A Model Built for This Moment

Across the country, children and families are navigating a growing web of barriers that are widening disparities. Housing instability, food insecurity, gaps in child care, uneven access to health care, and widening educational disparities continue to shape daily life for millions of families.

In 2024, 35.9 million people in the United States lived in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Children remain especially vulnerable, with millions growing up in households where limited income affects access to housing, food, child care, health care, and educational opportunity.

• Food insecurity continues to affect millions of families with children. In 2024, 6.7 million households with children experienced food insecurity, representing roughly one in six households with children. That means millions of parents and caregivers are forced to make difficult choices about how to stretch limited resources while still meeting their children’s basic needs.
• Housing costs are placing additional pressure on family stability. Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported that half of all renter households were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they spent at least 30 percent of their income on housing. For families already managing tight budgets, high housing costs can limit what is left for food, health care, transportation, savings, and other essentials.

• Child care remains a critical link between early childhood development and family economic mobility. High-quality, affordable child care gives young children the early learning foundation they need to succeed in school and life, while also making it possible for parents and caregivers to work, pursue education, and support their families. Yet in many communities, that care remains expensive, difficult to find, and out of reach for too many families. A 2025 national analysis found that 14.8 million children under age five may need child care, while only 10.8 million formal child care spots exist, leaving a gap of about 4 million spots. In practical terms, that means millions of young children may be missing access to consistent early learning and care, while millions of parents are left without the support they need to fully participate in the workforce.
• Students are still working to recover academically. Education data show that 2024 reading and math scores remained below pre-pandemic levels in key grades. These declines represent more than test score changes; they point to unfinished learning that can affect students’ confidence, readiness for future coursework, and long-term opportunities if they do not receive the support needed to regain ground.

The experience of poverty looks different from one community to another, shaped by local history, resources, systems, and opportunities. In every city, local nonprofits are already doing powerful work to support children and families, but gaps remain where needs are growing or families are not yet connected to the right support.

Why GreenLight Fund’s Model Is Built for This Moment

GreenLight Fund engages with communities to remove barriers to opportunity by bringing proven nonprofit programs to the places where they can make the greatest difference. GreenLight’s model is rooted in a clear belief: communities know the challenges they face and what is needed to address them and effective solutions exist but nonprofits face significant challenges scaling to new locations and don’t always know where they’re needed.

Since our founding, GreenLight local teams have worked alongside communities to identify urgent local needs and bring proven nonprofit programs to places where they can expand opportunity for children and families. The resulting impact is driven by a model that combines local insight, national reach, and long-term partnership.

1. GreenLight Starts With Community-Identified Needs

The gaps in services resulting in challenges that children and families face vary from city to city. Local teams begin by listening to residents, community leaders, and people closest to the issues to understand where a proven solution can add the greatest value.

This process helps ensure each investment responds to priorities communities identify for themselves. It also allows GreenLight to build on existing assets, integrate with the local nonprofit network, and focus on gaps that community partners are already naming.

2. GreenLight Brings Proven Programs to New Communities

Strong local organizations are already supporting children and families as they navigate complex challenges. GreenLight helps fill remaining gaps by identifying nonprofit programs with demonstrated results and bringing them to cities where their approach aligns with a community-prioritized need.

Rather than starting from scratch, local teams look for what is already working elsewhere and help adapt those models to fit the culture, systems, and needs of each community. This helps cities access effective programs faster while still honoring local context.

3. GreenLight Stays Engaged for Long-Term Impact

Launching a program in a new city is only the beginning. For a solution to take root, it needs relationships, trust, funding, operational support, and connection to the broader local context.

GreenLight teams stay engaged after launch, helping portfolio organizations build partnerships, navigate local systems, and grow over time. This long-term support helps proven programs become trusted parts of a community’s opportunity infrastructure.

Local Solutions, National Impact

Across GreenLight communities, the national challenges reflected in the data above are showing up as local priorities. They show up in families trying to access reliable meals, renters working to avoid eviction, students needing stronger reading support, and parents looking for pathways to greater stability.

Across GreenLight sites, communities are identifying those gaps and helping bring proven solutions to meet them. For example:

• Food Connect is addressing food insecurity through food rescue, delivery, and local partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kansas City, Greater Newark, and the Twin Cities.
• HomeStart’s Renew Collaborative is supporting housing stability through eviction prevention and stabilization services in Cincinnati and Denver.
• ParentChild+ is helping families build strong early learning foundations in Baltimore, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area through an early literacy, parent engagement, and school readiness model.

Together, these are just three examples of how GreenLight’s model connects national challenges to local action. By listening to communities and partnering with proven organizations, GreenLight helps expand access to programs that strengthen opportunity for children and families.