Grants for Nonprofit Child Care Centers

NOTE: Although unsolicited proposals are rarely considered, inquiries about future support for projects that fall within the Child Well-being Program’s grant-making strategies can be submitted through a letter of inquiry.

Mission

The mission of the Child Well-being Program is to promote children’s healthy development and protect them from abuse and neglect.

About Doris Duke and Child Well-being

Doris Duke took a special interest in the needs of children, supporting nearly 85 child welfare organizations during her life. In her will, Doris Duke expressed her interest in "the prevention of cruelty to children."

Goals

Children’s well-being and ability to thrive are strongly tied to the safety and stability of both their families and the communities where they live. These factors provide the foundation for healthy physical and emotional development during childhood. All children should be able to grow up in secure, positive, healthy and inclusive environments that allow them to reach their full potential. Unfortunately, many children in the US experience a long legacy of unjust historic and systemic inequities and disparities that rob them of access to the fundamental factors that allow others to flourish. By funding efforts that strengthen the social service systems that serve these families and support the needs of children and caregivers together, the Child Well-being Program aims to promote children’s healthy development, prevent maltreatment, and ally with communities to create improved and more equitable outcomes for their children. 

To accomplish this goal, the program focuses its grant making in three areas: 

• Support Place-Based Approaches to Improving Well-being
• Strengthen and Coordinate Service Systems
• Build a Pipeline of Diverse Social Service Leaders

Strategies

The Child Well-being Program’s grant-making strategy is designed to foster the long-term well-being of children, families, and communities by funding efforts to protect and improve the health and positive development of populations experiencing disproportional historic and systemic inequities in the US. We have a particular interest in supporting work that bolsters collaborative and culturally, geographically and locally relevant programs with and for families; for Native American or Alaska Native communities; and for youth in or transitioning out of foster care.  

• Cultivate partnerships between organizations and systems that serve children and families to increase health equity and well-being.
• Coordinate efforts across a variety of social service systems.
• Implement interventions that meet the needs of children and families in their neighborhoods and communities.
• Increase access to prevention and treatment services.
• Communicate lessons and outcomes broadly to inform policy and practice.
• Invest in developing and supporting the next generation of leaders committed to implementing effective programs and policies serving children and families.

Charitable Contributions

Costco Wholesale’s primary charitable efforts specifically focus on programs supporting children, education, and health and human services in the communities where we do business. Throughout the year we receive a large number of requests from nonprofit organizations striving to make a positive impact, and we are thankful to be able to provide support to a variety of organizations and causes. While we would like to respond favorably to all requests, understandably, the needs are far greater than our allocated resources and we are unable to accommodate them all.

Warehouse Donations:

Warehouse donations are handled at the warehouse level - please consult your local warehouse for up-to-date information regarding their donations contacts and review process.

Grant Applications

If the request is under consideration, you may be contacted by staff for any additional information needed. Applications are reviewed within 4-6 weeks, and decisions are made based on several factors, including: type of program; identified community need not otherwise available; indication that evidenced based data will establish measurable results of intended outcomes; community collaboration; broad base of financial support; project budget and operating expenses.

Why Education?

We have chosen education because we believe that it is the best means to empower people to get better jobs, to become more independent and to participate more fully in our society.

Our Grantmaking Strategy

We fund scholarships and other programs, which serve people in financial need. The Foundation’s programs are meant to help people who, through no fault of their own, do not enjoy the advantages of the affluent. Grantmaking is focused on organizations and institutions that serve Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities and economically disadvantaged people.

People with Disabilities

The Foundation has unique experience and contacts by virtue of its core grantmaking in this area. Since the early 1990s we have funded scholarships for students with disabilities at each campus of Florida’s State University System and have developed close ties with the disability service offices at each of the 12 campuses. The Foundation also provides scholarships for students with disabilities at Dalhousie University, National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute for Technology and Gallaudet University. As in other areas of its programing, the Foundation supports early education, which is especially important for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and blind students. Since inception we have made an annual grant to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind and in recent years we have made grants to Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech.

The Foundation makes grants to organizations that educate, mentor or otherwise support students with learning disabilities. Examples of these are Landmark East School, Mount Allison University, Eye to Eye and the Edge Foundation.

In this area of funding the Foundation has chosen to focus on employment. People with disabilities, even those with good educational qualifications, still have difficulty entering the work force. Therefore the Foundation has developed a portfolio of grants to transition oriented programs, which are designed to help people with disabilities obtain traction in the workplace. These grants are riskier than scholarships but, when they work, often have great social impact. They also resonate with the Foundation’s desire to identify niche areas which may have been overlooked by other educational funders.

Examples of workplace transition grants include National Organization on Disability’s Bridges to Business and Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities.

Children's Initiative

Program Goal

The goal of the Children's Initiative is to support direct service programs that promote resilience, stability, and pyscho-social health for youth ages 14-21 who have been traumatized by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Program Requirements

In order to be considered, programs must meet all of the following requirements. Programs that do not meet requirements will not be considered for a grant.

• Directly serve youth who have been significantly traumatized by Adverse Childhood Experiences. At this time, the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation limits the definition of ACEs to the following:
• Emotional, physical or sexual abuse
• Emotional or physical neglect
• Mother treated violently
• Substance abuse in the household
• Mental illness in the household
• Separation or divorce
• Incarceration of a household member
• Be a new program for the organization, or a new therapeutic component to an existing program, currently in development or within its first year (from the date of application submission) of implementation.
• Offer age-appropriate therapeutic interventions, activities, or services that promote resilience, stability, and psycho-social health in traumatized youth.
• Provide services that go beyond crisis intervention and the establishment of initial safety. Short-term shelter-based or crisis-oriented programs will not be funded.
• Include a plan for evaluating program effectiveness, with metrics that demonstrate the impact of the program in helping participating youth and at least one significant adult, such as a parent, primary caregiver or other adult with whom the youth has a meaningful and ideally long-term relationship.
• Enhance the relationship between the youth and at least one significant adult, such as a parent, primary caregiver or other adult with whom the youth has a meaningful and ideally long-term relationship.
• Use trauma informed practices and policies, and demonstrate a commitment to ongoing trauma training for involved staff.

Multi-Year Funding

The Foundation intends to support new programs for up to three years. While the Foundation will not commit funds for the second or third year without an annual review, it is the Foundation's intent to continue funding successful programs. Because programs will not be funded for more than three years, you are encouraged to plan for the long-term sustainability of the program.

Organizations requesting second- or third-year funding for programs approved the previous year must continue to submit an abbreviated Stage 1 Application by March 1. Organizations seeking second- or third-year funding and have submitted a Stage 1 Application, will automatically be requested to submit a Stage 2 Application. Organizations seeking third-year funding must also have submitted a grant report for the first year of funding by the required due date stated in the Grant Agreement to be considered for funding.

NOTE: Applications may be submitted at any time during this funding cycle, open from Feb 1 to the deadline above. Please note that applications will only remain active in our system for 90 days, and at the end of this period they will be automatically rejected.

Guidelines

Local Community grants range from a minimum of $250 to a maximum of $5,000. Eligible nonprofit organizations must operate on the local level (or be an affiliate/chapter of a larger organization that operates locally) and directly benefit the service area of the facility from which they are requesting funding.Organizations may only submit a total number of 25 applications and/or receive up to 25 grants within the 2019 grant cycle.