Closing the Public Funding Gap to Strengthen K-12 Education and Workforce Pathways
Across the country, local leaders are looking for ways to help students, workers, and families get ahead. National reading and math scores remain below pre-pandemic levels, and young people are facing one of the toughest labor markets for new graduates in years. In regions with fast-growing industries, connecting students to those jobs is one of the clearest routes to economic prosperity. But schools and workforce programs often operate in silos, each addressing part of the problem, neither able to solve it on its own.
The next era of education reform must connect with them. The funding to make that connection exists, but the landscape is fragmented and constantly shifting. What communities share, from state to state, are the same barriers: they can't identify which federal opportunities fit their goals, lack the broad partnerships competitive applications require, and don't have the technical expertise to build a winning case.
Workforce demands are changing fast, and many communities can't keep pace. Local leaders have no shortage of ideas, but the complex funding landscape keeps them from turning those ideas into programs that can make a real difference.
Starting in 2023, philanthropic partners and DA launched CFA to help communities win public funding and use it well. The model goes beyond grant writing: it equips local partners to turn federal dollars into programs that work, and that keep working after CFA's support ends. DA's team works across three tracks: grant-centered, implementation-focused, and place-based.
Grant-centered support starts with visibility. CFA identifies high-impact funding opportunities and connects them with communities well positioned to compete, helping partners focus their time on the grants most aligned with their goals. CFA works closely with each applicant team to develop the narrative, budget, and performance metrics needed to make a strong case. An online funding tracker, free webinars, and a Grant Readiness Toolkit help organizations build the capacity to pursue funding on their own.
When a community wins funding, CFA can stay through implementation, drawing on a network of nonprofits, government agencies, and community organizations to help local partners deliver on what the application promised. The goal is effective programs and communities with the capacity to sustain them.
Place-based partnerships go further. Rather than supporting a community through a single grant cycle, CFA commits to a longer-term engagement, building education to employment strategies, strengthening coalition partnerships, and developing fundraising plans. Jacksonville, Florida, and Yakima Valley, Washington were the first two communities in this model. In Jacksonville, CFA worked with a coalition of workforce leaders led by Kids Hope Alliance to connect more residents to the jobs local employers need to fill, expanding retraining opportunities and bringing more employers into the work.
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri, a persistent nursing shortage was leaving residents without access to timely healthcare, and students without a clear path into healthcare careers. Heartland Forward, a think and do tank focused on economic transformation across the Heartland, saw an opportunity to build a dedicated pipeline from the classroom to the hospital floor.
CFA worked alongside Heartland Forward to turn that vision into a funded one. The team identified a federal opportunity through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), then helped Heartland Forward build the coalition needed to compete for it. The coalition included education partners, hospital systems, and community organizations, each with a defined role in preparing students for nursing careers. Together, they turned a clear local need into a competitive application, with CFA supporting the narrative, budget, and performance metrics needed to win.
The result was a $1.5 million DOL grant. The grant moved the coalition from planning to implementation, launching programs that connect high school and college students in Butler County directly to training and apprenticeship opportunities in high-demand healthcare careers. As former Heartland Forward Program Director Maria Rodriguez-Alcala described it, the nursing shortage had long been "a major concern for healthcare" among legislators, community leaders, and patients alike, and the funding created an opportunity to act on it.
Since launching, the program has enrolled 107 individuals from rural and marginalized communities, 16 of whom have started apprenticeships. More than 1,000 high school students have attended the program's annual healthcare career fair, many getting their first real look at what a career in healthcare could mean for them.
Since 2023, CFA has helped more than 80 communities win more than $467 million in public funding, plus another $160 million in leveraged funds, maintaining a 41% win rate — a strong rate in a highly competitive funding environment. Those investments are already producing results: more people in job training, new jobs created, and stronger local organizations equipped to sustain the work. Not every community is at the same stage; some are seeing results now, others are building toward them. Across the portfolio, CFA-supported programs are projected to reach nearly 500,000 K-12 students and create more than 16,000 jobs over the next ten years. What makes that possible is not just the funding, but the relationships and local capacity that keep delivering long after CFA's work is done.
Public funding is expanding training and creating jobs
In Birmingham, Alabama, a $20.2 million federal Recompete grant is designed to engage 5,000 residents, enroll 3,500 in job training, and create 1,500 new jobs across construction, healthcare, and other high-growth sectors.
In North Carolina and South Carolina, CFA supported the Carolinas Engine for Grid Modernization in securing an initial $15 million award, with the potential to grow to $160 million. The initiative aims to make the Carolinas a national hub for clean energy innovation and is projected to create up to 49,000 jobs through 2030.
Rural and underserved communities are connecting more residents to high-demand careers
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri, the $1.5 million DOL grant has enrolled 107 individuals, with 16 starting apprenticeships, connecting residents directly to healthcare training and good jobs.
In Washington's Yakima Valley, CFA and Yakima Valley Partners for Education applied for nearly $20 million in 2025-2026, building a network of more than 30 partner organizations to connect residents, from youth to adult workers, to better education and employment.
State-level investment is strengthening the literacy foundation for future career success
In Lincoln, Nebraska, CFA partnered with the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) to secure a $55 million grant for Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD), supporting statewide adoption of high-quality instructional materials and structured literacy practices. In its first year alone, the program reached nearly 225,000 students, giving more children across Nebraska access to the kind of reading instruction the evidence says works.
Learn more about the Community Funding Accelerator at https://communityfundingaccelerator.org/
Let’s work together to make change happen.
