When children get off to the right start, they do better their whole lives.

The Mimi and Peter Haas Fund believes every child deserves access to quality early childhood education. The Fund supports organizations that provide high-quality early care and education to San Francisco’s low-income children ages 0 to 5 and their families.

Why Early Childhood?

A child’s early years

are the foundation for future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning including cognitive and social development.

Scientific studies

show that positive stimulation of a child’s brain during the critical first years of life lays the foundation for the child’s future ability to learn.

Investing

in early childhood education is an investment in our future: For every $1 dollar spent on high-quality early education, the public will save $7 or more in future costs like grade repetition, early parenthood, or incarceration.

Partner Highlight

EDvance College is a nationally recognized teacher preparation program that supports the diversity of the early childhood workforce. EDvance provides an academic experience grounded in real and relevant issues to develop well-rounded, equity-focused, and self-determined leaders. Most students are women of color and the first in their families to graduate college. The Fund has supported EDvance for 13 years, and during that time, 312 students received their bachelor of arts degree in child development, with a 90% completion rate.

To learn more about EDvance, scroll through their 2020-2021 Annual Report or read about their impact in this 2019 Learning Policy Institute Report about promising models in the field of early educator preparation.

Fund Highlight

Fund President Mimi Haas and Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University Deborah Stipek were featured in a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor on February 11, 2022. The letter expressed support for high-quality preschool.

“The true purpose of education is to ensure that children have what they need to be successful in life.”

—Jane La Tulippe