Working in collaboration with others on strategic projects that build towards a better future.
Alongside our grantmaking, we invest in strategic projects with the intention of driving longer-term systems change. These projects aim to support more coordinated action across the audiences that have the potential to influence early childhood development: funders, businesses and policymakers.
Our role varies across these projects. Sometimes we provide funding; sometimes we help shape ideas, connect partners, or support early-stage work so that others can take it further. Across these projects, we try to help things happen without assuming we need to lead everything ourselves.
These projects are grouped by the primary audience they aim to influence. In practice, many projects cut across more than one audience. For example, work with policymakers often also involves funders, and work with businesses often depends on strong evidence and public-sector alignment.
Taken together, these strategic projects reflect our belief that improving early childhood outcomes requires more than funding individual services. It also requires better evidence, stronger leadership, more coordinated funders, practical action from businesses, and public policy that is shaped by what families and communities need.
Funders
Aim: More funding flows towards effective, coordinated early childhood work.
Projects:
Early Childhood Funders Partnership
Funding Futures
Inspiring Increased Investment in ECD
Why it matters: Better coordination between funders can reduce duplication, help resources reach the places and organisations that need them most, and make it easier to support long-term change rather than short-term projects.
Businesses
Aim: More organisations understand and act on their role in supporting families.
Projects:
Business’ Role in Early Childhood
Parenting Research
Why it matters: Many parents interact with employers, retailers, financial services and digital platforms more often than they interact with formal services. Businesses therefore have a significant, but often underused, role in supporting family life and early childhood development.
Policymakers
Aim: Public policy and funding better support early childhood outcomes.
Projects:
Common Outcomes Collaborative
Start Strong
Impact Economy x DfE Policy Labs
Early Years Observatory
Why it matters: Philanthropy cannot replace public funding or public services, but it can help test ideas, build evidence, support collaboration and unlock new approaches that government and others may later take further.
Early Childhood Funders Partnership
Funding Futures
Business’ Role in Early Childhood
Common Outcomes Collaborative
