Grantmakers › Delaware

Children and Families First

Wilmington, DE · EIN 51-0065731. Reported 40 grants totalling $1,059,903 to 20 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

20organizations funded
$23,095median reported grant
$1,059,903granted, 2022-2024
80%of grantees funded again the next year
18%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Children and Families First, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P30Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 20 distinct organizations, with 18% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 80% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $23,095. Half of what it reported fell between $18,165 and $32,310; the smallest was $8,940 and the largest $73,179. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
19 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
16 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Tiny Tots Child Care & Learning CenterWilmington, DE$187,565332024
Pirulo's Childcare & Learning CenterNewark, DE$122,221332024
Dis Day CareWilmington, DE$104,612332024
First Steps Preschool - LunchLincoln, DE$85,195332024
First Steps Preschool - MilfordMilford, DE$73,581332024
Newark Christian Child CareNewark, DE$67,804332024
Junebugs Little Rubies LLCWilmington, DE$62,581332024
Little Destiny IIWilmington, DE$62,167222024
One Step Ahead Childcare & PreschoolNewark, DE$57,744332024
Red Lion Christian Academy IncBear, DE$38,842222024
Kids Kastle LLCNewark, DE$35,006332024
Little Destiny IIWilmington, DE$28,172112022
Beverly's Helping HandWilmington, DE$25,352112024
Care a Lot Development CenterMillsboro, DE$20,451112022
Sunshine Kids AcademyNewark, DE$18,688112022
Little People - Big DreamsNew Castle, DE$18,512112024
North Towne PreschoolClaymont, DE$16,241112022
Bear Early Education CenterBear, DE$14,472112022
Mercylove Academy LLCWilmington, DE$11,757112024
Almost Home Daycare LLCNewark, DE$8,940112022

11 of 20 (55%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 2 of 20 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
2 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202215$357,127$18,752
202311$281,470$22,435
202414$421,306$25,301

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

Wilmington, DE
$482K
Newark, DE
$310K
Lincoln, DE
$85K
Milford, DE
$74K
Bear, DE
$53K
Millsboro, DE
$20K
New Castle, DE
$19K
Claymont, DE
$16K

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How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $23,095 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Delaware.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Children and Families First's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 555 Justison Street Suite 150, Wilmington, DE, 19801.

EIN 51-0065731 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.