CONTACT
Christopher Gil
Director of Strategic Communications and Influence
(415) 287-3197, cgil@liifund.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Ballmer Group Award Grants to Scale LIIF’s Los Angeles County Child Care Impact
Grants totaling $2.1 million combined will strengthen the county’s early care and education ecosystem
SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 25, 2024) — The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) has been awarded two pivotal three-year grants to scale and drive the organization’s transformative early care and education (ECE) work in Los Angeles County, with a focus on infants and toddlers. The combined grant awards from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Ballmer Group total $2.1 million. This critical funding will bolster LIIF’s capacity to provide targeted technical assistance to ECE providers, plus will improve and build the supply of facilities across Los Angeles County. This support will enhance the impact already created via the $350.5 million California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Infrastructure Grant Program (IGP). That initiative — the largest any state has ever put toward the expansion, preservation and building of new licensed ECE spaces — has already positively impacted ~3,800 child care centers and licensed family child care homes statewide since its inception in 2022.
“In recent years, California has made many unprecedented investments to support the child care system, including increasing access to child care, several rounds of stipends, a historic agreement with Child Care Providers United which provided first-ever benefits and supplemental rate payments for providers, to name a few,” said Jennifer Troia, Acting Director at CDSS. “Key among them is also a recent $350.5 million investment to support the Infrastructure Grant Program, which will be enhanced by these generous investments by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Ballmer Group to support additional efforts in Los Angeles County.”
The investment will allow LIIF to scale its Los Angeles County work, including the following:
- One-on-one, culturally responsive technical assistance (TA) and group trainings provided to ECE providers.
- In-person site visits to providers conducted to consult on their new construction and development/expansion plans to ensure the success of projects.
- The creation of new licensed child care spaces for children and families, with a focus on infants and toddlers, especially low-income children.
- A child care landscape analysis of key cities leading to an in-depth report identifying land-use barriers and centering providers’ voices.
- Policy efforts to streamline processes and support the child care ecosystem in Los Angeles County.
“With its expertise in facilities development, LIIF plays a crucial role in building the infrastructure needed for universal child care access,” said Lisa Bohmer, Director, Global Early Childhood Development at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “The grant to LIIF will advance Los Angeles County’s strategy to ensure more families can obtain child care for their infants and toddlers.”
“LIIF will provide vital support to early care and education (ECE) providers seeking to expand and improve their ECE facilities for infants and toddlers,” said Kim Pattillo Brownson, Director of Strategy, Policy and Partnerships at Ballmer Group Los Angeles. “We know that families often face few options and long waitlists for infant and toddler care, so LIIF’s partnership with ECE providers has the potential to be a game-changer for L.A. County’s youngest children and families.”
These new capacity and infrastructure grants, which showcase the synergy of mission-aligned public-private partnerships, will focus on Los Angeles County, home to around 650,000 children under the age of five. Cognizant of the fact that 80% of brain development occurs in the period between birth and age three, a major focus will be on augmenting infant and toddler spaces to create a foundation for success – no matter the Los Angeles County ZIP code into which a child is born.
As part of this effort, LIIF will be partnering with key regional entities such as the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment. “Major construction work, repair and reconstruction and housing are not just wants but needs for many Los Angeles-area child care providers,” said Steve Cahn, Program Officer at the Partnership. “The recommendations crafted in the infant and toddler blueprint outline a roadmap for the work that lies ahead. I am excited for this new funding and forged partnerships, which create a strong path forward.”
The need for accessible child care has been a hallmark of the 2024 presidential election, with both candidates speaking about the critical role of this sector as the backbone of a robust U.S. economy and a driver of small-business development. A combination of child care options must be available for families, as outlined in this Sept. 9 Washington Post op-ed by Elliot Haspell of Capita, a renowned family policy think tank. LIIF brings a racial and gender equity lens to its work, as 80% of providers the organization supports identify as BIPOC, with most women of color; this compares to 40% identifying as BIPOC in the sector.
LIIF’s business model comprises facilities fund management, capacity building and advisory services. To date, the organization has invested over half a billion dollars in the early care and education (ECE) sector, creating or bettering 405,000 children’s spaces. Leveraging the fact that we are the leading national community development institution (CDFI) strengthening the ECE ecosystem, LIIF is currently working with policymakers on the creation of a federal child care facilities fund offering capital via a combination of grants and low-interest loans to foster racial and gender equity for providers who cannot access funding from traditional lenders.
“With 25 years investing in the nation’s ECE sector, LIIF is proud of our latest partnerships with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Ballmer Group,” said Kimberly Latimer-Nelligan, President at LIIF. “These awards will help LIIF push forward its work in Los Angeles County, facility by facility, provider by provider, family by family.”
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About the Low Income Investment Fund
Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is a national community development financial institution (CDFI), headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., that invests in communities of opportunity, equity and well-being. As a CDFI, LIIF supports projects that have high social value but lack access to traditional financial institutions. Since 1984, LIIF has deployed more than $3.5 billion to serve more than 2.5 million people in communities across the country from its five offices. An S&P-rated organization, LIIF funds healthy communities by providing innovative capital solutions.
liifund.org
About Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth and refugee populations, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $7 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $3.2 billion worldwide, and $290 million in 2023.
hiltonfoundation.org/
About Ballmer Group
Ballmer Group is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States, funding leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities. We focus on multiple impact areas and systems that can impact economic mobility – such as early learning, K-12 education, college and career pathways, housing, behavioral health and criminal justice – and we support leaders and organizations that focus on undoing systemic racism and the barriers it has created. Ballmer Group is both a national and regional funder – we have a presence and invest deeply in southeast Michigan, Washington state and Los Angeles County. Ballmer Group was co-founded by philanthropist Connie Ballmer and her husband Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, founder of USAFacts and chairman of the Los Angeles Clippers.
ballmergroup.org