ECFC exists so that all children can have an equitable opportunity for healthy development and learning, in the context of their families and communities. In keeping with our purpose, we developed this toolkit to help funders understand the makeup of their communities and in turn, provide greater support for the children in immigrant families who comprise them. Through in-depth interviews with funder champions to identify promising practices on how to begin funding projects in this space, four resounding strategies emerged. We share those with you in this toolkit, along with a starter set of tools to dive into the data and inform your funding agendas, stories to inspire you from Champions of this work in the early childhood funder community, and ECFC's next steps to advance this work. This digital companion is designed to help navigate easily to toolkit sections. Read or download the full toolkit, or visit toolkit sections below.
Strategies to Get Started
No matter whether your philanthropic interest is health, mental health, education, family stability or other, you have a role to play in supporting children in immigrant families. It’s time to find out what that role is.
Tools to Find Data
Data is the cornerstone for making sound funding decisions. For funders who want to begin making investments in support of children of immigrants, other bilingual and multilingual children and their families, there are several data sources and tools to consider. Read the toolkit introduction to data sources, or click on data sources below to visit them directly.
Tools: Research & Publications
Stories to Inspire You
Often a champion’s past and cumulative life experience is what informs their work in this space. As you read about the personal and professional journeys of our champions, we encourage you to think about your own story and what led you to philanthropy. Their stories highlight the many ways funders can work toward greater inclusion in their portfolios, and the importance of partnering with immigrant led and grassroots organizations.
We encourage you to connect with the champions and continue the conversation. Read all stories (left) or individual stories (below).
Ximena Antunez de Mayolo
Program Officer
Rainwater Charitable Foundation
Dr. Katie Beckmann
Program Officer
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Rosa Maria Castañeda
Senior Program Officer
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Denise Castillo Dell Isola
Program Director, Early Childhood
Irving Harris Foundation
Diana Garcia
Program Research Analyst
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Ausannette Garcia-Goyette
Program Officer
Irving Harris Foundation
Don Hickman
Vice President of Community
and Workforce Development
Initiative Foundation
Elise Spang
Senior Learning Advisor
James B. McClatchy Foundation
The Path Forward: Committing to Equity
ECFC will continue to promote equity for children in immigrant families, and to elevate the importance of funding to support these families by providing shared learning and other programming. Specifically, we are committed to sharing our social capital, engaging in policy and advocacy, and investing in leaders of color and immigrants, including Black immigrants as part of the path forward. We welcome our ECFC members and the broader philanthropic community to partner with us as we move to implement these three commitments.
Acknowledgements
The Championing Equity Toolkit was created by Essey Workie, Multicultural Coaching, for the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative (ECFC), with the thoughtful contributions of ECFC members and other colleagues in the funding community, including: Liz Bruno, Brady Education Fund, and Ellen Roche, Trust for Learning, who provided helpful guidance to ensure alignment between this publication and ECFC’s racial equity working group; Our featured Champions who shared their stories and expertise by participating in in-depth key informant interviews; Kevin Douglas, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and Shantel Meek, The Children's Equity Project, for lending their technical expertise as external reviewers and graciously giving their time and energy to this work. This report also benefited from edits and design ideas led by Carrie Haynes, Cause Creative.
This project was generously supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.