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

Jumpstart for Young Children advances equitable learning outcomes for young children in underserved communities by recruiting and training college students to deliver high-quality programming in preschool settings and driving early childhood systems change through teaching, advocacy, and leadership. Last year Jumpstart served 16,664 children nationwide.

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record is the world’s largest shared reading experience, highlighting the importance of early literacy and access to inclusive, high-quality books for young children. This year, Jumpstart’s 19th annual Read for the Record Day was held on October 24, 2024, engaging millions of people from across the globe to read Piper Chen Sings.

The Mimi and Peter Haas Fund is proud to support Jumpstart at San Francisco State University and their implementation of early literacy programming in preschool classrooms throughout San Francisco.

Fund Highlight

The Mimi and Peter Haas Fund is proud to be a longtime member of the regional Bay Area Early Childhood Funders and the national Early Childhood Funders Collaborative. Through these groups, the Fund stays connected, informed and inspired with our peers in the early childhood funding community.

The Fund has been a member of the Bay Area Early Childhood Funders since 2004 with Program Director Jennifer Curran serving on the leadership team since 2016. Bay Area Early Childhood Funders enhances grant-making effectiveness by sharing information, engaging in dialogue, and participating in joint activities to improve the lives of young children and their families.

The Fund has been a member of the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative since 2010 with Program Director Jennifer Curran serving on the membership committee since 2022. The Early Childhood Funders Collaborative advocates for equity-focused approaches to early childhood and promotes federal, state and local policies and practices that support young children, their families and the early childhood community.

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

—Jane La Tulippe