A Year of Listening and Learning with Children at the Center

Reflections by La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO, for
the 2023 Annual Snapshot

As the leaders of today, we have an obligation to do everything we can to ensure the children of today and tomorrow have the opportunity to reach their full potential, no matter where or to whom they were born.  Meeting that sacred obligation, in partnership with communities, has always been central to our mission at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Now in our 93^rd year, this work and child-centered approach to philanthropy remains as important as ever as we labor alongside families and communities to reform the systems, infrastructure and institutions that surround us so that children are served first, and not as afterthoughts.

The theme of our annual snapshot this year is “Listening and Learning Toward a Child-Centered Future,” reflecting our journey of this past fiscal year. We’ve intentionally focused on listening, both to communities themselves and the experts within them, and imagining the future of children and communities to develop a shared understanding of research-based forecasts and possible actions that could spark the kind of positive social and systemic transformations our children need and deserve.

We’ve intentionally focused on listening, both to communities themselves and the experts within them, and imagining the future of children and communities to develop a shared understanding of research-based forecasts and possible actions that could spark the kind of positive social and systemic transformations our children need and deserve.

We’ve learned from the turbulence served up in the world these past few years. Starting in 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, the foundation committed additional resources to support the needs of children, families and communities through an innovative social bond and provided greater flexibility to grantees in how their grants delivered what was needed most during these crisis years.

The longer-term impact of our $300 million social bond grants are still being evaluated, but we’re pleased to provide some stories of the impacts that kept children learning in early child care centers, made communities healthier by removing obstacles like language or transportation barriers to vaccinations and provided healing support to teachers dealing with the strains of teaching during a global pandemic and the trauma and community impact of racially motivated violence.

To have the greatest impact, it’s critical to do more than respond to the headlines of today, we need to confront the deep, structural issues children face.

To have the greatest impact, it’s critical to do more than respond to the headlines of today, we need to confront the deep, structural issues children face. This is not to say that the political turmoil and polarizing elections we will see in the months ahead will not be difficult for children and families – they will. But our job is to focus on long-term, community-led actions that will provide lasting, positive transformation.

In the past year, the Kellogg Foundation has done just that, through grants and programs that are geared toward meaningful, long-term change – while nevertheless addressing present-day needs. Among the many highlights of our initiatives:

• Supported the dreams of higher education and career training for more Battle Creek students with the Legacy Scholars and Bearcat Advantage scholarships.
• Four WKKF grantees were invited to collectively launch the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center through the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
• Showcased the importance of early child care and teachers of color during Essence Festival.
• Supported connections between a school system and local food producers of the Rio Grande Valley to procure locally-grown fruit for its students.
• Announced the Racial Equity 2030 awardees receiving $90 million to five global partners to drive a more equitable future for children around the globe.
• Launched the Global Fellows Network, a web of change agents, thought leaders and influencers, many of whom are working to transform systems, policies and practices that create conditions for all children to thrive.
• A program-related investment in Navajo Power provides patient capital for changing the inequities in access to energy and water that challenge children and families in Tribal communities.
• Leveraged public and private partnerships to expand the reach of Michigan’s Child Care Innovation Fund to support 10 additional communities to pilot an apprenticeship program to help solve their early care and education workforce challenges.
• Harnessed more funders through the Pockets of Hope campaign, to invest in Haitian innovation where locally-led organizations are driving systemic change and building a better future for the children of Haiti today and tomorrow.

This year, we’ve worked internally at the foundation to develop greater foresight skills and capacity.  This reframing has us more confident that our skills, thinking and actions will further cement our commitment to meeting the needs of the communities we serve for generations to come.

While we are one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the U.S, our work is, ultimately, quite personal.

A boy in Battle Creek, Michigan, participating in a new academic program tailored to his interests. A pre-school-age girl in Jackson, Mississippi, who is preparing for kindergarten through a new early learning program. An impoverished family in earthquake-ravaged Haiti with access – for the first time – to high-quality nutrition and child health care.

These and countless other stories showcase the impactful work our grantees are doing with targeted funding from the Kellogg Foundation. As our founder, Mr. Kellogg, said soon after forming the foundation at the height of the Great Depression, the purpose of WKKF is to help “children face the future with confidence, with health, and with a strong-rooted security in the trust of this country and its institutions.”

As you’ll see throughout this snapshot, Mr. Kellogg’s vision of a world where every child can thrive, safe in the knowledge that her community and the institutions she must rely upon are committed to her success and continue to drive our work today. While we still have far too much to do to realize Mr. Kellogg’s bold aspiration, I am incredibly proud of the work we have undertaken at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to realize it over the past year, and I am honored to continue striving toward it in the year ahead.

Explore other leadership letters in this year’s snapshot

Reflections by Dr. Cathann A. Kress, chair of the board of trustees

By the Numbers by Don Williamson, chief financial officer and treasurer