Early Childhood
Funding Area
Investing in our youngest learners yields outsized returns in educational achievement and economic mobility.
Schreiber Philanthropy believes deeply in the critical role of early childhood education in healthy brain development. Our work aims to improve and expand access to high-quality, affordable care and education for children aged 0 – 5, while also investing in innovative workforce pathways to build and support the labor force to sustain it.
Our Strategy
Schreiber Philanthropy centers its early childhood strategy around three key priorities.
Our work is focused within the Chicagoland region, and will evolve based on the dynamic nature of the world we live in. With that in mind, we are committed to learning alongside our partners and being nimble in our strategy to achieve these goals.
Early Childhood Priorities
Catalyze investment in full-day, high-quality care and the capacity to sustain it.
Invest in innovative workforce solutions that can more effectively build the pipeline of high-quality, culturally-competent early childhood educators.
Align investments with public efforts to enhance access to high-quality early learning and care.
Grantee Spotlight
Start Early, Educare Lake County
Research shows that approximately 90% of brain development occurs before age five, making early childhood one of the most important windows for investment in a child’s future. Since 2018, Start Early and Schreiber Philanthropy have partnered to strengthen early childhood systems and expand access to high-quality care for young children and their families. Over the course of this partnership, Start Early decided to launch an Educare in Lake County to address the critical need for early learning and care. The state-of-the-art early learning center will serve 174 children ages six weeks to five-years-old through high-quality early learning and comprehensive family engagement rooted in the nationally recognized Educare model.
Educare Lake County expands critical access to evidence-based care and education, as well as professional development opportunities and workforce pathways. Interim programming is already underway in Waukegan and Beach Park, currently serving nearly 80 children across Lake County. Construction for the permanent site in Zion began in spring of 2026, with plans to open in the 2027/2028 school year.
Grantee Spotlight
Center for Early Learning Funding Equity
The Center for Early Learning Funding Equity (CELFE) works at the systems level to strengthen how early childhood education is funded and delivered. Housed at Northern Illinois University, CELFE serves as a national research and policy partner focused on improving the financing of high-quality early learning programs. Across the state, many early childhood programs aren’t receiving reimbursement for the full cost of delivering high-quality early learning and care. This mismatch between the cost of care and available subsidies limits provider sustainability and shrinks the availability of early learning and care services for families.
In partnership with the Gorter, Hunter, and Steans Family Foundations, Schreiber Philanthropy supported a Lake County-specific analysis to better understand these challenges and identify opportunities for improvement. The research revealed significant gaps between the demand for care and the supply of high-quality programs. The analysis found that more than 23,000 children in Lake County need full-day early learning and care, yet access to high-quality infant, toddler, and comprehensive preschool programs remains limited. It also found that, while roughly $160 million currently supports early childhood programs across Lake County, an estimated $340 million more would be required to fully meet the demand for high-quality care.
CELFE’s work highlighted the important role that school districts can play in expanding services for preschoolers in low-income families, and the importance of keeping a birth-to-five framework for the system. This data will now guide future investments and inform public policy decisions aimed at expanding access to high-quality early learning across Lake County.
See previous grantee spotlights
Impact
Equitable access to high-quality education has been a key area of focus from the beginning, as John credits much of his success to good teachers and a strong commitment to his academics. After initially focusing on higher education, John and Kathy started moving “backwards,” investing in education at the K – 12 and, eventually, early childhood levels.
Since 2005
$49.5M+ in Grants
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