Irving Harris Foundation

Irving Harris was driven by a clear understanding that investing early in human capital development would result in significant returns on public and private investments and, therefore, provide the greatest benefit to our society. The Irving Harris Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all parents have the resources and support they need to nurture their young children’s growth and development beginning from birth. The Irving Harris Foundation’s total commitment of new and renewed funding for 2015 and 2016 is $16.5 million in support of high-quality, comprehensive early childhood services. In addition to sustaining the Foundation’s strategic early childhood investments of $11 million in 2015 and 2016, the Irving Harris Foundation anticipates committing $2 million in new funding in 2015 and 2016 for Illinois to leverage federal initiatives such as the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, home visiting expansion, and high-quality early learning and mental health systems integration in Illinois as well as nationally. In addition, the Foundation commits $3.5 million in 2015 and 2016 to extend new support for the 15 U.S.-based programs in the Harris Professional Development Network (PDN), a network of 18 early childhood and infant mental health leadership sites located in 10 states, the District of Columbia and three sites in Israel.