Overview
Vermont’s childcare system, like many across the country, faced long-standing challenges: high costs, limited availability, and a broken funding model that placed the burden on underpaid early educators and overextended families. Enter Let’s Grow Kids Action Network (LGKAN), a bold 501(c)(4) initiative that helped secure the passage of Vermont’s historic child care law, Act 76. Backed by catalytic support from Impact Fellows Action Fund, LGKAN mobilized communities, built bipartisan alliances, and made early childhood policy a top priority in the Vermont legislature.
Powering Change Through Political Advocacy
For years, Let’s Grow Kids operated as a 501(c)(3), focusing on public awareness and coalition-building. But to push transformative change through the legislature, the organization needed more than education—it needed muscle. That’s why Let’s Grow Kids launched its Action Network, a 501(c)(4) built to engage in direct lobbying, electoral engagement, and political organizing.
Impact Fellows Action Fund played a pivotal role in bringing this vision to life. By investing early and validating the need for political infrastructure, the Impact Fellows helped LGKAN take its movement “to the next level,” as CEO Aly Richards put it. This partnership provided:
- Flexible funding for issue advocacy and lobbying;
- Strategic support to develop endorsement and mobilization programs; and
- Validation for Vermont’s bold approach to systems change.
Resources from Impact Fellows Action Fund allowed LGKAN to fully activate the tools of a 501(c)(4) organization—connecting the dots between grassroots organizing and legislative victory.
Vermont’s Political Landscape: Fertile Ground for Action
Vermont is often seen as a progressive state—small in size, rich in community-driven politics, and prime for coalition-building. By positioning child care as both an economic necessity and a moral imperative, LGKAN found needed support on both sides of the political aisle.
LGKAN’s direct and grassroots lobbying (tied to traditional and social media), as well as electoral activism via candidate forums and election endorsements, made child care a top-tier issue for both lawmakers and voters.
From Candidate Endorsements to Legislative Champions
A cornerstone of LGKAN’s political strategy is its rigorous endorsement process. Far from a rubber stamp, the process is an organizing tool in its own right:
- Surveys and interviews gauge candidate understanding of the childcare crisis and their willingness to invest public funds in long-term solutions.
- Education and engagement with new and incumbent candidates ensure a deeper policy literacy before legislators are sworn in.
- Strategic endorsements elevate true child care champions—those willing to stand up for sustainable investment, not just lip service.
The impact of this approach was clear: In 2022, LGKAN endorsed 131 candidates across parties. 117 were elected. In 2024, they endorsed 156—and 118 won.
These elected officials arrived in Montpelier not only committed but prepared. As Richards put it: “They came into the State House saying, ‘We’re not leaving until we pass a child care bill.’”
Act 76: A Historic Investment in Vermont’s Future
In 2023, the Vermont legislature passed Act 76, allocating $125 million annually in new, sustainable funding for child care. It was not easy. Let’s Grow Kids Action Network’s urgent electoral and lobbying pressure produced votes from lawmakers in both parties to overturn the Republican governor’s initial veto of the bill. This landmark law has already delivered measurable results:
- 1,000 new child care spaces opened across the state.
- 100 new programs launched, including in some rural communities for the first time.
- 1,900 additional families received reduced-cost care.
- Increased wages and quality improvements for early childhood educators.
In a state as small as Vermont, these numbers are transformative. But the ripple effects go even further: businesses finding and retaining workers who are parents; families more confidently and prosperously participating in the economy; children entering kindergarten better prepared and ultimately more able to fulfil their potential and dreams.
Following enactment, Republican and Democratic candidates alike sought the organization’s electoral endorsement, cementing child care as a largely bipartisan cause, even gaining cooperative promise from the Republican governor for effective implementation. None of this would have been possible without the sustained political pressure, accountability, and strategic coordination of Let’s Grow Kids Action Network—powered by the belief that policy change requires political power.
501(c)(4) Action Can Deliver Results Everywhere
Let’s Grow Kids Action Network’s success is more than a Vermont story. The strategy of lobbying lawmakers during the legislative session and connecting that action to forcefully calling on candidates to prioritize our issues during campaign season can work in every state. With the right investment and support—like that provided by Impact Fellows Action Fund—state advocates can transition from education to action, build bipartisan alliances, and win game-changing policies for children and families.
As Richards noted, “You don’t pass policy without politics.” In Vermont, LGKAN proved that when advocates are empowered to act politically—with clarity, strategy, and community—historic change is truly achievable.
