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For-profit
Child Care - The Straight Facts First
While there is a lot of talk about "how to find
grants" in the child care field, most caregivers,
especially independent home child care operators or
persons starting a private or for-profit child care
facility, don't realize that it is almost impossible
for them to find grant money from any level of government
or from almost all of the sources listed in childcare.net's
or any other grant list. That is of course, with the
exception of perhaps that which might be obtained
from new business startup programs and the odd program
operated by their provincial or state governments,
generally under the Department of Children and Family
Services.
The
truth is, and it seems no one else wants to acknowledge
this fact, unless you seek and obtain non-profit status,
there is not a lot of help available in the way of
grants for your child care business.
For-profit
child care business operators, large and small, may,
that's a small may because they aren't all that
many programs available with the exception
of the Child
and Adult Care Food Program in the U.S., be able
to apply for local state/provincial programs being
offered through their licensing office, Children's
and Family Services Office, and/or Child Care Resource
and Referral Agency. childcare.net's advice
for for-profit child care operators is to inquire
at these locations first. Other than that, the best
way to locate financing for your child care business
is to:
- Look
into bank loans
- Obtain
venture capital
- Seek
gifts and loans from family and friends
- Look
for advice from incubator organizations, or
- Obtain
counsel from local small business and women's associations.
In
a few states, special loan programs have being developed
to help child care programs access immediate funds
at affordable rates, like Washington and Oregon's
Cascadia
Child Care Fund. Contact your local licensing
office or Small
Business Administration (SBA) for information
about financing child care as a small business opportunity.
There may also be special initiatives available through
the SBA
or through local women's organizations to help finance
women-owned and -operated businesses as well.
In
Canada, small business owners can learn about financing
initiatives of all sorts on Industry
Canada's Sources of Financing Web page.
Independent
child care business owners can also try the Foundation
Grants to Individuals OnLine, a service of
The Foundation Center. http://www.fdncenter.org. For
$9.95 per month (payable by credit card) the Foundation
Center offers an online listings of Grants to Individuals
in the U.S. To learn more, visit heir About
Foundation Grants to Individuals online at:
http://gtionline.fdncenter.org/gti_help/1aboutfd.htm.
Visit
our Financing Child Care Sources page for more
detailed information on financing resources for child
care.
Finally,
while we take no pleasure in telling it like it is,
we believe our visitors need to know the truth and
understand the facts about grants. If
you are a for-profit child care operator and have
been successful in securing funding for your program,
please share your information with our visitors by
sending us an Email at: info@childcare.net
so we can post the resource and help others.
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Completely
updated and revised. 