Mayor-to-Mayor Roundtable | June 2025
Featuring Mayor Jeff Annis | Mapleton, MN

Key Takeaways from the June 5 Mayor’s Roundtable: Fueling the Yes

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Overview
This third and final session in our Mayor’s Roundtable series focused on a fundamental challenge shared by nearly every community: how to fund child care solutions in ways that are sustainable, attainable, and aligned to local realities. Mayor Jeff Annis of Mapleton, Minnesota joined Business of Child Care President Jeff Andrews to discuss how Mapleton successfully stacked multiple funding sources to launch the first Child Care House. The discussion offered practical strategies for navigating public and private capital, avoiding common pitfalls, and ensuring child care is viewed—and funded—as core infrastructure.

1. Child Care Is Infrastructure—Fund It Like It Matters
   Mayor Annis stressed that child care should be treated as essential community infrastructure, just like roads, parks, or fire trucks. In Mapleton, a lack of child care capacity stalled business recruitment and local workforce participation. By integrating child care into infrastructure planning, the city opened access to broader categories of funding, including infrastructure-aligned grants and regional development resources.

2. Stacking the Dollars: Diversifying the Funding Base
   Rather than rely on a single grant or donor, Mapleton’s funding success came from stacking capital from multiple sources:

• A successful Minnesota DEED grant application
• Regional philanthropic contributions
• Property acquisition through the local EDA
• Planned community fundraising, naming opportunities, and matching campaigns

This layered approach reduced financial risk and improved eligibility for both public and private capital.

3. Funding Roadmap and Professional Grant Support Were Critical
   Mayor Annis described the grant writing process as “daunting” without support. Business of Child Care’s Funding Roadmap helped identify more than 15 funding categories—ranging from USDA community facilities loans to local charitable gambling—and matched Mapleton’s project details to each one. Professional grant support ensured language and strategy aligned with how funders assess applications.

4. Relationships Unlock Capital—Start With Visibility
   Community funding was accelerated by strategic visibility:

• Engaging legislators and state agencies early
• Involving regional economic and philanthropic foundations
• Hosting public events (like “Songs on the Lawn”) that blended community celebration with fundraising goals

These relationships unlocked access to both restricted capital and community-based giving, including corporate sponsorships and local charitable matches.

5. Plan for Long-Term Sustainability and Repurposing
   Mapleton’s funding narrative included a clear exit strategy. The Child Care House model ensures that, if no longer needed in the future, the building can convert to residential use—making it a lower-risk investment. This dual-use approach appealed to funders by showing long-term asset viability beyond the life of the initial program.

6. Formalize a Funding Entity to Keep Momentum Going
   Mayor Annis emphasized the importance of having a nonprofit or foundation in place to receive and steward funds—not just during construction, but for long-term needs. Mapleton’s Area Foundation provided a trusted financial home for community contributions, enabled online donations, and helped secure matching gifts. This allowed fundraising to continue long after the groundbreaking.

7. Timing Matters—Track Grant Cycles Year-Round
   A key insight was the importance of timing. Many high-value grant opportunities, particularly from utilities, corporations, and regional foundations—only accept applications during the first quarter of the year. Mayor Annis recommended communities create a live spreadsheet tracking funders, eligibility windows, and application requirements to ensure they don’t miss future opportunities.

8. Don’t Underestimate Local Giving Potential
   Mapleton found success in leveraging hyper-local sources of capital, including:

• Charitable gambling (e.g., pull tabs, raffles)
• Civic building in-kind donations
• Naming rights for rooms, playgrounds, or entire child care houses
• Donations from former residents who still consider Mapleton “home”

These grassroots strategies created flexible, relationship-based funding that complemented state and federal dollars.

9. Fundraising Is Not a One-Time Event—It’s a Strategy
   Finally, the session closed with a reminder that capital raising must be treated as an ongoing strategy—not a one-time hurdle. Ongoing operating needs, expansion opportunities, and provider supports all require sustained attention. Communities that institutionalize child care fundraising—via a dedicated entity and a rotating calendar of outreach—will be better positioned to thrive long-term.

Mayor-to-Mayor Roundtable | May 2025
Featuring Mayor Jeff Annis | Mapleton, MN

Child Care Is Economic Infrastructure — and the Numbers Prove It

In the second Mayor-to-Mayor Roundtable, Mayor Jeff Annis returned to highlight Mapleton’s path from idea to action — and to make a compelling case for why child care is more than a service. It’s an investment.  Backed by real numbers and grounded in local experience, Mayor Annis shared how Mapleton moved from uncertainty to clarity — and from scarcity to strategy. “We had the jobs. We had the housing. But people were still driving 20 miles just to find care. The piece we were missing was child care — and without it, we couldn’t grow.”

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Key Takeaways from the May Roundtable:

1. Child Care Is Infrastructure — Full Stop
   From new schools to sewer lines to broadband, communities are used to planning for essential infrastructure. Mayor Annis made clear that child care must be viewed in the same category. Without it, workforce participation, housing absorption, and even local business attraction are stalled.
2. The Math Doesn’t Lie: Center Models Are a Fragile Fit
   Standard centers often require $3–4 million in capital investment, yet still operate on razor-thin margins. One infant room can sink the budget, and even the best-managed programs struggle under traditional ratios and staffing shortages. “We couldn’t make the center model work. The wages alone would have sunk it.”
3. Local Solutions Have Local Return
   Every new child care slot in Mapleton is projected to unlock $30,000–$40,000 in annual workforce wages — totaling over $6 million in projected long-term economic value from just one Child Care House. “That’s a return we can explain to anybody,” said Annis.
4. Flexible, Not Fragile: Why the Child Care House Model Works
   The Child Care House gave Mapleton a way to say yes — affordably, practically, and with a real chance at sustainability. “You can’t budget for a $3 million center. But you can budget for $300,000 and build one house at a time.”
5. More Than a Building: It’s a Business Model
   This isn’t just about access to care. It’s about creating space for rural entrepreneurship. Licensed family providers get turnkey space, startup coaching, and a launchpad to run their own businesses — often without needing to own a home. “We’ve got three young women now asking when they can start.”
6. Not a One-Off — A Replicable Strategy
   With the first house under construction, Mapleton is already planning for more. The city has identified additional sites and is actively engaging residents with interest in becoming providers. “We’re already looking at the next two. Maybe three.”
7. Less Risk, More Readiness
   In a world where funding and regulations are unpredictable, the Child Care House removes guesswork. Site-readiness, licensing alignment, and prebuilt coaching supports allow cities to act with confidence, not just aspiration. “Once you’ve got the roadmap, and it’s not all ‘maybes,’ it becomes a decision — not a wish.”

Mayor-to-Mayor Roundtable | April 2025
Featuring Mayor Jeff Annis | Mapleton, MN

Child Care Is Economic Development Infrastructure

At the inaugural Mayor Roundtable, Mayor Jeff Annis of Mapleton, MN shared how his city redefined child care as core infrastructure — no different than roads, broadband, or wastewater systems. This shift reframed the issue not as a social program but as an economic necessity. “We talk about roads, the water and sewer lines, and all these things… but daycare just doesn’t come up. Maybe that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in.”

Key Takeaways from the April Roundtable:

1. Reframe the Problem: Treat Child Care Like Infrastructure
   Child care isn’t a fringe issue — it’s a foundational requirement for economic growth, particularly in rural areas. Communities must recognize it as infrastructure that enables workforce participation and long-term vitality. Mayor Annis emphasized, “If we can’t solve this, it’s not just a family issue. It’s an economic issue for the whole town.”
2. Strategy First, Then Action: Community Planning Matters
   Mapleton partnered with SMIF to conduct interviews and surveys that revealed child care as a top-three local concern. This data gave the city the clarity and mandate to act. “As we interviewed folks and did questionnaires… daycare came up as being a top 3 issue,” noted Annis.
3. Outdated Models Can’t Deliver: The Center Model Exposed
   Years of struggling with mold, closures, and renovation costs revealed how fragile the traditional center-based model had become. Even minor upgrades triggered costly discoveries, highlighting the risks embedded in aging facilities. “We were going to put new flooring in and — holy mold! All over the place.”
4. Endless Subsidies Are Not a Strategy
   Mapleton was faced with spending over $100,000 annually to keep a small-scale center afloat, with no long-term sustainability in sight. The city realized it couldn’t subsidize somethign that wasn’t working.
5. The Pivot to Child Care House: A Right-Sized Solution
   The Child Care House model offered infrastructure matched to Mapleton’s scale, while also opening the door for local entrepreneurship. The financial model finally aligned with local resources and demand. “We couldn’t make the numbers work for a center. They just didn’t work. This model — the numbers work.”
6. Say Yes with Confidence: No More Maybes
   A defined roadmap, business startup supports, and site-ready delivery removed the uncertainty that so often paralyzes local decision-making. Mapleton could say yes without relying on unclear funding or unstable operating assumptions. “Once you’ve got the roadmap, and it’s not all ‘maybes,’ it becomes a decision — not a wish.”
7. Measure What Matters: Real Economic ROI
   By restoring local child care supply, Mapleton projects an annual workforce wage unlock of nearly $400,000. That translates to over $6 million in economic value over two decades — all from a $300,000 investment. “That’s a return we can explain to anybody,” said Annis.
8. Not Just One House: Momentum Builds Quickly
   The first Child Care House has sparked new interest from local providers and property owners alike. Multiple community members have already stepped forward to explore future placements. “Three young gals who worked in neighboring towns — now they’re asking about running one. They think they could do this.”
9. Young Entrepreneurs Welcome: Building a Rural Business Pipeline
   The model is not only solving for care access — it’s creating business opportunities for the next generation. Mapleton is already looking at additional properties and actively supporting the pipeline of new providers. “To me, this is just the first of maybe 3 or 4,” said Annis. “We’re already looking at other properties that might be suitable.”