The building blocks of establishing a financially sustainable ECED centre

Early childhood education and development (ECED) centres play a critical role in emergency contexts- providing safe spaces for children, supporting psychosocial wellbeing, and enabling caregivers, particularly women, to pursue livelihoods and recovery. However, despite their vital importance, most ECED centres struggle with financial sustainability. 

In different contexts, this shows up in different ways. Some centres have strong demand but still struggle to cover their costs because fees are too low, enrolment is uneven, or cost structures are not well aligned to their model. Others face recurring cash flow gaps due to irregular fee collection or delayed funding. Many deliver high-quality programmes but remain overly dependent on a single, fragile source of income. 

To explore practical solutions and exchange examples of what is working, Global Schools Forum convened a three-month learning series with ECED practitioners from across East, West and Southern Africa. This built on the Financial Sustainability Toolkit we published last year that offers practical guidance, tools, and templates for ECED organisations working in low-resource and crisis contexts covering revenue generation, financial planning, forecasting, and management. 

Across these discussions, seven recurring building blocks stood out as especially important for building stronger, more resilient centres: 

1. Value 

If you can’t articulate the value, it is harder to build long term support.

Sustainability starts with clarity on what a centre offers, and to whom. ECED centres create value in multiple ways: for children (learning and safety), for caregivers (time and income), and for systems (workforce participation, social stability). But this value is rarely made explicit or differentiated. As a result, it does not inform how centres price their services, make the case to funders, or structure partnerships.  

What should you do?  

• Define value explicitly, not just what is delivered, but how it is delivered.  The quality of pedagogy, the trust built with families, the role a centre plays in holding a community together are as much part of the value proposition as the services themselves.  

2. Costs structure

If you don’t understand your true costs, it is difficult to plan or price effectively. 

 The gap isn’t always between income and expenditure. It’s also sometimes between what centres think they cost and what they actually cost. Most centres capture the visible costs like salaries, rent, materials. Hidden costs like volunteer time, in-kind support from partners, are rarely valued or accounted for.  These are real costs, and when they are withdrawn, organisations are left with a funding gap.  

The timing of the cash flow adds another layer of complexity. A centre can have children enrolled and fees committed and still face a cash shortfall if payments arrive after salaries are due. Mapping when money comes in, not just how much, is a basic requirement of sound financial planning.  

What should you do?   

• Make all costs visible, including volunteer time, donated space, and in-kind contributions, and value them, even if approximately. 

• Map cash flow by timing, tracking when money arrives relative to when expenses fall due. 

• Use cost per child as a standing metric, reviewed regularly to guide pricing, planning, and growth. 

3. Capacity and utilisation

If you don’t optimise how current resources are used, more revenue won’t help.

The instinct when income is insufficient is to look for new revenue. But in many cases, the more immediate opportunity is internal. Most centres have underused capacity and under-leveraged assets. For example, ECED centre space that sits idle for parts of the day which could be used to generate additional revenue; or relationships with local businesses, faith organisations, or NGOs that could be formalised into partnerships or in-kind support but haven’t been. 

Rather than addressing this first, many organisations move straight to fundraising or expansion. But without improving how existing resources are used, growth simply adds pressure. 

What should you do?   

• Audit what you already have before seeking new income  ie. space, staff time, equipment, and identify what could generate income or reduce cost if used differently. 

• Before opening new sites, improve utilisation at existing ones. Adjust hours and enrolment to bring costs per child down. If that number is not falling, expansion will replicate the problem rather than solve it. 

• Move from irregular, ad hoc payments to more predictable structures—term-based fees, instalments, or pre-commitments—to make existing revenue more stable and predictable.  

4. Income diversity

If revenue depends on a single source, the model remains fragile.

Most ECED centres rely on one primary source of income, usually donor funding or parent fees. When that source is disrupted, even temporarily, the consequences are immediate. Fee income alone is rarely sufficient in urban contexts where costs are high, or in crisis settings where household incomes are volatile. And as donor funding becomes more competitive, over-reliance on grants is its own vulnerability. 

The goal is the right mix- what families can reasonably contribute, what requires grant subsidy, and what can be supported through partnerships. No single disruption should be able to threaten the centre’s ability to operate. 

What should you do?   

• Structure your revenue mix by setting a target for how much of your costs should be covered by each source (fees, grants, partnerships, other income), and map what your current income looks like against each target. If one source accounts for the majority, close that gap deliberately. 

• Explore income opportunities that respond to unmet community demand and test them at a small scale before committing; to check they align with your mission and what your organisation can realistically deliver. 

5. Community and trust

If people don’t feel ownership, participation and contribution both weaken.

Trust is a financial asset. In many ECED centres, relationships with families are primarily administrative. Fees are set, communicated, and enforced, but not always discussed. When families do not understand what they are paying for, or feel excluded from decisions, payments become irregular, and enrolment and attendance are harder to sustain. Financial relationships with communities need to be built through transparency and inclusion. 

What should you do?   

• Co-design any new fee structures and cost-sharing arrangements with communities from the outset.  When introducing cost-sharing, do it gradually and with clear timelines. Work with families to find payment structures that are predictable for the organisation and manageable for households, whether that is term-based fees, instalments, or agreed schedules. When payment structures reflect what families can realistically contribute, compliance increases. 

• Maintain regular touchpoints with families through existing structures like parent committees, savings groups, or community meetings to discuss costs, attendance, and any changes before issues arise. Trust is not built once. It requires consistent, honest communication over time. 

6. Culture

If the mission of financial sustainability sits with one team, it becomes harder to achieve.

In most ECED organisations, financial management is treated as the finance team’s responsibility. Programme staff plan activities. Finance staff cost them. The two rarely meet until there is a problem. This separation is one of the most common, and most avoidable, sources of financial fragility. 

What should you do?   

• Build financial literacy across the organisation. Programme leads who understand cost trade-offs, site managers who can read and act on budgets, and leadership that connects financial decisions to the mission. 

• Hold consistent, organisation-wide financial reviews so decisions are shared, not siloed. 

7. Systems

If your data collection systems, financial review process, and technology don’t fit the context, they won’t support sound financial decisions.

In many ECED centres, systems exist, but they don’t work in practice. Technological tools are introduced to improve financial management, but they often assume connectivity, devices, or time that centres do not have. The result is incomplete data that no one trusts and reports that no one uses. 

But even where systems are used, a second problem emerges. Organisations collect more data than they act on. Comprehensive reporting creates an illusion of oversight without improving decisions.  

What should you do?   

• Choose technological systems based on what staff can realistically use, not what has the most features. Where technology fits the context, use it to automate routine tracking of attendance, fee payments, and expenditure so that staff time goes toward analysis and action rather than data entry.  

• Narrow data collection to a small number of decision-relevant indicators: fee collection rates, cost per child, and income against expenditure. Collect only what will be used to make a decision. 

This learning series was part of the Global Schools Forum’s ECED Evidence Hub, which supports community-based and refugee-led organisations working in crisis contexts to strengthen locally-led ECED delivery. The Financial Sustainability Toolkit, which underpinned this series, is available through the Hub. To explore how these approaches apply to your organisation, use the toolkit in your context, or learn more about GSF’s work in ECED and childcare, reach out to Priyanka (Priyanka.upreti@globalschoolsforum.org), and Joan (joan.orina@globalschoolsforum.org).