US Charities involved in Early Childhood Care: Organizations that did not advance past Round 1

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These organizations applied for a grant GiveWell offered in 2007 under the category Cause 3: Early Childhood Care, but did not advance past our Round 1 screen, which aimed at finding charities with strong self-documentation (based on our principle of focusing on already-proven programs). Note that unlike other evaluators, we put a lot of investigation into the organizations we find most promising, and de-prioritize others based on limited information. The following write-up should be viewed in this context: it explains why we determined that we wouldn't be prioritizing the organizations in question as potential grant recipients. This write-up should not be taken as a "negative rating" of these charities. Rather, it is our attempt to be as transparent as possible about the process by which we came to our top recommendations. For more on our process see our How We Identify Top Charities page.

Specifics of why organizations did not advance

In conducting our Round 1 screen of Cause 3: Early Childhood Care, we sought charities with one or both of the following:

  1. A compelling case that their program resembles an already proven "model program."
  2. Independent evidence for their program's effect on later life outcomes.

Some charities sent reports on children's cognitive development, but these reports either did not show consistent progress for enrolled children, or did not use measures that allowed us to compare the progress to what might be expected in the absence of a preschool program. In addition, none of these tracked children after their enrollment in kindergarten. This is a particular concern since there are many studies of preschool programs showing short-term improvement that fades out entirely - or weakens considerably - over time (see discussion of this at our Pre-K day care programs page). All of the reports in this category were sent in hard copy only. It's possible that these organizations have the information we want, and didn't send it due to misinterpretations of our application, time constraints, or other reasons. But due to time constraints of our own, we opted to focus on the applicants who seemed most promising.

Organizations that applied for funding under Cause 3: Early Childhood Care

Association to Benefit Children

Materials submitted in 2007

Bloomingdale Family Program Inc Head Start

Materials submitted in 2007

Brooklyn Kindergarten Society

Materials submitted in 2007

Child Care Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Child Center Of New York

Materials submitted in 2007

Childrens Aid Society

Materials submitted in 2007

Childrens Storefront

Materials submitted in 2007

Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club

Materials submitted in 2007

Project Reach Youth Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Raising a Reader

Materials submitted in 2007

Room To Grow

Materials submitted in 2007

Yeled V Yalda Early Childhood Center, Inc

Materials submitted in 2007