Supporting Our Work
LENA makes an impact in every area of early childhood education — revolutionizing early childhood classrooms, informing global academic research, and connecting parents to vital resources for their child’s language development.
But as a growing national 501(c)(3) organization serving an overlooked part of our population — our youngest children — we have a long way to go.
And we need your support to get there.
Your Investments help …
Innovations
The LENA System™ is the industry standard for measuring and improving the key marker of quality in early education: adult-child interactions.
Scaling
Offsetting program implementation locally, regionally, and nationally helps more children thrive and inspires hope for teachers, researchers and families.
Impact
Supporting enhanced program materials and training means improved access and broader reach for LENA programs — especially in areas of greatest need.
Our Theory of Change
We’ve adapted a framework from Bellwether Education Partners to use our unprecedented data insights to build broader awareness and inform systemic changes in early childhood. Together with our 500+ partners worldwide, our ecosystem includes our programs, our educational reach, and our influence on systems.
Programmatic Impact
Transforming children’s futures through LENA Grow and LENA SP.
1,000+
LENA Grow centers
2x
Children participating in LENA Grow are twice as likely to be ready for kindergarten.
28,000,000
Conversational Turns
90%
of teachers reported increased confidence.
2x
teacher retention for LENA Grow teachers
Educational Impact
Equipping educators and caregivers with powerful ideas and practical strategies.
10,000+
Educational Resource Downloads
4,000+
Webinar Attendees Per Year
10,000+
Newsletter Subscribers
Systemic Impact
Producing insights and building bridges across early education.
250+
Published Research Papers
30+
quality improvement systems have emphasized teacher-child interactions since LENA began reporting our research
18-24 months
is now established as a critical period for language development. It’s known as the period when children get the least interaction – thanks to LENA research
Powered by Philanthropy
As a nonprofit social enterprise, LENA is committed to being good financial stewards while equipping ourselves to innovate and further our mission. We take dual pathways to funding:
- Generating revenue through the sale of our products and services, like LENA Grow.
- Securing generous funding from philanthropic organizations that share our vision for improving child outcomes.
Philanthropic funding is a catalyst for scaling our work to make an even bigger impact. With national and place-based funding, we can subsidize partner costs, take risks, invest in forward-looking solutions, and pilot innovations.
Our organization is strong. And we have the data to prove our work.
Our evidence-based professional development program, LENA Grow, delivers powerful outcomes, along with evaluation data across demographics. And LENA SP is driving new insights across academia. Supporting LENA is one of the most cost-effective ways to invest in children’s school readiness and long-term success — unlocking the potential of every child across the country.
LENA’s ability to make parent-child interactions visible and quantifiable resonated with us. We love that the numbers are coupled with social connection and empathy that data alone can’t offer.
– Carly Roberts, Program Officer, Early Impact, Overdeck Family Foundation
