Funder Collaborative for Reading Success

The Funder Collaborative for Reading Success (FCRS) was initiated by the SIS Fund, a fund administered by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, with leadership from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. FCRS members include: Berkshire Bank Foundation, Babson Capital Management LLC, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Beveridge Family Foundation, Hampden Bank, Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Peoples United Bank Foundation, SIS Fund, TD Charitable Foundation, and the United Way of Pioneer Valley.

The goal of the Funder Collaborative for Reading Success is to strengthen and advance early literacy skill development in children from birth to age 9 to ensure children in Springfield are reading at a proficient level by fourth grade.  The Funder Collaborative for Reading Success is seeking proposals for the 2012 Springfield Early Literacy Grant Program.

SPRINGFIELD EARLY LITERACY GRANT PROGRAM

Please see the Springfield Early Literacy Grant Program Request for Proposals for comprehensive information about this program.

The FCRS seeks proposals from proven providers in any of the following three areas of strategic focus:

• Family education and engagement focused on building families’ capacity to support children’s language, emergent literacy, and reading skills.

• Increasing the capacity of early education and care, out-of-school time, and summer learning programs to provide high-quality support for children’s language, emergent literacy, and reading skills.

• Increasing children’s opportunities to access high-quality early education and care, out-of-school time, and summer learning programs that impact their language, emergent literacy, and reading skills.

The deadline was Thursday, March 22 at 4:30PM. Grant announcements will be made in May, 2012.

The minimum grant size is $25,000. At present the FCRS has raised $1 million to be distributed over three years with on average $330,000 available for funding each year.  Single year and multi-year grant proposals will be considered. Given the limited resources available, this will be a highly competitive grantmaking process. Funding will be given to qualifying organizations with a proven track record of successfully impacting early literacy achievement in the FCRS’ three areas of strategic focus.  In making grant decisions, a heavy emphasis will be placed on the proven provider’s ability to measure the impact of its work.  Only the most effective strategies will be funded.


BRIEFING SESSION/QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

The FCRS held the Early Literacy Grant briefing at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (60 Congress Street, Springfield) on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, from 11:00-12:30PM.

Please see the questions and answers from the briefing for more information.

If you have any questions about this program, please contact Kathleen Traphagen, FCRS Project Coordinator, ReadingSuccessFunders@gmail.com or 413-687-1710.