All In For Kids built our network around the commitment to support our grantees to dream big as they advanced solutions to prevent and end early childhood adversity.
As our grantee partners have turned their ideas into wins over the past several years, here are three things we’ve learned about our power as an innovation incubator.
To support “outside the box” thinking, remove the box.
A reality of funding is that tight parameters can restrict grantee progress. At All In For Kids, our grants allow grantees to break free from funding restrictions and use our financing to envision more profound change.
This shift in perspective has allowed our grantees to rethink how early childhood systems operate, positively impacting the whole community.
For example, we know that economic stability and food security are linked, and flexible funding allows grantees to fully explore and learn how they intersect and what can be done to help families and then share what they learn with the whole community. Plus, we also know that the programs and agencies that support vulnerable families often don’t work together.
With flexible funding, groups can think outside the box, devising ways to connect systems and support how families actually function.
Families don’t live “single issue” lives. Neither should our solutions.
This re-envisioned funding model supports outside-the-box thinking and helps groups focus on how issues are connected—because we know that families and kids’ lives aren’t single issues.
Many factors impact a family’s economic mobility—from access to affordable healthcare and childcare to safe and secure housing to good jobs with opportunities for growth. Our incubator model allows grantees to prioritize how funds are allocated. By bringing donors together to support this incubator, grantee partners have the flexibility to transform how everyday policies and practices actually work.
This kind of bigger transformation happens by listening to how families actually live their lives and supporting the community organizations that use what they hear to design programs and advocate for policies based on their experiences.
The power of the All In For Kids network transcends individual organizations, fostering a sense of community and shared purpose based on the skills each grantee in the cohort brings. Another part of our job is to support connections and learning between members. We have designed convenings that build parental power and voice, devising sessions that share what has been effective and then articulate it back to the community. No single issue and no single organization holds all the solutions.
Deeper change and sustainable solutions start with uncovering root causes.
Our grantee partners have worked to illuminate the root causes of childhood adversity through partnerships across areas and sectors – despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the project was launched.
Grantees have built cross-agency pathways to support families’ needs and prevent crises that could lead to interactions with child welfare and other punitive systems. They continue to change how childhood adversity is seen and advocated for, understanding that widespread recognition of the root causes of childhood adversity is necessary for sustainable policy solutions.
Deep change takes time. Sustained funding is critical to fostering that change.
Because of their understanding and commitment to long-term healthcare solutions, investors Genentech and Blue Shield of California joined the effort early, allowing our incubator model to reinvent how we do the work.
“We were guided by this idea that you really have to listen to communities, listen to parents, and develop plans where they lead toward a shared goal of bigger, deeper change,” said Carolina Morales, Senior Program Officer at Blue Shield of California Foundation.
“All In For Kids lives this vision. We have shown powerful results from these partnerships, so now, our vision is for other investors to join hands and follow the lead of parents, families, and communities.”
The results of this kind of deep change work are not immediately apparent—they take time, resources and coordinated action.
“At Genentech, we care deeply about fostering innovation and advancing sustainable solutions,” said Elizabeth Hawkins, Principal Manager of Giving and Social Impact at Genentech Public Affairs and Access.
”Just like in the private sector, community innovation also needs to be nurtured and resourced. Community-led innovation holds incredible promise for ensuring healthcare and education systems better serve our region’s children and families.”
Everything we do at All In For Kids is geared toward ensuring young children and their families can dream big and live their fullest lives—now and in the future. When our grantee partners have flexible funding to do what they need without limitations that hinder their holistic support of families and children, we get closer to realizing that vision.