Creation of Strategic Knowledge Fund Announced

W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND FOUNDATION FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCE THE CREATION OF A STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE FUND

Partnership Aims to Build Knowledge for Action to Benefit America's Youngest Children

April 1, 2008 - Two of the nation's oldest philanthropic foundations, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), have joined forces to create a Strategic Knowledge Fund to understand and improve the lives of vulnerable children, from birth to age eight.

WKKF has committed $1,200,000 to the two-year partnership. The Fund will be managed by FCD, which will make at least a one-to-one match of FCD to WKKF funds. Co-funded projects will aim to increase knowledge about children, particularly those who are at-risk for poor educational outcomes.

"Private foundations are often criticized for not coordinating our efforts," commented Sterling Speirn, President and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation. "This matching fund will help our two foundations leverage one another's strengths and hopefully inform the direction of the field."

"Knowledge-development and knowledge-sharing are integral to the work of both foundations," said Ruby Takanishi, President of the Foundation for Child Development. "WKKF's strength is connecting community engagement and new knowledge through its mission to empower vulnerable children and their families. FCD's strength is identifying strategic research and demonstration projects that can inform policy and practice that affect the well-being of young children. Both WKKF and FCD recognize the essential synergy of these approaches to benefit large numbers of America's children."

WKKF and FCD have agreed to the following criteria to guide grant selection:

• Grants must be aligned with the WKKF and the FCD mission statements.
• Grants must be focused on the current program interests of both foundations. These include a focus on children during the first decade of life with specific attention to low-income children of color and children living in immigrant families.
• Grants must demonstrate connections among research, policy, and practice, and the role of advocacy in creating policies that create change for the largest numbers of children and their families.

Initial grants awarded by the Fund include:

• Urban Institute for research on the impact of immigration enforcement raids on the well-being of children of immigrants.
• Harvard Graduate School of Education to develop a program to support educators implementing a PK-3 approach and strategies to improve teaching and learning in early childhood and elementary education.
• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education to infuse knowledge about child and youth development in the preparation of educators.
• New America Foundation to promote federal policy frameworks for integrating PK programs with K-12 education.
• Picus and Associates (an FCD-internally administered grant) to augment a cost estimate study of PK-3 implementation to include cost estimates for community and parent engagement in PK-3.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.

For further information, visit the Foundation's website at www.wkkf.org.

Established in 1899, the Foundation for Child Development is a national private philanthropy dedicated to the principle that all families should have the social and material resources to raise their children to be healthy, educated, and productive members of their communities.

The Foundation seeks to understand children, particularly the disadvantaged, and to promote their well-being. We believe that families, schools, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and government at all levels share complementary responsibilities in the critical task of raising new generations.

The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.

For more information, visit FCD's web site at www.fcd-us.org