Aspen, CO – August 27, 2024 – Aspen Community Foundation (ACF) announced its 2024 Early Childhood grantees. ACF’s Early Childhood Focus Area supports the healthy development of children aged birth to five throughout the Aspen to Parachute region. This year, ACF offered three competitive grant programs: strengthening the skills of care givers, providing tuition assistance to increase access to quality care and expanding childcare capacity in both center-based and family childcare home environments.
“Early childhood care and education has long been a priority for ACF,” said Valerie Carlin, Chief Impact Officer at Aspen Community Foundation. “The families in our region deserve to have access to quality care and support services they need to thrive. At ACF, we’re proud to support local nonprofits that prioritize young children and their families through our Early Childhood grants and look forward to supporting them during this grant cycle.”
The nonprofits selected strengthen the areas of early care and education. Through this competitive grant program, ACF is helping to ensure that young children and their families have support, resources and access to quality care. When these services are delivered in equitable and culturally sensitive ways, all children get the help they need to develop social, emotional, and cognitive skills to thrive and be successful.
“One of our primary goals is to provide affordable childcare while maintaining high-quality care,” said Mallory Radney, Co-Director of Early Learning Center of Aspen. “To support working families in Aspen, we operate below the full tuition rate to match what families can afford. While the city provides some assistance, a grant of this magnitude helps us keep our costs lower while still maintaining our commitment to providing accessible, affordable, and excellent early childhood care.”
ACF accepted applications for the Early Childhood Grants program in April and received 19 requests totaling $505,900. In addition to the applications submitted by nonprofits, ACF used institutional relationships, historical grantmaking, financial health, need for funding, and fundraising capabilities when making funding recommendations. After screening against ACF’s guidelines, criteria and priorities, and scoring rubric, 14 organizations were recommended for 2024 funding.
The 2024 Early Childhood Grants funds will be allocated to the nonprofit organizations listed below:
Blue Lake Preschool
Children’s Rocky Mountain School
Early Childhood Network
Early Learning Center
FocusedKids
Garfield 16 Preschool
Garfield Re-2 Preschool
Great Expectations
Mt. Sopris Montessori School
Our School
Raising A Reader
Valley Settlement
Wildwood School
Yampah Teen Parent Program
Early Childhood Grants are made possible by annual contributions, targeted field of interest funds, 2023 event proceeds and remaining Cradle to Career funds. To learn more about Aspen Community Foundation, visit www.aspencommunityfoundation.org.
###
About Aspen Community Foundation
Aspen Community Foundation (ACF) builds philanthropy and supports nonprofit organizations by connecting donors to community needs, building permanent charitable funds, and bringing people together to solve community problems. ACF has been working since 1980 to improve the quality of life in the region. Based in Basalt, Colorado, the Foundation’s efforts have an impact in communities throughout the greater Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys. Through ACF’s broad perspective of the region, and depth and breadth of knowledge of community trends, issues, and needs, the organization directs funding where it is needed most to fill gaps in services and programming.
