For every dollar we invest in early childhood education programs, we get nearly $10 back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health care costs, and less crime. -President Obama

The Cause: Proposition 49 (2002) in California led to the creation of 4,000 new after-school programs. These programs were meant to tie academic standards to after school activities, were run by the district or community based organizations, included elements of child development, and were mostly for students K-8 from 3-6pm. As awareness of the summer learning loss among disadvantaged students increased, new programming was created for students in the summer in the hopes of closing the achievement gap. The San Francisco Bay Area is notable for the enormous number of nonprofits working in the education space.

The Scope: Bay Area early childhood education (preschool - 5th grade) experts were asked to recommend nonprofits working on literacy, school readiness, school reform, the achievement gap, human capital, instructional improvement, preschool curriculum, child development, low-performing schools turnarounds, data, standards and assessments, after school programming , summer programming, parental involvement, and more. Types of nonprofits could include research, policy, advocacy, training, traditional nonprofits or community based organizations, the traditional after-school kind of nonprofits/CBOs, or even the public schools themselves.

60 Local Early Childhood Education experts recommended the following 6 outstanding nonprofits.
Meet the experts and read more about this research.

	Top Nonprofit	Mission
1	Raising A Reader	Raising A Reader’s mission is to engage parents in a routine of daily “book cuddling” with their children from birth to age five to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and early literacy skills critical for school success.
2	Bay Area YMCAs	The National Council of YMCAs of the USA (YMCA of the USA) is the national resource office for the nation's YMCAs. Located in Chicago, with satellite offices across the country, the YMCA of the USA exists to serve YMCAs. America's 2,686 YMCAs serve more than 21 million people each year, uniting men, women and children of all ages, races, faiths, backgrounds, abilities and income levels. At the heart of community life across America, mission-driven YMCAs are a place to belong and to live the values that guide and unite our members: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. From cities to suburbs to small towns, YMCAs serve America's children, families and communities by building healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
3	Kidango	Kidango continuously works to improve our programs and expand our services to fulfill our mission of inspiring children, empowering families and building stronger communities.
4	Jumpstart	Jumpstart's mission is to ensure that all children in American enter school prepared to succeed. Year-round, Jumpstart recruits and trains thousands of college students and community volunteers to work with preschool children in low-income neighborhoods, helping them to develop the language, literacy, and social skills they need to succeed in school and in life.
5	Reading Partners	Help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results.
6	Partners in School Innovation	Partners in School Innovation enables public schools in high-poverty Bay Area communities—serving students of color and English Learners—to achieve educational equity through school-based reform.

Check out all nonprofit reviews for Local Early Childhood Education (Bay Area).

Have questions about these results? Review our methodology.