Refund the Future: Because the First Five Years Don’t Fund Themselves

At a time when key supports for young children are threatened, revenue and tax policy is both the defensive line and the pathway to transformative investments for families.

Join ECFC members from Pritzker Children’s Initiative, Buffett Early Childhood Fund and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund for a discussion with Sarah Pray, Executive Director, Better Taxes for a Better America to explore why revenue is imperative for early childhood, as both the defensive line and the pathway to transformative investments for families.

 Attendees will leave with an understanding of:

• What’s at stake;
• Why these discussions matter to  early childhood program investments;
• Who the key revenue and tax policy players are, what tools and support they offer, and how these pieces come together in states to build an effective state ecosystem for advancing early childhood investments
• Examples of how fellow ECFC funders have stepped in strategically, including an ongoing learning opportunity through a new ECFC workgroup.

ECFC members will have the opportunity to build on this discussion at the upcoming Spring member meeting.

Discussants:

• Shana Bartley, Policy Officer | W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Shannon Cotsoradis, Director, Policy & Strategy | Buffett Early Childhood Fund
• David Jordan, President and CEO | United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
• Ami Nagle, Director |Tax Equity Funders Network
• Sarah Pray, Executive Director | Better Taxes for a Better America
• Kathy Stohr, Program Officer | Pritzker Children’s Initiative

Event Resources:

• Recording
• Speaker Bios 
• Slide Deck – Taxes for Better America
• Slide Deck – Funding Strategies & National Players, Tax Equity Funders Network
• Slide Deck – United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, David Jordan

Nebraska examples:

• Side-by-Side Comparison, Nebraska Child Tax Credit & School Readiness Tax Credit
• Nebraska Examiner: Inside Nebraska’s budget: Why the state faces structural deficit after $1B surplus (March 2026)

Kansas examples:

• Maximizing Medicaid for Kansas Kids
• Furthering Federal Funding to Bolster Outcomes for Kansas Kids
• Kansas Reflector: Fiscal policy changes can begin to make Kansas more racially equitable

Field Views and Tools:

• Urban Institute tool: State of the Safety Net interactive map shows poverty rates with current levels of safety net benefit receipt by state, eligibility by state, program and demographic group; and how the decline in number of people in poverty if all eligible people received support.
• Grantmakers in Health, Views from the Field: Medicaid Managed Care Contracts are a Powerful Tool for Change; Philanthropy has a Role to Play.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes