Institute for Child Success Awarded Pritzker Grants to Help South Carolina Children

GREENVILLE, SC – The Institute for Child Success (ICS) was recently awarded $285,000 in grant funding from the Chicago-based Pritzker Children’s Initiative in support of expanded efforts to advance the emerging field of Pay for Success/Social Impact Bonds financing for early childhood programs serving vulnerable infants and toddlers and their families.

The Pritzker Children’s Initiative funding grant is divided into two separate awards: a grant in the amount of $200,000 will fund the cost of conducting feasibility studies for prospective early childhood Pay for Success/Social Impact Bond transactions in cities, counties and states; a second grant of $85,000 will allow ICS to co-host the 2nd Annual Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference in San Diego, CA in late April 2015, along with ReadyNation, a national early childhood advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

“The generous grant funding from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative will enable ICS to further support those agencies that make a fundamental difference in early childhood development,” said Joe Waters, vice president of ICS. “From birth to age five, children make huge developmental strides, more than any other time in their lives. And with this funding we can continue our mission to collaborate with our partners, to share and build on the intellectual capital we are all discovering in order to give each child the best chance possible to succeed during those fundamental early years.”

The Pritzker Children’s Initiative is a national project of the JB & MK Pritzker Family Foundation, which has worked for over a decade toward a single achievable goal: that all at-risk infants and toddlers obtain access to high-quality early childhood development opportunities, increasing their likelihood of success in school and in life. The Pritzker Children’s Initiatives most notable endeavors include the groundbreaking research of Nobel laureate economist James Heckman and his colleagues at the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development at the University of Chicago, the innovative programs for disadvantaged infants and toddlers and their families at the Ounce of Prevention Fund, and the First Five Years Fund national early childhood advocacy organization.

ICS is a national organization founded and headquartered in Greenville, SC. Launched in 2010, it is a private, nonpartisan research and policy organization whose vision is to help create a sustainable system that ensures the success of all children across the nation, pre-natal through age five. The agency, founded and fueled by the Greenville Health System and United Way of Greenville County, fosters public and private partnerships to improve resources for the success of young children. ICS supports policymakers, service providers, government agencies, funders, and business leaders focused on early childhood development, healthcare, and education – all to coordinate, enhance, and improve those efforts for the maximum effect in the lives of young children. Rather than being a direct service provider, the Institute’s approach focuses on helping those who help young children succeed by working with stakeholders to seek comprehensive and effective solutions to complex early childhood challenges. For more information, please visit instituteforchildsuccess.org.