Collaboration reports healthy cash position; preliminary FY2026 budget shows status quo IGA funding

The Collaboration for Early Childhood presented quarterly financial statements and a preliminary fiscal year 2026 budget at its Feb. 26 meeting, telling members the organization is in a stable financial position and that the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) funding level with partners remains unchanged.

A staff fiscal designee said the collaboration has roughly seven months of cash on hand and that interest paid from October 2024 to January 2025 totaled $3,384.04. The presenter said a payment of $219,270 was processed (described as part of contract payment processing); the transcript includes additional bank-balance figures for partner accounts but those lines were garbled in the recording and were described in the meeting as account balances for each partner jurisdiction. The presenter offered to read the full financial statement into the record if the board wished.

The collaboration said the IGA contract requires presentation of a preliminary budget at this time of year but does not require approval; the FY2026 budget presented to the meeting showed a status-quo funding level under the IGA (unchanged since 2017). The presenter noted the collaboration also receives private grants, fundraising and sponsorship revenue outside of the IGA and that one-time revenue (a community event named “Lemonade”) contributed about $30,000 in the current year and is not budgeted for FY2026.

The collaboration listed two large vendor contracts it expects to continue: one for home-visiting services and one for data services (staff said the data-services team moved from Chapin Hall to NORC and the collaboration’s contract followed that team). Presenters said they try to budget for staff cost-of-living adjustments when possible.

Members had no substantive objections. Staff said the collaboration’s board revised the current fiscal-year budget earlier in the month and will present a final FY2026 budget to that board at its annual meeting in May; IGA partners will be invited to that meeting. The presenter also noted that the administrative unit will invoice participating jurisdictions by May 20 for July 1 contributions under the schedule in the IGA.

No formal financial actions (appropriations or transfers) were taken at the meeting; the item was an informational presentation and planning step for the FY2026 budget cycle.