RFP: Organizations Serving Children 0-36 months old Grant

RFP: Organizations Serving Children 0-36 months old Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Samuel N & Mary Castle Foundation
Last Updated: January 21, 2026

Summary

The Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the lives of Hawaii's children and families through improved early education. With a focus on children aged 0-36 months, the foundation aims to support non-profits that provide vital services, including prenatal care and nutrition. For 2026, $650,000 will be allocated to initiatives that foster healthy development and equitable opportunities for low-income families, ensuring that every child has access to high-quality early education.

Overview

About Us The Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation is committed to providing resources to improve the life of Hawaii’s children and families by improving the quality and quantity of early education. Our efforts are concentrated on creating greater social equality and opportunity through improving access to high quality pre-K education. Secondarily, the foundation provides limited support for the arts, health, historical and cultural projects, where these projects serve children 0-5. A subsidiary mission of the Foundation is to support the healthy development of infants and toddlers. This is congruent with the Foundation’s numerous efforts to support developmentally appropriate early education. The first 0-36 months of age are critical for healthy child development, and low-income children are often at risk of missing developmental milestones. Investments in infants and toddlers provide a greater chance of equitable good beginnings. Request for Proposals from Organizations Serving Children 0-36 months old One of America’s oldest charitable foundations, the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, continually reviews its granting strategies, processes, and protocols. We are especially committed to every child receiving the best possible early education. This is so that children have every chance to achieve their fullest potential regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or religion. Consistent with our 19th-century charter, we have focused on all facets of public and private preschool and kindergarten education. The focus has included investment in school and learning lab facilities, preschool tuition assistance, curriculum innovation, university programs for teachers in the field, scholarships for teachers, supplemental funds for professional development, preschool leadership programs, and advocacy for increased state and federal spending for Hawaii’s children and families. After considerable conferencing with community advisors and being mindful of our focus on children 0-5, we have decided to sequester $650,000 for 2026 from our general endowment to support outstanding non-profits providing services to low-income families with infants and toddlers. We are especially interested in organizations with a solid track record serving the community and low-income families with services directed at, among other things, pre-natal/perinatal care, pediatric health, safety, parent education, nutrition, and ending domestic violence and pediatric trauma resulting from it. We seek to provide unrestricted or restricted program support to improve the lives of infants and toddlers (0-36 months of age). We also realize the needs far exceed what one private family foundation can accomplish. We intend the initiative to cover the state and have selected invitees with that geography in mind. We are primarily an early education funder. We hope that our investments each year will make it more likely that young children will be ready for high-quality preschools and thus more prepared to enjoy success in our pre-k to grade 12 educational system. Developing the full potential of every child and increasing the healthy social cognitive and emotional development of our state’s keiki is our framing purpose.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.