Kidango
15
1
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Fremont, CA
Founded: 1979
Mission: Kidango continuously works to improve our programs and expand our services to fulfill our mission of inspiring children, empowering families and building stronger communities.
Tags:
bay area, early childhood education, youth development, childcare, family support, mental health services, early intervention services
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Paul Miller.
Throughout the 30+ years of an extraordinary career in education, Paul Miller has successfully led Kidango to become one of the leading educational institutes for children in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since joining Kidango (then Tri-Cities Children’s Centers) in 1979, Paul has been instrumental in helping Kidango grow from serving just 90 children at one center in Fremont to…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
n/a
Total Revenue:
$27,032,651
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
44000 Old Warm Springs Blvd
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Twitter:
Story:
This is the story from a parent of a Kidango child:
I became a mother at the age of 22. I was a single mother trying to support my daughter with very little income. I was living with my parents who did what they could to help me, but financially it was very difficult. I had a difficult time finding child care because what I made was just not enough. I heard about Community Family Services through a relative of mine. I signed up for the program right away.
My daughter was placed in a family child care home, and it was very affordable. I couldn’t believe it. My daughter was not only looked after while I was at work, but she was potty trained and learned her ABC’s there. She loved it! She was well taken care of and I was relieved to know that someone from Community Family Services would visit the family child care home to make sure that everything was running fine.
When the holidays came around, the children in the family child care home were sponsored by people in the community. My daughter, Melissa*, came home with so many presents. Just to see her face when she opened those presents brought tears to my eyes. I could only give her what I could, but it was nice to know that people out there cared about these children, and they were willing to give what they could for them. After a couple of years, I started making more money at my job and Melissa started kindergarten, so I took her out of the program. I know how hard it is being a single parent and I know there are a lot of single parents out there that need help and get help from you. I received so much help through Kidango, and I am thankful to all of you at Kidango and what you do for the community. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING! (Source: http://www.kidango.org/pdfs/annual2002.pdf)
*Names of all children have been changed to honor confidentiality of the family
Expert Reviews of Kidango
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Kidango has successfully leveraged multiple resources to provide (relatively) better quality child care programs for large numbers of low-income children and their families. Kidango has developed an early childhood education and development program that is driven by the needs of the child, the child's family, and the needs of the community that it serves. It is one of the few programs that offer service access to mental health, nutrition, and medical based on the needs of the child and family. It has actively sought out and enrolled children with special needs and has an extensive parent involvement program to engage the parents in their understanding their child's holistic needs as well as the provision of support to the parents themselves.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts laud Kidango's leadership, commitment to continuous improvement, and marketing ability. Operating and financial efficiency are also praised by multiple respondents.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Experts recommend Kidango reformulate its subcontractor-reliant operating model and to improve the quality of its child care programs.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Impact |
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F
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Kidango has successfully leveraged multiple resources to provide (relatively) better quality child care programs for large numbers of low-income children and their families. | ||
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N
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Kidango serves a high number of low-income children and families, providing high quality child care and education services. | ||
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Kidango has focused on comprehensive services for pre-school children and their families. | ||
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O
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Kidango has developed an early childhood education and development program that is driven by the needs of the child, the child's family, and the needs of the community that it serves. It is one of the few programs that offer service access to mental health, nutrition, and medical based on the needs of the child and family. It has actively sought out and enrolled children with special needs and has an extensive parent involvement program to engage the parents in their understanding their child's holistic needs as well as the provision of support to the parents themselves. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
Foundation Professionals (F)
X
Researchers and Faculty (R)
X
Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
X
Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Fiscal and operations excellence |
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F
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Kidango stands out in the Bay Area non-profit early childhood education arena as particularly competent in fiscal and other operations areas. | ||
Leadership and breadth of service |
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Kidango has quality upper management staff and operates in a variety of Bay Area counties. | ||
Leadership and operations quality |
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Leadership, operations, and finances are the strengths of this organization. They use these strengths to be creative and effective in their service delivery. | ||
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O
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The leadership of Kidango is visionary in that the organization is in a continual process of improvement. This is facilitated by outside professional evaluations of various functions, administrative, fiscal and program with extensive training and modification to areas identified in the evaluations. The leadership is very focused on providing staff the resources, training and tools needed to accomplish assigned responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Their marketing strategy is one of the most effective approaches I have seen for child development programs. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
Foundation Professionals (F)
X
Researchers and Faculty (R)
X
Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
X
Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Program Quality |
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F
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The quality of some Kidango child care programs is just mediocre, but in a field where much of the care has been deemed "inadequate" even this mediocrity is an accomplishment. | ||
Staffing operations |
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O
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Currently there is an effort of reduce the number of subcontract relationships in which Kidango is partnered. While subcontracting is an effective method of providing services, this exposed Kidango to monitoring of the subcontractor which may become problematic. Secondly, due to the high cost of running and maintaining facilities in the Bay Area and providing an hourly wage and benefits package to the teachers who staff the classrooms Kidango is forced to fundraise and secure at least an additional 24% unrestricted funds to run its classrooms. While there is little to be done about the amount Kidango receives from the state for the child development contract daily rates, this is an area that draws off HR into fundraising rather than program administration. | ||
Leadership
Paul Miller
Executive Director
Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.