“I had come to understand you can make a gift to things that are meaningful to you — whether that be your church, the cancer society or education — and you won’t miss that money because you’re going to be gone,” Carolyn explains. “It’s easier to do it in your will than while you’re still living and need the money. It’s a way to make a statement that says, ‘This was important to me.’”

Carolyn started her career in education at the age of 20. As a Head Start teacher, she developed a passion for early education and its impact on children. She later spent time doing community-based work and fundraising before getting a call in 1998 to lead Early Learning Indiana, at the time called Day Nursery Association. Carolyn was at the helm of Day Nursery for 15 years, before passing on the torch in 2013.

After a few years away, Carolyn became involved with Day Nursery Auxiliary. Day Nursery Auxiliary is a group of more than 150 members who support Early Learning Indiana’s programs by raising money, providing volunteer services and serving as community ambassadors for high-quality early learning. In recent years, the primary Auxiliary fundraiser has been the annual Style Show in late fall, an elegant luncheon, silent auction, pop-up shop and fashion show.

“The Auxiliary is a group of some of the dearest ladies there are,” Carolyn says. “They asked me if I would chair the annual Style Show event, and I agreed. I wanted to work hard to raise more money to make all our work worthwhile. We grew it from $30,000 to now $50,000 in income. I’m very proud of that.”

Now Carolyn is passionate about encouraging her fellow early childhood education supporters to join the Early Learning Indiana Next Century Society through a legacy gift.

“I could have given to the United Way or other large organizations I’ve been affiliated with, but Early Learning Indiana is local. Not having a million dollars to give away, I know that a gift of my size is a meaningful gift to an organization ELI’s size — it’s small enough that my gift will have an impact, and not so small that it cannot stand on its own two feet. It has capacity.”

Carolyn explained that giving through a legacy gift is often beneficial to the donor’s family as well, especially if giving from an individual retirement account (IRA) or other investments.

“I’m not a wealthy person, so I depend on my IRA and investments to provide income for me in my retirement, but when I’m done with them, I’ll be done with them. If I leave all of what’s left to my heirs, they will have to pay taxes on it. But if the benefactor is a nonprofit organization, then that money is tax exempt. I would rather give some to the causes I care about than have my family pay taxes on it.”

Carolyn understands many of her peers may be reluctant to sign the paperwork that commits them to a legacy gift, often unsure of what they will have left to give and knowing they won’t see the results. But she believes it’s all part of making a lasting impact.

“There will always be small children, and the early years are so important for learning. Even if early childhood education finally becomes publicly funded, which it really needs to do, there will always be a role for advocating for the importance of the early years in young children. That’s advocating for our future.

I like to think of it as investing, paying it forward. I believe in children, I believe in families, and I don’t think we should take them for granted.”

If you are interested in learning more about Early Learning Indiana’s Next Century Society and making a legacy gift, contact Early Learning Indiana Director of Development Kirsten Yeager at kirsteny@earlylearningindiana.org.

Indy Book Project is a 100% volunteer-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring all central Indiana children have access to books. Founded in 2018 in Zionsville, the organization provides new and gently used books to schools, community centers, pediatrician offices, Little Free Libraries and other nonprofits. The goal is to get books into the homes of children from birth through 12th grade. Indy Book Project recently announced a major giving milestone, giving away 100,000 books to children. Learn more by visiting indybookproject.org.

Many years ago, Jeff selected Early Learning Indiana as the recipient of The Hagerman Group’s workplace giving campaign where employees are able to opt-in to donate a portion of each paycheck to Early Learning Indiana. In 2022, The Hagerman Group was the title sponsor of Early Learning Indiana’s annual Day of Impact. Day of Impact helps raise awareness of the critical importance of quality early care and learning and ensures children in Early Learning Indiana’s Day Early Learning centers have the resources and experiences they need to thrive. During the 2022 Day of Impact, The Hagerman Group employees and other volunteers built furniture, enhanced playgrounds, equipped new classrooms, landscaped outdoor spaces and more.

“Investing in our children has always been incredibly important to me, both personally and corporately,” Jeff says. “We support Early Learning Indiana because their mission is to ensure children throughout Indiana are empowered with essential skills to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. Creating a solid foundation in children ages 0-5 is critical for their growth and future success, and ELI works tirelessly to provide that foundation for all children. Hagerman is proud to support such a great organization, and we are thankful to all of our employees who selflessly give their time, talent and treasure to do the same!”

“There’s a former employee of ELI who worked on ELI’s Salesforce implementation, and he and I attend church together,” Nathan explains. “I offered my professional assistance on whatever he was working on with Salesforce at the time. Some pro bono work just to strategize around ELI’s Salesforce implementation.”

Then in October 2022, the global Salesforce Solution Engineering Team works with higher education and nonprofit organizations had its annual virtual summit. The week is always full of activities, Nathan explains, and one of those was a cycling, running and walking challenge. The team member who logged the most miles in each category would have the opportunity to allocate $300 to a nonprofit of their choice, which would then also be matched through Salesforce’s corporate giving policy.

“I enjoy walking, I walk a lot anyway, and it felt like a reasonable thing to achieve during the week,” Nathan says. “So, I set my mind to it, and I did it.”

Each day that week, Nathan got up early and walked before and after work. He even participated in several meetings while walking.

“I was in close competition with a colleague in the UK. We were neck and neck all week, so the last day, I had to walk extra to make sure I pulled ahead.”

When the final totals were tallied, Nathan had logged 82.36 miles, a little less than 10% of the 843.78 miles walked by the whole team. As the winner, he was able to select a nonprofit to receive Salesforce’s $600 donation.

“It’s a nice complete life cycle story,” he says. “ELI is a Salesforce customer. Something we really care about at Salesforce is equity and access to education. ELI is working diligently to increase access to early learning in Indiana. I recognize the disparity in educational access in Marion County, even just with where I live in Hamilton County. Our values align really well, so it hits close to home. I’m happy to collaborate with them on their work and what they’re trying to accomplish.”

Early Learning Indiana is grateful to Nathan for his donation. If you would like to learn more about making a corporate or personal donation, contact Kirsten Yeager at kirsteny@earlylearningindiana.org.

1. A Path for Career Growth – We reorganized our classroom-based teams and added career pathways through a new “Excel at DEL” program to help more educators advance their careers in the early learning sector.

2. Come Back Stronger Fund – With support from Lilly Endowment Inc., we launched Round 2 of the Come Back Stronger Fund, distributing an additional $10M to early care and education programs across the state to support their increased costs due to the pandemic and help sustain their operations.

3. Build, Learn, Grow Scholarships – On behalf of the state of Indiana, we carried out the Build, Learn, Grow Scholarship Program, awarding $30,978,517 in scholarships to help Indiana families that work in essential businesses with the cost of early care and education for their children.

4. Closing the Gap Report – We published “Closing the Gap: An Assessment of Indiana’s Early Learning Opportunities” to articulate the true state of child care access across Indiana and empower communities to explore solutions to their child care gaps.

5. Closing the Gap Grants – In conjunction with the release of the Closing the Gap report, we opened the Closing the Gap Fund and issued 17 Closing the Gap grants with the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. to create more than 900 early learning seats in high-need communities in Indiana.

6. Day of Impact – At our 3rd annual Day of Impact — sponsored byQBM, Resultant and many others — over 100 volunteers completed projects across all eight Indy Day Early Learning centers, including refreshing two staff break rooms, landscaping a butterfly garden, building a music wall, painting sensory paths onto playground areas and restocking lending libraries.

7. Modernizing the Industry – We drafted an Early Childhood Education Modernization brief, articulating a vision, framework and recommendations for the future of the early learning industry, which is sparking public policy discussions with invested stakeholders all across Indiana.

8. Reimagining Early Learning – We hosted providers and community partners at an event to “Reimagine” our state’s early childhood education system following the influx of federal stimulus funding.

9. Early Head Start Grant Recipient – We won a major grant for the expansion of our Early Head Start programming, enabling us to serve an additional 75 children.

10. Two New Day Early Learning Centers – We transitioned operations of the Purdue University Early Care and Education Center and Patty Jischke Early Care and Education Center, welcoming 30+ new team members and 162 children to the Day Early Learning family.

11. Indianapolis’ South Side Expansion – In partnership with Christel House Academy, we raised $1 million in grant funds to support the opening of the new Day Early Learning at Manual on the city’s south side and received a $1 million matching grant from United Way of Central Indiana.

12. Early Learning Educator Solutions – Through the support of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, we launched the Classroom Support Work-Based Learning Program in our Day Early Learning centers, training 19 team members with credentials to advance their careers and improve their classroom practice.

13. Arago Honor Recipient – We received the Meridian Foundation’s inagural Arago honor in recognition of innovation through our Classroom Support Work-Based Learning Program. The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

14. Assessing Learning Success – Through the use of TS Gold assessments, we supported children in meeting or exceeding widely held expectations in literacy, mathematics and social emotional development. This initiative helps quantify the success of our mission: to ensure children throughout Indiana are empowered with essential skills to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.

15. Kindergarten Readiness Leadership – We trained 381 educators to serve as Kindergarten Readiness Indicator (KRI) assessors for the state of Indiana, empowering them to administer the new KRI assessment to their pre-K students. With the support of the Richard M. Fairbanks foundation, we also launched Getting on Track, an initiative to help children in our Day Early Learning centers build early math and literacy skills in preparation for the kindergarten readiness assessment.

16. Accredited by National Association for the Education of Young Children – Three of our Day Early Learning Centers renewed their NAEYC accreditation. We also achieved NAEYC accreditation for Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church, officially making all Day Early Learning centers nationally accredited. 

17. Strong Finances – Despite the impact of the pandemic on reduced enrollment and increased expenses, we were able to sustain our operations while keeping our workforce intact. We are well-positioned to continue our innovative, mission-related activities in 2022.

18. Enrichment Programs – Our Spirit of Philanthropy teams supported quarterly activities for each center, including providing family and child enrichments through the Summer Gardening Program and Week of the Young Child activities, as well as Fall-in-a-Bag and Holiday week gifts for teachers.

19. Stronger Together Grants — With generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., we selected seven organizations to receive $100,000 grants to launch regional shared service hubs around the state. These hubs will allow local child care providers to streamline their operational services, saving money and allowing them to focus their time and energy on providing high-quality child care.

20. Tanner Teacher of the Year – Day Early Learning at Fort Harrison pre-K teacher Angie Laureano was named our 2021 Tanner Teacher of the Year in recognition of her consistent dedication to her center and students over the last year, especially, and her commitment to intentional learning through play.

21. State of Early Learning — Early Learning Indiana President and CEO Maureen Weber hosted her inaugural State of Early Learning in January 2021, outlining the impact of the pandemic on early childhood education and steps to improve early learning access, affordability and quality for Hoosier families and children. Mark your calendar for the 2022 State of Early Learning on Jan. 27 at 11:30 a.m. EST. Register here.  

An active donor since 1999, Julia Hogan has been involved with Early Learning Indiana in a multitude of ways. Having sent her two sons, Brendan, now 26, and Jimmy, now 23, to Day Early Learning centers in the 90’s, she was able to experience first-hand the excellent care these centers provide.

“My mother-in-law, MaryAnn Hogan, belonged to the Day Nursery Auxiliary, and she was the gateway to why my husband and I decided to send our sons to the center downtown,” says Julia. “I loved that they had the highest accreditation you could have for a child care.”

I addition to her connection through her mother-in-law, Julia’s husband, James, served on the Early Learning Indiana Board of Directors. Julia worked as the Executive Director for Indiana Perinatal Network (IPN), whose mission provided education for those who give care to pregnant women and babies. The connection between IPN and Early Learning Indiana seemed natural to Julia.

Ultimately, their positive experiences with Early Learning Indiana and Julia’s passion for new moms and babies prompted Julia and James to become major donors to the Day Early Learning Center for Infants & Toddlers in 2013.

“Early Learning Indiana told us about the new center they wanted to open. Because of the work I did in my own job, I understood how hard the lay of the land is for new moms,” said Julia. “I said to my husband that I think we need to do something big that we have never done before.”

Through their generosity, and that of other donors, the Day Early Learning Center for Infants and Toddlers became a reality five years ago and has served many young children. The Hogans continue to be active donors and advocates for Early Learning Indiana, ensuring the highest-quality early care and education for Hoosier children.

Please join the Hogan’s in making a donation to Early Learning Indiana.

We sat down to talk to Marilyn about her many experiences and thoughts on Early Learning Indiana. Here is what she had to say:

What was your first memory of Early Learning Indiana?
My first memories are volunteering in the classroom at the Day Early Learning center downtown. As part of the Day Nursery Auxiliary membership, we were required to volunteer in the classrooms. I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with the children as they played outside. It was astounding to see the teachers in action. They were so creative and patient. As a teacher myself, I know that it takes a true passion to teach.

What surprised you the most about Early Learning Indiana?
I have always been impressed by the level of training and education our teachers are receiving. Our program is truly unique and exceptional.

Why do you support Early Learning Indiana?
The mission is so important to me and our community. We need to give all children the best start in life, and this can be done with high-quality early care and education. I also greatly appreciate the friendships I have made through the Auxiliary. This group of women is extraordinary.

What might someone be surprised to know about you?
I have a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and received my master’s degree from Butler University. For 11 years, I taught third grade at IPS school 90. Also, I am proud to say that I was a nationally awarded swimmer on the Riviera swim team from 1943-49.

Squeals, giggles and claps filled the air as our littlest learners discovered their new playground at our IU Health Day Early Learning center.

The new playground was made possible by our friends at FULLBEAUTY Brands and The Hagerman Group who helped remove the old playground and invested in new equipment.

“The Hagerman Group was honored to be a part of the IU Health Day Early Learning center playground upgrade in support of Early Learning Indiana,” said Early Learning Indiana board member Jeff Hagerman, chairman of The Hagerman Group. “We had the opportunity to join forces with FULLBEAUTY Brands on this exciting project, and they, like Hagerman, have been a long-time supporter of early childhood development and community engagement. I feel it is imperative for companies like ours to engage in the development of and commitment to children, and this opportunity was a small token of how we could help make a difference!”

“This means a lot to our teams to be able to see or be part of positive change in the community and specifically in early childhood development. This has been a consistent strategy for FULLBEAUTY Brands in the community for over a decade,” said Chip Edgington, Vice President Operations for FULLBEAUTY Brands.

In May, the President & CEO of Early Learning Indiana, Maureen Weber, had the opportunity to sit down with Loyalty Society members for an informal coffee. Maureen celebrated the deep commitment of the Loyalty Society.

Loyalty Society donors have supported Early Learning Indiana for 20 consecutive years or more. Members who attended are pictured above.

They are (standing left to right): Maureen Weber, Marilyn Goeke, Pat Hubley, Judy Pearce, Marjorie Skarbeck, Dotty Reehling, B.J. Maley, and Louise Collet; and (seated left to right) Marilyn Pecsok, Robert Anderson, Sally Anderson and Rosemary Tanner

Loyalty Society members have helped change the landscape of early learning in Indiana, impacting a multitude of children and families.

Thank you to our cherished members!