Irvine Children's Fund
Children Helping Children
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Irvine Children's Fund Before and After School Child Care Scholarships
The Irvine Children's Fund provides before and after school child care scholarships to low income, working families. The child care programs have expanded and there are now child care programs located on all 28 elementary schools in the Irvine Unified School District In addition, child care programs have been expanded at 3 Irvine elementary schools. There are now nearly 3,000 child care spaces available at all 28 elementary schools in Irvine, CA. The child care is under the supervision of the Irvine Child Care Project.
Irvine Children's Fund Before and After School Child Care Scholarship Program
The Irvine Children's Fund provides before and after school child care scholarships for children in transitional kindergarten through 6th grade from low income, working families. The child care is provided year round on 28 elementary schools in the irvine Unified School District.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Irvine Children's Fund (ICF) is a nonprofit organization in partnership with the Irvine Child Care Project with the purpose of raising money to:
1. provide quality, affordable, safe and accessible before and after school child care for elementary school children
2. provide child care scholarships for low income working families
3. assist with funds to expand, maintain and enrich the 28 child care program.
The PRIMARY GOAL is to raise funds to provide scholarships for before and after school child care for low income, working families - families who work hard but are in low paying jobs.
In 1984, the city of Irvine, CA and the Irvine Unified School District came together to form a joint powers authority, the Irvine Child Care Project to provide child care both before and after school on the elementary schools in Irvine, CA. The program started with child care programs on 6 elementary schools and by raising funds has expanded to provide child care both before and after school on all 28 elementary schools in the Irvine Unified School District. The Irvine Children's Fund 501 (C )3 nonprofit was formed to raise funds to provide scholarships for low income, working families.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Irvine Children's Fund has been raising funds since 1986 to provide scholarships for low income, working families. With accessible child care, working families - even low income, working families - have access to licensed child care programs.
Funds are raised to meet our child care scholarship goal through grants, foundations, corporations and individual donors. For 32 years, the main fundraising event is the Irvine Junior Games track and field event involving over 1,200 athletes from 28 elementary and middle schools in Irvine, CA running and jumping to raise funds for the child care programs at their schools and to raise funds for child care scholarships so all their classmates could have access to this child care program for working families. This brings together the Irvine community of corporations and families to make accessible child care a priority.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since 1986, the Irvine Children's Fund has been raising money to provide affordable, accessible and licensed child care for low income, working families in Irvine, CA.
ICF CHILD CARE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM EXPANSION:
The child care scholarship program began with an initial $15,000 for children of working families in the extremely low income bracket and for a maximum of 2 years. As additional ICF funds were raised, the scholarship program was expanded to provide a 3rd year to children in K, 1st and 2nd grade. ICF continued to expand by providing up to 4 years for K-6th grade qualifying families and has expanded from just serving the extremely low families to serving families in the extremely low to moderate brackets. This still left some 4th grade children without access to a scholarship. Since 2013, ICF was able to expand and provide scholarships to all income eligible working families in transitional kindergarten through 6th grade.
In 2015, ICF expanded the program to include two ICCP child care sites located on two new IUSD elementary schools. In 2016 and 2017, two additional child care sites were opened. The ICF Before and After School Child Care Scholarship Program expanded with the opening of the 27th ICCP child care site at the new Cadence Park K-8 school in 2018. In 2019, the ICF Before and After School Child Care Program again expanded with the opening of the 28th ICCP child care site at the new Loma Ridge elementary school.
Before and after school child care is now available YEAR ROUND on all 28 IUSD elementary schools.
THE ICCP CHILD CARE PROGRAMS ALSO EXPANDED in AUGUST 2018 with the addition of one new modular building at each of 3 IUSD elementary schools - Portola Springs, Eastshore and Stonegate. The expansion of the 3 child care sites and the addition of child care programs has increased child care capacity to approximately 3,000 children.
ICF has continued to expand our child care and scholarship program as state and county child care funding decreases. This makes the expansion even more critical to economically disadvantaged working families in Irvine who work hard, but are in low paying jobs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Irvine Children's Fund has raised over $2.9 M to meet our child care goals.
This includes $2.202,723 for child care scholarships, $230,928 to expand and maintain the child care programs, $21,920 to complete handicap accessibility at 7 child care sites, $230,928 to provide supplies, activities and programs to enhance the programs for over 2,900 children at the 28 child care sites, and $242,292 to the teachers and schools participating in the Irvine Junior Games. The fundraising has provided 40, 197 child care days from 203-2019.
We are very proud that all children from low income, qualifying families received a child care scholarship and were in a child care program located at their elementary school.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Irvine Children's Fund
Board of directorsas of 03/23/2022
Lauren Brooks
IUSD Board of Trustees
Term: 2021 - 2023
Marcy Brown
HOAG
Dan Borland
Pacific Premier
Michael Means
KLAA AM 830, Retired
Mary D. Miller
Citizens Business Bank
Rob Poetsch
Taco Bell
Sheri Reynolds
SPLATT Design
Susan Whittaker
Whittaker Planning Services
Terry Walker
Superintendent, Irvine Unified School District
Lauren Brooks
Irvine Unifed School District Board of Trustees
Beckie Desmet
Community Leader
Stan Machesky
Irvine Unified School District, Director of Elementary Education
Farrah Khan
Mayor, City of Irvine
Greg Goodrich
Wells Fargo Advisors
Kelly Reynolds
HOAG Irvine
Ryan Martz
Ryan Martz Events
Anthony Kuo
Irvine City Council
Greg Goodrich
Wells Fargo
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/19/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.