Stranahan Foundation
ActiveMutual & Membership BenefitFunds Individuals
About Stranahan Foundation
The Stranahan Foundation concentrates its philanthropy on strengthening the early childhood education workforce through substantial program support. All recorded giving is directed to Third Sector New England to support the Early Educator Investment Collaborative (EEIC), indicating a strategic interest in collective-impact efforts that recruit, train, and retain early educators rather than broad general philanthropy. Although based in Ohio, the foundation appears willing to fund regional or national intermediaries focused on early childhood workforce solutions.
Focus Areas
Early educator recruitment, retention, and workforce developmentCollective-impact/ intermediary support for early childhood systems (Early Educator Investment Collaborative)Programmatic investments in early childhood professional development and compensation strategies
Who They Fund
early childhood teachers and teacher candidatesHead Start programs and network memberspreschool and early learners (children)regional early education leaders and coachessmall-scale farmers and rural communities (agriculture/composting initiatives)
About Stranahan Foundation
The Stranahan Foundation’s recent philanthropy centers on a single theme: building and retaining the early childhood educator workforce. Its largest recorded grants all support the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, including multiple $500,000 awards to Third Sector New England Inc in Boston and a $250,000 continuation grant for the 2024-2026 collaborative. That pattern points to sustained support for intermediary-led work rather than scattered program giving. Across the grant list, the foundation backs projects that improve educator quality, training, coaching, and compensation-related infrastructure. It has funded evidence-based reflective practice video enhancement with Edvance in Modesto, technical assistance expansion with All Our Kin Inc in New Haven, and a trauma-informed preschool support pilot with the Reginald S Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children in Rockville. Other grants show interest in apprenticeship models, regional training centers, and early learning network supports. The foundation also funds a mix of program development and evaluation. Several awards explicitly support piloting, refinement, continuous improvement, or evidence-building, which suggests a preference for strengthening models before or during broader scale-up. Its record shows a national approach to early childhood education, with grantees spread across multiple states.
What Stranahan Foundation Funds
A major thread in the Stranahan Foundation’s portfolio is early educator workforce development. It awarded $125,000 to Early Years Inc in Chapel Hill for the development, piloting, evaluation, and refinement of an early childhood apprenticeship model framework, and $100,000 to Santa Fe Community College Foundation in Santa Fe for a competency-based early childhood teacher apprenticeship program. The foundation also supports coaching and professional learning models. It gave $150,000 to Sobrato Early Academic Language Program in Milpitas for modifications and continuous improvement tied to a full preschool professional development model, and $100,000 to Jeremiah Program in Minneapolis for strengthening educator learning and development through LENA Grow. A third area is early learning systems support. Community Coordinated Child Care of S Indiana in Evansville received $100,000 for expansion of the early learning regional training center pilot, while National Association for Family Child Care Foundation in Washington, DC received $100,000 for FCC Leadership Lab. These grants show attention to both individual educator practice and network-level infrastructure.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$4M
Total Assets
$124M
Total Revenue
$9.8M
Total Expenses
$5.5M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $35K and $50K, with a median of $35K.
25th Percentile
$35K
Median
$35K
75th Percentile
$50K
Geographic Reach
National32 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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