Advocacy for Child-serving Systems

The William Penn Foundation, based in Philadelphia, is a private grantmaking foundation committed to fostering a vibrant and equitable city through strategic philanthropic investments. As part of its Children and Families program, the Foundation has launched an initiative aimed at increasing public investment in child-serving systems across Pennsylvania. This initiative is underpinned by a goal to secure an additional $6.4 billion in public funding by the year 2035 for services supporting early childhood education, early intervention, K-12 education, home visiting programs, and out-of-school time enrichment. This effort is in response to the well-documented underfunding and inequities within the state’s current systems, including findings from a 2023 court ruling declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding approach unconstitutional. The Foundation identifies a significant shortfall—$5.4 billion—in the funding needed to ensure that schools throughout Pennsylvania can provide equitable educational opportunities. It also highlights additional gaps in early childhood services, such as the fact that over half of eligible children lack access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs and that only 7% of children under age six in low-income families receive support from evidence-based home visiting initiatives. These deficiencies underscore the urgency of the Foundation’s advocacy efforts and its strategic grantmaking. To address these issues, the William Penn Foundation is offering funding to support a wide range of advocacy and policy-focused projects. Eligible initiatives may include programs that aim to increase public awareness, influence state-level appropriations, promote policy change, and strengthen infrastructure in early learning, K-12 education, home visiting, and out-of-school time services. Organizations are encouraged to propose projects they believe will have the most meaningful impact on increasing public funding for these child-serving systems in Pennsylvania. Applications are evaluated based on their potential to advance public funding outcomes, their alignment with state-level policy and budget processes, and their capacity to address structural inequities in education and early childhood services. While no specific spending rules or funding amounts were disclosed in the public summary, the Foundation has emphasized a focus on scalable solutions with measurable progress, which will be tracked through state funding levels for the targeted systems. The opportunity is currently open and accepting applications. It is not offered on a rolling basis, but it does recur, with ongoing tracking and strategic grants issued as part of the Foundation’s multi-year goal. Interested applicants should direct inquiries to Stephanie Waller, Program Officer for Children and Families, who can be reached at grants@williampennfoundation.org or (215) 988-1830. This funding opportunity is only available for projects located in Pennsylvania. Applicants must be engaged in or capable of conducting public policy advocacy or systems-level change work related to early childhood, K-12, home visiting, or enrichment programs. There is no information currently available about prior recipients or an application question list, and no explicit deadlines were mentioned. All applicants are advised to reach out directly for further guidance.