they can care for, to assure compliance and quality, resulting in higher prices for the available spots. The limited supply of child care services can drive up costs for parents, who can find themselves spending over a third of their household income. To increase organizational capacity amongst nonprofit child care providers and meet the critical needs of our communities’ youngest members, the Santa Barbara Foundation is offering a grants program in support of quality early care and education programs and the services that support and enable their success. This year’s grant cycle will support the Foundation’s Build Up Santa Barbara County Child Care Initiative by focusing funds on child care sector resiliency efforts that strengthen the childcare system in the County of Santa Barbara. Child Care The Santa Barbara Foundation offers Child Care grants of up to $15,000 to increase capacity among nonprofit child care providers in Santa Barbara County to meet the critical needs of young children and set the stage for lifelong learning success. This year’s grant will also focus on supporting providers in leadership and professional development, family engagement, and strategies that promote equitable access to quality child care. Grants will be awarded to nonprofit child care providers serving children 0-5 years of age. Focus The Santa Barbara Foundation’s intent in offering this funding is to support and strengthen child care providers (for children between birth and five years of age) and the integral direct service providers that support them. The proposal must address one or more of the following areas: Childcare Workforce Pathway and Skill Development Increase the number of qualified infant and toddler workforce professionals in the County. Strategies may include:developing or participating in coaching and mentoring programs to enhance skills;increasing the number of staff seeking infant/toddler qualifications who enroll in Early Childhood Education units;collaborating with other service providers or child care organizations (i.e., SBCEO Child Care Planning Council, Children’s Resource and Referral of SBC, etc.); Supportive Organizational Business Model Building a supporting organizational climate may include:through leadership professional development, facilitate the creation of new, licensed infant and toddler childcare spaces in Santa Barbara County.increasing the ability to interpret data for goal setting for future program direction;participating in technical assistance program that will support with facility grant applications, help in seuring lease or purchase agreements for operators, provide facility design recommendations, and help in navigating the planning and development system. participating in a sustainable technical assistance model that integrates business sustainability best practices;assuring the successful day to day operation of a center; andadvocating for teachers. Family Engagement Strategies should be cognizant of incorporating a family’s composition, language, and culture into their approach of collaborating with them. Applicants should clearly indentify a proven family engagement strategy to build relationships between themselves and families to maximize a child’s success. Strategies may include:promoting partnerships with families;fostering family leadership; andbuilding support and opportunities for families to foster their engagement in their child’s development and education. Building Content Specific Areas of Leadership Strategies may include the following:promoting fair and equitable access to child care opportunities;systems thinking;effective strategies for working with English language learners (ELL’s); andworking with special populations including special needs, homeless and foster children, or addressing other evident emerging needs. Priorities Priority will be given to organizations that: Increase Child Care Workforce Pathway and Skill Development; support career paths for early care and education professionals, foster leadership and ongoing professional development opportunities, and other strategies that will attract and retain high-quality educators;Foster an organizational business model to retain and support Child Care Workforce; Support child health, nutrition, and social-emotional well-being in a language-rich learning environment that respects diversity; Demonstrate adoption of, or progress toward the use of, best practices for parent engagement, such as Standard 7: Families in NAEYC Program Standards and/or the Protective Factors Framework; Demonstrate participation in, or a plan toward participating in, the Santa Barbara County’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and/or the NAEYC Accreditation process; and Demonstrate engagement and or alignment with community-wide child development goals, i.e. CAPC, Child Care Planning Council, etc. Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Organizations must be certified as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered. Organizations using a fiscal sponsor must review the Eligibility Criteria & FAQs for additional information and instructions. The foundation accepts applications from public entities such as schools, universities, and libraries through an affiliate or supporting 501(c)(3) organization.An agency acting as the fiscal sponsor on behalf of a community collaborative may be eligible to submit proposals on behalf of its own agency needs as well as the needs of the collaborative. The child care provider receiving funding must be fully licensed by the State of California to provide childcare for the age groups it is serving and be in full compliance with the applicable codes governing childcare facilities.If the applicant is not a child care provider, the organization must be providing a direct service either on behalf of a child care provider to the children or families of the provider or be providing professional development or a training activity to staff of the provider. In addition, there must be an MOU, service contract, formal agreement, or staff enrollment process in place prior to applying.

Ineligibility

Child Care grants are not for:Child care scholarships; General operating support; Services and programs that are not providing services for early care and education; Reimbursement for activities/purchases that occurred prior to the grant award date.