Child Care Lending Initiative

Criteria for Child Care Loans

The Need
Child care services are an essential and valuable community resource. New Hampshire has a profound shortage of child care services to support working families. There are an estimated 143,507 children in need of care, and only about 45,611 licensed spaces available—less than 1/3 of the current need. The child care industry also experiences 30-50% turnover among workers who are typically paid poorly, receive few benefits, and too often leave the field for financial reasons. Child care programs must balance competing economic forces, and the resulting barriers can make it difficult for child care programs to expand to meet the dramatic need. One significant barrier is the lack of access to traditional capital sources for facility expansion needs. The Loan Fund has stepped in to meet the capital gap for early care and education programs where financing is appropriate.

Frequently Asked Questions

A Solution
The Loan Fund has loaned more than $3.5 million to nonprofit child care centers and home-based family child care providers in the last seven years. This support has created or preserved over 2,400 child care spaces.

The purpose of the Child Care Lending Initiative is to retain existing child care spaces and develop new ones in New Hampshire communities. This is done by lending funds and providing training and technical support to nonprofit child care centers and family-based child care providers.

Through a partnership with Providian Financial , the Loan Fund provides child care centers with technical assistance and loans for purchase, renovations, leasehold improvements, and other safety and/or licensing improvements.

Contact Information
If you have any questions, contact Julie McConnell, Director, Child Care Program, at 603-224-6669, ext. 215 or jmcconnell@nhclf.org.