The Early Learning Quality Fund - Florida
The Early Learning Quality Fund – Florida builds off a successful forgivable loan model supporting high quality child care expansions in Washington D.C., funded by the Bainum Family Foundation. ELQF-FL is a partnership between Reinvestment Fund and the Early Learning Shared Services Alliance (ELSSA) and is implemented in coordination with K-READY.
About The Early Learning Quality Fund
Reinvestment Fund has partnered with the Bainum Family Foundation to offer business and financial technical assistance and forgivable loans to qualified early learning service providers in Florida. The purpose of ELQF is to support high quality early learning providers in expanding their facilities to serve more children, ages 0-5 years, from families with low incomes. Existing high-quality providers can apply to expand their licensed capacity on-site or at a new location. ELSSA is our implementing partner, who will provide business technical assistance to organizations located in Orange County. This initiative is implemented in coordination with K-READY. The K-Ready Community Project is a collaborative effort and a movement to make early childhood a priority in Orange County and ensure that EVERY child has a strong start and a bright future.
ELQF-FL is a Three-Part Program
Guided Planning Phase
Accepted applicants will receive a planning award to work with a business technical assistance consultant on business and sustainability planning deliverables. Through the planning phase, applicants will demonstrate that their organization has developed all necessary organizational documentation required for the forgivable loan application, including operating budget projections. In addition, applicants will receive support to ensure that they are well positioned to execute their high-quality facility project, that they have a fully funded construction budget, and are ready to meet ELQF loan forgiveness criteria.
Capital Phase
Once an organization has completed planning, submitted all loan documents and closed on a loan, they will be ready to carry out their capital project. During the capital phase, providers will work closely with their selected project team and ELQF Construction Monitor to execute their project. The construction monitor’s role will be to approve work completed at the time of loan draw requests.
Loan Forgiveness
Once the project is complete, and the provider remains compliant with reporting requirements, the loan will be eligible for forgiveness by June 30, 2026. To receive forgiveness, the borrower must meet the following criteria listed in the Overview attachment below.
Eligibility
- Nonprofit organization or for-profit business
- Existing licensed child care provider in Florida
- Positive enrollment trends
- Programs that provide child care services to low-income children (e.g. participates in subsidy or other contract funding programs such as VPK, Head Start) and can demonstrate serving or plans to serve at least 50% enrolled low-income children
- Site control (ownership or long-term lease (10+ years) on property and landlord consent for renovations)
- Proposing a viable expansion project
Funding Priorities
- Located in child care expansion target areas of Orange County
- High quality programs (Gold Seal, national accreditation)
- Projects creating Infant and toddler slots
- Projects that will increase licensed capacity by 40 or more ECE seats
- Programs offering full day child care
- Programs offering non-traditional hour care
- Programs with strong organizational business capacity and ability to recruit and retain staff
- Participants in Early Learning Shared Services (ELSSA) or the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County (ELCOC) Business Institute
Maximum Forgivable loan amount: $400,000
Estimated total number of forgivable loans available: Orange County (5), Tampa (1)
Application
To understand your project’s eligibility, please complete the ELQF Inquiry Form using the online grants management platform SmartSimple. Project staff will review and contact you with confirmation of your initial eligibility and may invite you to complete the full application or request more information.
Inquiries will be accepted on a rolling basis through February 2, 2025 or until the maximum funding available for this initiative has been allocated.
Application submissions will be accepted electronically through Reinvestment Fund’s online grants management platform, SmartSimple. Applications in additional languages are available upon request. If you do not already have a SmartSimple account, you must create one here.
For instructions on creating an account, please visit here.
If you have any questions, email LaToshia DeVose, ECE Program Director, at latoshia.devose@reinvestment.com. Please include ‘ELQF Forgivable Loan’ in the subject line.
