The research we've reviewed indicates that the very early care can have lasting effects on a person (at least through the age of 20). The types of programs with the strongest evidence behind them are:

• Day care programs for children below the age of 5 (usually 3-5), especially those that target a variety of needs including cognitive, emotional, and nutritional. Several well-funded, well-studied "model" day-care programs have been shown to have lasting positive impacts on children, including their performance in school. The evidence regarding less intense, more run-of-the-mill programs is also encouraging although less compelling. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find an organization that can give convincing evidence that its activities can be expected to produce the same results that the best programs have. For more information, see our review of day care programs.
• Home visit programs to help and advise parents. The literature on these programs in general is mixed, but one particular organization - the Nurse-Family Partnership - is devoted to consistently carrying out a particular home-visit program that has extensive and encouraging evidence behind it. For more information on the Nurse-Family Partnership, see our review.

In the abstract, we believe that either of these two types of programs has great potential to make a permanent, positive difference in people's lives. However, we have been unable to find a day-care program that we can have confidence in, while we are extremely impressed with the Nurse-Family Partnership.

We therefore awarded the Nurse-Family Partnership our $25,000 grant, and we recommend this organization for donors interested in helping to promote better early childhood care in the U.S. (note that Nurse-Family Partnership is a national organization).

Donate to Nurse-Family Partnership through Network for Good