The results are in!

Our 2022-2023 Impact Report is here, and we couldn't be more proud of our endorsed lawmakers! Here's a recap of the 2022 elections cycle:

• We interviewed 106 candidates, endorsing 84.

• Our endorsed candidates won 87% of the time.

• There are 96 endorsed champions now in the legislature, including 23 lawmakers from the 2020 cycle.

• We contributed over $52,000 to campaigns, thanks to your support of the CCF PAC!

Our endorsed lawmakers sent a strong message in Olympia: we need to champion issues for children, youth, and families! On average, our endorsed champions voted "YES!" on our priority tracked bills 98% of the time.

You can read more about our impact in our full report below!

2022 - 2023 Impact Report (4)

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Announcing our new mission and vision!

The Children’s Campaign Fund Network, composed of the Children’s Campaign Fund Action and the Children’s Campaign Fund PAC, is excited to announce our new mission and vision for the future! Building on more than thirty years of advancing champions in the legislature for children, youth, and families, CCFN has a renewed sense of purpose for the next thirty years and beyond.

OUR NEW VISION

We envision a Washington where all lawmakers prioritize the health, well-being, safety, and learning and development of the children, youth, and families of Washington State, especially those who are under-resourced and marginalized.

OUR NEW MISSION – CCF

The Children's Campaign Fund builds non-partisan political power by helping to elect lawmakers who will enact transformational policy change for children, youth, and families.

OUR NEW MISSION – CCFA

Children’s Campaign Fund Action builds non-partisan political power through advocacy and education to enact transformational policy change for children, youth, and families.

OUR NEW STRUCTURE

As one of the longest standing nonpartisan PACs focused on children’s issues in the country now paired with an affiliated advocacy arm, the Children’s Campaign Fund Network is in an exciting and ambitious phase of growth and deeper impact on behalf of children, youth, and families statewide. To fulfill its mission, CCFN seeks to build political power through three core strategies: electioneering, education, and advocacy.

ELECTIONEERING: Our focus is to elect more pro-kids champions who will support our policy priorities. We will do this by making candidate contributions and running voter contact campaigns (doors, phones, paid media ads, etc.) to propel them into office. We will also recruit and train pro-kids candidates to run for open state legislative seats.

EDUCATION: We will educate candidates and their staff on the importance of children's issues early in the campaign trail. Doing this will ensure that they are strong pro-kids champions once they assume office. In time, we will also conduct voter education campaigns that build a statewide pro-kids electorate.

ADVOCACY: We will connect the political capital we amass from our electioneering work to strengthen our advocacy efforts in collaboration with other policy leaders and coalitions. We will establish a membership program to allow individual allies to invest and participate in our advocacy work.

Through these three pillars, we will continue to ensure issues affecting children, youth, and families will be top priorities in Olympia for lawmakers.

LEAP Bus Tour Highlights

We just returned from a week-long bus tour across the state of Washington to raise awareness about the importance of early learning, and we are still reflecting on the amazing conversations we had with lawmakers, advocates, and business owners. We want to thank our fantastic partners – the Association of Washington Business Institute – for their exceptional work on this issue.

We are working on a detailed report about this tour, but in the meantime, we wanted to share a few big takeaways.

• The lack of affordable, accessible child care is a state-wide issue that requires all hands on deck to fix. Though local communities have specific setbacks, (IE, the lack of transportation for child care in more rural areas, the need for child care early in the morning for farm workers’ families, and more) it is clear that families with children are struggling to find affordable, accessible care that works for them.

• Communities are finding solutions. Many people cited the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Y, and YWCA as successes in the community. Additionally, investments made through the Early Learning Facilities program (ELF), the Imagine Institute, and others improve facilities and teacher training.

• Child care worker pay and benefits are a major challenge. Across the state, many attendees cited that the low pay and lack of benefits are a big challenge for child care in the community. One provider said, “It’s not that there is a lack of people who want to work with children. It’s that there is a lack of people who can afford to.”

• Businesses want to find solutions. We were glad to have Paige Coleman with the Department of Commerce on the tour to discuss implementing family friendly workplace policies. Many employers offer FSAs, flexible scheduling, and hybrid work to accommodate family needs.

• High-quality early learning drastically improves outcomes for children. In the first five years of life, 92% of brain development occurs. Early learning sets children up for success in kindergarten and beyond.

• Providers, businesses, and advocates want to help. Many people told us that child care is essential for communities to function – without affordable child care, parents cannot work or go to school.

We are encouraged and inspired by the response to the bus tour! Stay tuned for our full report. To view our resources that we compiled for the bus tour, please click here.

LEAP (Legislator Education and Action Project) is a partnership between the Association of Washington Business Institute and Children's Campaign Fund Action. To learn more about LEAP, please visit washingtonleap.org.