Duolingo Invests in Child Care Staffing for Allegheny County

The Need

As a business and community leader within Allegheny County, Duolingo embarked on a philanthropic search for the best way to be a steward of the community they worked in, particularly when it came to the historically disenfranchised neighborhood of East Liberty. Upon a listening tour with the community and local organizations, Duolingo learned that one of the greatest needs for East Liberty was child care access. Duolingo took these concerns to heart and completely revised their grants and processes to accommodate the different needs of child care centers.

Why Now?

Post COVID-19 pandemic, the stress on the child care industry has only been exacerbated by the struggle to retain workers in the field. A recent study¹ from the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children reveals the ongoing impact of the child care crisis across the state, citing that less than 50% of child care in Pennsylvania meets high -quality standards. In 2022, Duolingo embarked on a “listening tour” of the East Liberty community and realized that they were uniquely positioned to ease the burdens of child care in their neighborhood.

The Innovation:

Prior to the listening tour, Duolingo believed that the best way for them to assist would be to buy reserved seats at child care centers, ensuring a fixed amount of revenue each year. However, after several community meetings, Duolingo realized the real issue the centers were struggling to solve was hiring and training enough staff to meet the child care demand in East Liberty. While child care providers do face real challenges with keeping their seats, they also struggle with keeping up with the high wages and benefits needed to attract full-time staff. After their listening tour, Duolingo structured their grants to continue to allow seat reservations and expanded funding to also include staff salaries, business training, and financial coaching.

How It's Done

The $1 million dollar hyperlocal investment kicked off in October 2023 by providing grants to help local child care programs increase their program capacity, staffing, and support for families. In addition to the grants, selected providers also received business coaching assistance from community-based partner(s) to help stabilize their businesses. In Fall 2024, the program expanded to include scholarships to eligible families enrolled in participating child care programs. The Early Learners First program also works year over year with its investment, ensuring that the child care industry in East Liberty will continue to grow sustainably, rather than having to find alternative funding sources after the initial grant period. After evaluating eligibility, 8 programs met Duolingo’s criteria for initial grants and were invited to apply for support.Those selected for the program will then receive up to $80,000 to assist them in meeting the true cost of care. These costs include expenses like staff benefits and facility improvements, which allow them to welcome more children to their programs.

How it's Funded:

While Duolingo is responsible for providing all funding, the Early Excellence Project served as a fiscal sponsor and partner throughout the implementation process, and Trying Together was a key stakeholder in facilitating community communication.

The Impact:

Duolingo released its first round of grantees, with 8 centers receiving funding:

• Child’s Way
• Davis Family Childcare
• Eastminster Child Care
• Homewood-Brushton YWCA
• Hope Academy Powered by Hosanna House
• McCoy’s Learning Center, LLC
• Mt. Ararat Early Childhood Development Center
• Shady Lane School.

The first round of funding allowed these centers to train, hire, and retain new staff while continuing to improve their quality of care and management of the center itself. This resulted in an average increase of 20% in child care slots amongst the grantees. Duolingo credits the iterative process of their grantmaking, specifically the ability to change the scope of the grants after community input, with their ability to assist centers in a wider range of child care costs and burdens.

Get Involved