Little Prairie Child Care Expansion Program

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Executive Summary

Little Prairie Child Care Expansion Program is a nonprofit that opens safe, licensed child care in rural counties by recruiting and supporting new family child care providers. We pay licensing, background check and CPR fees, give start-up mini-grants to vendors for safety equipment and supplies, assign a coach to each provider and run a substitute pool and a monthly provider meeting.

In many rural counties there is no child care at all, and working parents turn down jobs or leave them because they cannot find a safe place for their children. Starting a licensed home costs money and months of waiting for income.

With this grant we will help open child care for about 60 children in Year 1 in 3 licensed homes. We do not operate care or license providers, and we help every provider meet the state's safety rules. We promise careful use of every dollar and care that is safe and licensed.

Our Year 1 budget is about $181,500, growing to about $247,000 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 3 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Manager and a part-time coach) and 6 by Year 5.

We are asking the Great Plains Early Learning Foundation for $55,000 for the Program Manager and provider start-up mini-grants. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Little Prairie Child Care Expansion Program is a nonprofit organization in Iowa. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Every working parent in our rural counties should be able to find safe, affordable child care close to home.

What we do.
- Recruit and support new family child care providers in homes across our rural counties.
- Provide start-up mini-grants for safety equipment, supplies and licensing costs.
- Pay licensing, background check and CPR training fees for new providers.
- Offer coaching and a substitute pool so providers can take a day off.
- Help providers with business planning, record keeping and meeting the state's quality standards.
- Connect parents with openings and with help paying for care.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We do not operate child care ourselves and we do not license providers; the state does. We do not provide care without a license, and we help providers meet every safety rule. We do not promise any child a place in care. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of parents, a retired teacher and a county commissioner began calling around to help working families find care after the last center in town closed. Families kept calling and few openings existed. We kept simple records of requests and openings. This proposal asks for support to move from a phone list of openings to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

In many rural counties there is no child care at all, and working parents turn down jobs or leave them because they cannot find a safe place for their children.

Cost. Starting a licensed child care home costs money for safety equipment, supplies, fees and training, and a new provider may wait months for income.

Access. Rural counties often have no centers, few providers and long distances between homes and workplaces.

Safety and trust. Parents want care that is licensed, safe and trustworthy, and funders want money to go to real, lasting capacity.

Missed benefits. Parents who cannot find care cannot work, and children who lack safe, stimulating care may miss early learning.

What we hear.
- A mother says she quit her job because she could not find anyone to watch her baby.
- An employer says he cannot hire because workers cannot find child care.
- A grandmother says she started watching neighbors' children and never got licensed.
- A provider says the first few months were the hardest.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that helping caring people become licensed providers can bring child care to places where it does not exist.

Products & Services

Little Prairie Child Care Expansion Program gives working families in rural counties and the providers who care for their children a safe, welcoming place to find and provide safe child care close to home.

How the program works.
1. Recruitment. We invite neighbors, grandparents and early educators to become licensed family child care providers.
2. Coaching. Each new provider receives a coach who guides them through licensing, safety rules and business planning.
3. Mini-grants. Providers receive start-up funds for safety equipment, supplies and training, paid to vendors.
4. Training. We pay for background checks, CPR and first aid and required training.
5. Support. A substitute pool and a monthly provider meeting reduce isolation and burnout.
6. Matching. We connect parents with openings and with help paying for care.
7. Quality. Providers join the state's quality program with our support.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our coaches are early childhood professionals who pass a background check, complete our training and are paid for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Support is free. We welcome every provider who meets the state's requirements and every family who needs care.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Working families with children from birth to age 12 in our rural counties, and the providers who open and run licensed family child care homes. Providers must meet state licensing requirements, and families are served in the order they apply, with priority for those with low incomes.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our phone list we received far more requests than openings and kept a waiting list. Employers and schools told us that many more children need care than the area offers. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 60 participants at 3 homes. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 180.

Where participants come from.
- Employers, schools and county offices.
- Early childhood and workforce programs.
- Churches and community groups.
- Providers and parents who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Employers gain workers who can show up. Children gain safe early learning. Communities gain small businesses and jobs.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a child welcomed into a safe home with other children. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Child care centers. Strong programs and rare in rural areas. We add small homes where centers cannot survive.

2. Informal care by relatives and neighbors. Loving and not licensed or supported. We help providers become licensed.

3. Head Start and early learning programs. Excellent and limited by eligibility and distance. We complement them.

4. State child care subsidy offices. Provide payment help and do not create new care. We help providers qualify.

5. Employers. Some offer flexible schedules and few offer care. We bring them in as partners.

What makes us different.
- Start-up mini-grants paid to vendors.
- A coach for every new provider.
- Licensing, background check and CPR fees paid.
- A substitute pool and provider network.
- Help for parents finding and paying for care.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with employers, the state licensing agency and other early childhood programs to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Employers and county offices. We will present and share a simple way to refer workers.
- Early childhood programs and schools. We will share flyers and a named contact.
- Churches and community groups. We will talk with leaders who know caring neighbors.
- Local radio and social media. We will share stories of new providers.
- Word of mouth. Providers and parents tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit coaches through early childhood programs, community colleges and retired educators.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, providers licensed, child care slots opened and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Open recruitment and begin the first group of providers.
- Months 4 to 10: Coach providers through licensing, pay vendors for approved items and host monthly meetings.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey providers and families, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Coaching happens in providers' homes and at community meeting rooms. We work from a small donated office.

Safety and privacy.
- Providers must meet all state safety and licensing rules, and coaches check homes against a written safety list.
- Mini-grants are paid only to vendors for approved items.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $5,000 of equipment once at the start: safety equipment, cribs and learning supplies for first homes ($2,500), laptops and a printer for the program ($1,500), portable training equipment ($1,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Manager, paid $42,000 a year, manages recruitment, mini-grants and partners. A part-time coach, paid $24,000, works with providers. We add a coach in Year 2 and another in Year 4.

Management & Organization

Ruth Anderson, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a preschool teacher who saw parents drive an hour each way for care. I will complete the training we require of our coaches so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Manager manages recruitment, mini-grants and partners, and part-time child care coaches work with providers. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a preschool teacher, an employer, a parent, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a county commissioner. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A state licensing representative, a school superintendent and a pediatric nurse give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $50,000 a year; program Manager, paid $42,000 a year; child Care Coach (part-time), paid $24,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 60 participants at 3 homes.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 90 participants at 4 homes.
- Year 3: About 120 participants at 5 homes.
- Year 4: About 150 participants at 6 homes.
- Year 5: About 180 participants at 7 homes.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 48 percent of our budget, down from about 65 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $55,000 from the Great Plains Early Learning Foundation for the Program Manager and provider start-up mini-grants, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Manager salary, $42,000.
- Other: Provider start-up mini-grants paid to vendors, $13,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 47% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $181,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $7,500 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $117,500; state Child Care Development Funding $36,000; employer and Community Partners $20,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $50,000; program Manager $42,000; child Care Coach (part-time) $24,000; provider Start-Up Mini-Grants about $30,000; licensing and Background Check Fees about $6,000; training and CPR about $4,000; substitute Pool about $6,000; outreach about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $8,000; about $2,600 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $12,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $2,500 for safety equipment, cribs and learning supplies for first homes; $1,500 for laptops and a printer for the program; $1,000 for portable training equipment; $2,000 for attorney review of the provider agreement, mini-grant policy and privacy policy; $1,500 for flyers, banners and a simple website; $1,500 for background checks and coach training; $2,000 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($12,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $43,300, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $55,500. We start with $6,000 from our founding board and $52,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a local employer, $58,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $181,500 in Year 1 to about $247,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $117,500, $130,000, $117,500, $131,000 and $119,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Child Care Development Funding from $36,000 to $60,000; employer and Community Partners from $20,000 to $44,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $7,500 in Year 1, about $9,100 in Year 2, about $9,400 in Year 3, about $11,600 in Year 4 and about $12,100 in Year 5. We grow from 3 homes to 7 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $54,200, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $7,260 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per child. In Year 1, our total costs are about $2,900 per child served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more child served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $1,305 per child.

After the grant. State child care development funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free child care option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of childs and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $117,500 in Year 1, growing to $119,000 in Year 5.
- State Child Care Development Funding: $36,000 in Year 1, growing to $60,000 in Year 5.
- Employer and Community Partners: $20,000 in Year 1, growing to $44,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $50,000; program Manager $42,000; child Care Coach (part-time) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: provider Start-Up Mini-Grants $30,000; licensing and Background Check Fees $6,000; training and CPR $4,000; substitute Pool $6,000; outreach $3,000; administration and Insurance $8,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $5,000 at the start, then $1,500 to $2,500 a year.
- Startup costs: $12,000, paid once from $58,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 60 in Year 1, growing to about 180 in Year 5. Sites: 3 in Year 1, growing to 7 by Year 5. Providers are recruited and coached year-round, with licensing taking about three to four months.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs