Funders Fighting Child Poverty See Biden’s Plans as a Victory and Potential Game-Changer

Representatives of philanthropic organizations don’t tend to gush, but when we reached out to major funders about the Biden administration’s new domestic programs, they agreed that the American Rescue Plan (already passed), as well as the proposed American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan are a very big deal.

The plans are so sweeping that it would be impractical to examine them at length here, but Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimates that the American Rescue Plan alone could cut child poverty in the U.S. by more than half in 2021.

Starting long before Biden announced his plans or was even elected, child poverty has been a high priority for several major foundations, viewed as an important front in the fight for a stronger social safety net in the United States. But progress does not come easy. So it’s understandable that these foundation reps would be so fired up, with a new sense of what’s possible within their wheelhouse.

For some of these foundations, several of the child poverty measures passed or proposed by the Biden administration reflect solutions they’ve been working on for years, so there’s a sense of both vindication and accomplishment. Some funders also seem to be emboldened by developments at the federal level. Today, a coalition including the Ford, W.K. Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson foundations announced a new $50 million CARE Fund in support of child care and care givers.

To better understand what these shifts in the political landscape mean for the field, we talked with representatives from Ford, Kellogg, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, asking them to weigh in on the Biden proposals. Each focused on different aspects of the proposals and raised concerns about the many barriers to implementation, but they all expressed excitement, hope, and a resounding sense of “at last!”

Child poverty in the world’s richest country

The U.S. is the richest country on earth, but it has the most extreme wealth disparities. A shocking number of American children live in poverty: 1 in 7, according to the Census Bureau. As Areeba Haider of the Center for American Progress writes: “This number should be unimaginable in one of the world’s wealthiest countries, and yet child poverty has remained stubbornly high for decades. Across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of 37 countries including Denmark, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, the United States is consistently ranked as one of the worst in child poverty rates.”

The pandemic and its resulting layoffs heightened awareness of poverty in the U.S., as did media accounts of long lines at food banks around the country. As the White House put it in announcing the American Families Plan, “Right now, too many Americans are struggling to meet basic needs and cover basic expenses. An economy that fails so many of us is not only unfair, it’s unsustainable.”

Biden’s proposals would slash child poverty through direct payments to families, as well as child tax credits, universal pre-K, child care subsidies, housing assistance and expanded access to healthcare, not to mention the indirect benefits of creating more jobs and increasing wages and benefits for workers who provide care for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Income for families

Since its creation in 1948, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has made the alleviation of child poverty its primary focus. Michael Cassidy, the foundation’s director of policy reform and advocacy, said that the Biden plans incorporate many of AECF’s longstanding priorities. Cassidy singled out the child tax credit, which the foundation and its partners have supported for years, calling it “a real game changer.” The tax credit, he said, “will help not only put money in the pockets of working families, it will also make huge strides in reducing poverty.”

Cassidy cited recent surveys indicating that 1 in 4 American adults living in households with children had little or no confidence that they could cover their next rent or mortgage payment. And 1 in 5 said they didn’t have enough to eat the previous week. “So we know these payments will have an immediate effect on helping cover the basic necessities of life,” Cassidy said.

Felicia DeHaney, director of program and strategy at the Kellogg Foundation, pointed to research showing the long-term benefits of eliminating childhood poverty—benefits that show up into adulthood, and, she says, ultimately help us all.

In a recent report, Brookings cites some of this research demonstrating a link between cash payments to families and improved health outcomes, higher educational attainment, higher incomes for young adults and longer life expectancy. Such benefits, if widely implemented, have the potential to strengthen families, communities—and the country as a whole.

A focus on care

The Ford Foundation sees the Biden proposals as “a sea change,” according to Anna Wadia, senior program officer for Future of Work(ers) program at Ford, who specifically pointed to the “care agenda” in the federal plans as a victory.

“The plans correctly situate care as crucial to economic recovery and long-term prosperity,” Wadia said. “I think this is the first time that care has been a plank in an economic agenda. These packages understand that care workers deserve living wages, and that by improving these jobs, we will also improve the quality of care and the quality of early education that we all receive, while producing millions of new jobs that will improve the economy. So it’s really a virtuous cycle.”

Wadia points out that the Biden administration’s plans reflect work that many in the trenches have been doing for a long time. “What our grantees like Family Values at Work, and Caring Across Generations have been saying for years now is on everyone’s lips: that care is essential for thriving families and for the very functioning of our economy,” Wadia said. “And that a truly universal, publicly financed care infrastructure will fuel the economy as well as improve outcomes for kids and promote equity and enable people with disabilities and older adults to live independently and with dignity.”

Today, the Ford Foundation announced its own initiative in support of caregivers. Ford, along with Kellogg, RWJF, Schusterman Family Philanthropies and others is launching a $50 million fund to invest in the movement for care. The Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund will support “policy and culture change for universal child care and early education, paid leave, long-term services and support for older adults and people with disabilities, and good jobs for all care workers.” The new fund will amplify the voices of caregivers and consumers of care, advocate for policy changes, ensure that new policies are equitably implemented, and push for living wages and benefits for caregivers, among other strategies.

The whole package

Early childhood development is the focus of the Pritzker Children’s Initiative at the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, so Gerry Cobb, who directs the Initiative, focused on the provisions in the Biden plans that will benefit the youngest children.

“After 30 years of hoping and working to create something with very limited resources, it is amazing to all of us that suddenly so much is happening and so many opportunities are being created,” Cobb said.

Cobb is hopeful that the Biden plans and temporary provisions could become permanent, pointing to growing support for early childhood programs in recent years. “Today, policymakers on both sides of the aisle talk about why it’s important to prioritize families and to support families from the moment a child is conceived,” she said. “Of course, they don’t always agree on how to fund these programs.” Access to quality childcare and family leave, for example, both have bipartisan support. “It’s amazing how far we’ve come,” she said. “Ten years ago, I never would have believed that was possible.”

Felicia DeHaney of Kellogg points out a similar shift in attitudes in the business community. “I can tell you that years ago, business was not a partner in the push for high-quality early education,” she said. “But after years of advocacy and tying early childhood to workforce, the business community has come on board and they now understand that they play a very important role in early education—not only in investment, but also in partnership and thought leadership.”

Asked to identify the provisions in the Biden administration’s plans that she thinks are most important, Cobb said it’s the comprehensiveness of the proposals that will have the greatest impact. “These plans are thinking holistically about lifting families and children out of poverty,” she said. “There are some important individual pieces, like child care, but child care isn’t going to do it all, home visiting isn’t going to do it all, housing isn’t going to do it all. Income is going to be a big piece, but we have to focus on all the components of what a family needs to be successful going forward, and lifting them out of poverty through all of these different approaches. It’s the whole big package that’s amazing.”

DeHaney agreed. “These are safety nets that intersect and interact with each other. All of these pieces have to be invested in to alleviate childhood poverty,” she said.

What’s next?

Philanthropy deserves a measure of credit for the new administration’s plans, along with their nonprofit partners, policy experts and others who’ve worked to raise awareness about the corrosive impact of inequality on children, families and the country as a whole. Now, philanthropy can play a critical role in turning the new plans into reality by making the case for why they are important and amplifying the voices in communities where the programs will have the most impact.

The funders we spoke to are hopeful that the plans can be implemented, but they also conceded the gargantuan political obstacles that stand in the way. The Wall Street Journal has called the American Family Plan “Cradle to Grave Government.” Fox News went even further and dubbed it “Cradle to Grave Socialism.” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell belittled Biden’s speech touting his domestic agenda as “a lengthy liberal daydream,” and vowed to block tax hikes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans that the administration will need to fund the proposals.

Still, despite feverish Republican opposition, polls show that Biden’s ambitious agenda is popular among a majority of Americans. Is it possible that after years of neglecting children and communities, we’re going to tackle child poverty in a comprehensive manner, once and for all? It’s a daydream that many Americans—including leading philanthropists—would like to make a reality.

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