MELF has several grant fund categories designed to further our mission of ensuring that Minnesota’s children ages 0-5 from low-income or challenged families are ready for success in school when they reach kindergarten.  Interested grant seekers should submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) to MELF.  Grant seekers will be invited to submit proposals after submittal of a Letter of Inquiry if the request is chosen to be funded.

Eligible Organizations

Organizations may submit letters of inquiry if they are:

• Governmental agencies, including public schools and universities;
• Tribal organizations;
• Non-profit secular and religious organizations with 501(c) (3) status;

• Formal (Licensed) and Informal Child Care Providers

Funding Priorities

MELF seeks to identify and build support for cost-effective, research-based approaches that use the public and private dollars invested in early learning in the most efficient ways possible.

Proposals will be assessed and prioritized according to technical merit and the degree to which they implement MELF’s strategies to:

·         Support parents as children's first teachers

·         Serve high percentages of low-income or other challenged families

·         Demonstrate quality and/or cost effectiveness of research-based programs

·         Improve access to high quality child care and preschool

·         Strengthen and measure child progress and provider effectiveness

Applicants demonstrating in-kind and/or cash match will receive priority during the review process.

Funding Categories

MELF will support programs and initiatives that will – through measurement, demonstration, collaboration and evaluation – guide development of an effective early learning system:

Ø      Parents – Grants to educate, inform, empower parents.

Ø      Community – Grants are available for selected communities which have or are working towards a community-wide and prioritized approach for serving children 0-5

Ø     Promising Practices/Innovation - Grants to identify and test ideas for bringing quality early learning cost effectively to children in low-income and other challenged families.

Ø      Infrastructure Grants – Grants to improve and measure overall programmatic quality.

Ø      Evaluation and Accountability – Grants to help existing or expanding programs measure program effectiveness and positive child outcomes.

Ø      Other Grant Opportunities – MELF will develop partnerships with other philanthropic, business, public and not-for-profit organizations to improve the resources available for parents and early learning professionals.

Coming soon:

1.      Quality Rating System

2.      Scholarships for low-income and other challenged families

3.      Service Organizations Challenge Grant

Evaluation

Where appropriate, projects will be evaluated around program effectiveness, child assessments and whether efforts are cost effective.  The design and implementation of an evaluation plan for each grant will be conducted by MELF evaluators.  Those costs do not need to be included in your program budget.  If your LOI includes a specific proposal for child and/or program evaluation, include the costs in your budget and MELF will make a determination as to how those costs will be managed (MELF or the grantee).  An example would be a program that is adding child assessment to its curriculum.  The costs and training necessary to implement the specific assessment piece should be included in your LOI budget.   Evaluation of effective implementation of the assessment piece would be conducted by MELF.