Let’s talk about the elephant in the room (in the community). In 2009, Prairie Family Center opened Little Sprouts Learning Center using an operating church building. The childcare center closed around a year and a half later. Then in 2011, Dynamic Dimensions Inc. opened the Bright Futures Learning Center in the same building. This effort lasted for three years before closing. We asked both organizations what their biggest challenges were. Both named financial difficulties as well as deficits in staff and other resources as their reasons for closing.
A representative from Prairie Family Center (PFC) told us that there was a conflict of interest with obtaining grants because PFC relies on grants for general operations, therefore grant writing for the childcare center came secondary. Both PFC and a childcare center would ideally apply for grants from the same grantors, but since PFC owned the childcare center, it could not apply for grants for both its operational business and the childcare center. This limited funding opportunities.
Operating as an independent organization, BCCP will be able to apply for grants without any conflict of interest. This independence will also provide a pathway for the organization to establish its own identity in the community, building positive rapport and charitable support for the specific cause of childcare. This will have a significant impact on creating a successful outcome.
Both Prairie Family Center and Dynamic Dimensions, Inc. shared that there were also challenges with customers paying their bills, staff turnover and a lack of supplies and proper facilities needed to allow for an ideal early learning environment.
Grant writing and fundraising will be a top priority for the management team and BCCP Board of Directors, with an ongoing check and balance making sure revenues are high enough to pay expenses. A strict accounts receivable policy is part of the BCCP business plan, which includes building-entry restrictions for customers whose bills fall behind. The business plan also addresses staff retention as a high priority, with strategies listed to help overcome adversity.
Burlington Childcare Center Project aims to build an attractive new facility that will serve families of all income levels; that both low and high income families will rely on as a high-quality early learning environment to enrich the emotional, intellectual and motor development of their children. The building will boast features such as spacious colorful classrooms with low windows so that the children can see the outside world while playing, interior windows to classrooms so that parents can stop in throughout the day and check in on their children without disturbing them, and developmentally appropriate play equipment, toys and educational curriculum/activities for each age group.
By looking back at our community’s past experiences and also gathering financial and management data from successful centers in our area, we have learned a great deal about what it will take to be successful. We know that tuition alone will not pay the bills. Community support, donations and fundraising will be a huge part of the ongoing financial revenue of the center.
Not only will the BCCP be seeking community partners in the coming months to obtain the significant amount of matching funds needed to apply for grants, but the organization will also make fundraising and donation drives an ongoing effort. We expect that approximately 20% of annual operating revenue will need to be raised locally through charitable contributions and fundraising. We know that this is vital to success and that it can be done because our neighboring communities are supporting such efforts and their childcare centers have proven to be financially sustainable. If they can do it, why can’t we?
