ALL our children and youth deserve to be safe, loved, and given ample opportunities to reach for their dreams.  That means communities, like families, must ensure that sufficient resources are spent uplifting their children.  Yet right now, public budgets are way out of balance.  For our most disadvantaged young people particularly, our elected officials have chosen to spend much more money on punishment and repairing problems than on providing opportunity and preventing problems.  Too many children are denied the chance to develop to their potential.

The mission of Funding the Next Generation is to increase public funding that provides opportunities for all our children and youth.  With the belief that action starts at the local level, we help create city and county policies and revenue streams that will fund and sustain services such as childcare, preschool, after school and youth development programs, career preparation and summer jobs, health care, recreation, parent support and community schools.

We know that rhetoric and policies on paper are meaningless unless resources follow. Sadly, getting enough resources for children and youth is often a battle.  Funding the Next Generation helps win those battles – in city and county budgets, and at the ballot box.

The crisis that was created by Covid 19 has revealed the limitations in our services for children and hopefully taught us more about what is important in our lives.   As our country recovers, it is essential that we not only return to what we provided our children prior to the virus, but that we strengthen that safety net of support. As communities re-establish their priorities, we must use this as an opportunity to ensure that children and youth are front of mind.  We must not respond to the fears that could follow, but to our community’s highest aspirations for the next generation.

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This initiative was founded and is directed by Margaret Brodkin, who is nationally recognized for her pioneering work and tough advocacy in building a constituency for children and successfully fighting for hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding for children and youth services in San Francisco.

Funding the Next Generation works with coalitions of advocates, public officials, non-profit agencies, parents and youth throughout California – and has sparked action around the country.

If you want to be part of a movement that helps the children in your community look to the future with excitement and hope, join us!  As an expanding learning network of local coalitions, we look forward to sharing our resources, experience and expertise with you.

“Margaret Brodkin is the Johnny Appleseed of children’s funds.”
– Larry Tramutola, political consultant for dozens of winning campaigns for school funding, progressive policies and the strategist behind the historic soda tax victories in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland, California.