Nicole Eovino Diebold is senior program officer at the C.E. and S. Foundation, a private family foundation based in Louisville, KY, that supports children and young people to become resilient adults who are prepared for opportunities to engage and thrive.  

We first met Diebold in 2023, when she participated in a public financing learning community through the Grantmakers for Education Out-of-School Time Impact Group, which included a discussion about how funders can help their states and communities answer the three big questions of strategic public financing:

  • What are the current public funding investments supporting our communitywide goals for children and youth?
  • How much funding is needed to fund our goals in full?
  • How can we fill the gap between current funding and the funding that we need?

Diebold noticed that different organizations across Kentucky were already working to answer these questions through fiscal mapping, cost modeling, and research on state and local revenue options—but no one was connecting the dots between these efforts. She saw an opportunity for the C.E. and S. Foundation to bring together key individuals from across the state to examine the fiscal data, coordinate efforts, and think through a strategy for pursuing dedicated funding that could support children statewide.

Allie Farrell, our senior manager for partnerships, spoke with Diebold to get her take on this work, and her advice for others in philanthropy who are interested in helping their communities advocate for and access sustainable public funding for children and youth. You can watch the full video interview and read an edited version of their conversation below.

Allie Farrell, Children’s Funding Project: I’d like to begin by asking you to share a bit about the C.E. and S. Foundation’s interest in public financing. Why was it important to the Foundation to invest in these conversations about public funding? And has this traditionally been a priority, or was this a new direction?

Nicole Eovino Diebold, C.E. and S. Foundation: One of the hallmarks of the C.E. and S. Foundation is to make national expertise available locally in order to catalyze and inform work within Louisville. 

Our first foray into gaining a better understanding of the strategic financing options available in Louisville was actually through a report that we commissioned with Children’s Funding Project back in 2018, which helped give us a better sense of the landscape and with the understanding that there are simply not enough private philanthropic dollars to meet the demands for underresourced children and families within our community. We really saw this as an opportunity to bring information and awareness pertaining to strategic public funding to key stakeholders.

We also recently launched a new learning and assessment framework called I2 L2: Impact, Influence, Learning, and Leverage. We intentionally look for opportunities in which grant partners can leverage other funding sources, public and private, so this work very much aligns with those efforts.

“There are simply not enough private philanthropic dollars to meet the demands for underresourced children and families within our community.”—Nicole Eovino Diebold, C.E. and S. Foundation

Allie Farrell:  Starting with that understanding that philanthropy can’t do it alone and to meet the need for all kids is going to take large-scale public investment is so important. That’s something that we see across the board in every community where we do fiscal maps, so I love that that’s built into your new framework. I think that understanding also opens up philanthropy to think of all the different roles that they can play in helping build their communities’ readiness to tap into public funds.

With that in mind, I’d like to hear more about how you stepped into this convener role with the foundation. Can you tell us about the strategic public financing convening your foundation organized? How did that come about? What were the goals?

Nicole Eovino Diebold: Once we realized that there were these disparate but related projects occurring across the community and state, we really wanted to try to bring it all together and give stakeholders an opportunity to have an integrated view and understanding of the work in order for them to see how any potential action could be taken moving forward.

We had nearly 70 people across multiple sectors and roles in attendance and had different organizations present each of the pieces of work, including

  • the local cost modeling analysis, which was completed through Louisville Metro Government in support of funding the mayor’s universal pre-K plan;
  • the fiscal map, looking at public funding streams available for children and youth ages 0 to 24, which was completed through the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Early Childhood;
  • the statewide cost modeling for early childhood and innovative financing research, completed through the Prichard Committee; and,
  • with the help of Children’s Funding Project, we took a look at case studies and best practices from other cities and states that might be relevant and replicable in Louisville, as well.

Allie Farrell: We can’t overstate the importance of the dot-connecting work, like equipping people with the information and the relationships they need to take action and move forward. How did the event affect the participants who attended?

Nicole Eovino Diebold: The convening was really well received. We were able to gather valuable and positive feedback as well as takeaways and action items from a follow-up survey we sent out. The work—particularly what other communities have done as well as a report updating the one we commissioned back in 2018—was helpful in informing the potential funding options for the mayor’s universal pre-K plan, which is rolling out here in our community. We also heard from the group an interest in better-advocated opioid settlement dollars, and local funders are interested in getting together to see how we might move things forward collectively. So we’re working on the next steps for that right now.

Allie Farrell: I love that an outcome has been that local funders are wanting to continue organizing and syncing up their work around these opportunities and that there’s energy and momentum. Can you talk a little bit about any lessons learned as you’ve started to engage in this policy and advocacy space? 

Nicole Eovino Diebold: I think there were a couple of lessons learned. First, don’t assume that work that’s related is always connected, especially in a meaningful or productive way. 

Second, we weren’t sure if it was our role as a private foundation to lead the community in creating an agenda. So we really saw [our strategic public financing] convening as an opportunity to share information and see what the community wanted to do with it. We’re still early in figuring out what that looks like exactly, but it was clear that there was a surprisingly large appetite for the information. So the lesson from that is it’s okay to host something open-ended, and we were clear about that from the start, which I think is really imperative.

Allie Farrell: We frequently get questions from foundations about the entry points to get into this strategic public financing work. So it’s really resonating what you’re saying: create the space, share the information, and be OK with not knowing where the community is going to decide to take that. What advice do you have for other funders who are thinking about getting involved in strategic public financing?

Nicole Eovino Diebold: This space can oftentimes seem intimidating, and my advice would be to just start somewhere, even if it’s small, because it’s too important not to. Funders have a real opportunity to play different roles other than just providing funding. So, my advice would be to lean into your ability to influence and your ability to convene.

Funders “lean into your ability to influence and your ability to convene.”—Nicole Eovino Diebold, C.E. and S. Foundation

Allie Farrell: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here with us today, Nicole. We have our eyes on Kentucky and Louisville and the exciting things happening there, and I know the C.E. and S Foundation is an important part of that work. And I know you’re connecting with other funders across the country who are trying to do this in their communities, and I think that’s also so important as this movement grows.

Nicole Eovino Diebold: Absolutely. And I welcome anyone else who’s interested in learning more, I’m happy to help and talk through things.

Learn more about the ways funders can help communities secure sustained public funding for children and youth in our fact sheet Leaders and Champions: The Role of Funders in Strategic Public Financing.