The child care crisis has hit NH hard. Between 2018 and 2022, there were, on average, 54,242 children under age six with working parents who may have needed child care, according to a May 2024 report from the NH Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI). However, there was only an average of approximately 45,800 licensed child care slots, meaning about 8,400 kids didn’t have child care who needed it.
The situation may be even more dire as some child care providers may not be enrolling at full capacity due to staffing shortages. In March 2023, the NH Department of Health and Human Services reported a child care staff vacancy rate of 26%, according to the NHFPI report.
That has a huge impact on employers facing a workforce shortage. On average, nearly 15,500 NH residents were not employed each month because they were caring for a child not in school or in a child care setting, according to the NHFPI report. In 2021 alone, an analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated that staying home to provide child care cost NH households $400 million to $600 million in wages, according to the NHFPI report.
There are actions businesses can take to help strengthen the state’s fragile child care industry. Two prime examples of how business leaders can help NH’s child care industry are Business NH Magazine’s two Business Leaders of the Decade: Tom Raffio, president and CEO of Northeast Delta Dental, a nonprofit dental insurance provider based in Concord; and Howard Brodsky, founder and co-chair of CCA Global Partners, a cooperative in Manchester supporting more than 4,000 retail locations, 30,000 child care centers, and 1 million small businesses through 14 divisions.
Raffio, the 2010 Business Leader of the Decade, and Brodsky, the 2020 Business Leader of the Decade, have been vocal advocates for businesses taking an active role in supporting the child care industry long before it reached this crisis point.
Early Business Champion
In 2003, Raffio served as chair for then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s Business Partners Group, which identified supporting early childhood education as a priority. The group officially morphed into Early Learning NH, a nonprofit that advocates for and provides services and supports to NH’s early childhood sector.
“Tom started the conversation with others in New Hampshire about how businesses can make a difference in supporting early learning,” says Jackie Cowell, executive director of Early Learning NH.
For 20 years, Raffio served on Early Learning NH’s board of directors and has been one of its most vocal supporters for the state’s early childhood sector. Raffio has spoken before the Legislature and many business forums, sharing data about the impact early childhood learning has on the quickly developing brains of children ages five and under and the long-term impact it can have in adulthood, from lower incarceration and high school dropout rates to less reliance on social safety net programs and higher executive level functioning.
And then there is the immediate benefits it has on the workforce. “If mom or dad is distracted at work because they don’t have quality child care, it’s in everyone’s best interest to have quality centers,” Raffio says. “When Jackie takes me on road shows, legislative meetings or chamber events, I’m happy to do it.” However, he notes there is a need for more business executives to act as champions.
“Raising his voice, [and using] his connections and clout to open doors has been huge,” says Cowell, who was named as one of Business NH Magazine’s 40 Influential Leaders in 2024.
Northeast Delta Dental at one point explored having its own onsite child care center but could not make the numbers work. Instead, it partners with nearby NHTI-Concord’s Community College to support its child care program. “We can supply business acumen, supplies and donations,” Raffio says.
Northeast Delta Dental has also donated more than $175,000 to support Early Learning NH over the years. “We want to make sure Early Learning NH continues as a vital advocacy group,” he says.
Building Vital Infrastructure
One way for childcare centers to survive is to find ways to cut costs. The State Early Learning Alliance (SELA) and Early Learning NH were early adopters of a national model developed by CCA for Social Good, a division of CCA Global Partners, founded to address social issues in communities. The web platform provides shared resources, helps reduce business costs and provides tools to strengthen business and child care operations. “When child care businesses have the virtual infrastructure they need and deserve to thrive, it makes all the difference in the world for them,” says Denise Sayer, vice president of CCA For Social Good. “The work of our child care platform is strengthening the business of childcare here in New Hampshire as well as across the United States.”
In 2008, The Aspen Institute approached CCA about using its cooperative model to help nonprofits scale. After assessing needs, CCA invested in a web-based platform for child care centers that has grown to become a leading service provider to child care centers across America, Sayer says. “One of the biggest needs in America, even then, was child care,” Brodsky says. “Early child care is critical for children, but it is a sector with fairly low pay, fairly high turnover and it is not able to scale locally.”
The web platform is now used in 38 states, serving more than 39,000 child care centers who in turn help 1.4 million children. In addition to providing deep discounts on products and services, the CCA platform includes 2,600 resources, including assistance with HR functions, insurance, and best practices for family child care providers and preschools.
Brodsky says the platform has grown to become “the leading service provider to child care centers across America.”
“It’s heartwarming when we hear the stories from child care centers saying, ‘what you’re doing we could never do ourselves. We are able to hire more staff because of you and be more efficient and deliver better quality child care because of you,’” Brodsky says.
What Businesses Can Do
Not every business can develop such a robust tool to help child care centers. But there are many ways businesses of any size can leverage their resources to help, Cowell says.
Since its founding in 2009, Early Learning NH has focused on four primary goals: supporting the child care community with collective buying power, advocating on behalf of child care programs and families, raising public awareness about the importance of early learning, and building public/private partnerships to support early learning programs. These are all areas where business leader can provide support, Cowell says.
“There are lots of way to be helpful to a child care business,” she says, including supporting fundraisers for nonprofit child care centers or making direct donations. She points out an average sized child care program has 50 children and 11 staff. Through SELA they can save up to $10,000 annually, Cowell says. Membership in SELA costs $2,400, a cost a business could cover for the center.
Or a business could leverage its own network of vendors and clients to secure further savings for child care centers. That’s what Great North Property Management in Exeter does, securing additional discounts for child care centers, including on heating oil. “Great North takes their clout and connections to find local vendors,” Cowell says.
Cowell encourages business leaders to approach their local rotary club or other organizations to talk about raising money for child care. Businesses can also make direct donations of money or products and services, such as a sawmill that donated reams of paper to its local child care center, she says. “When businesses have those connections to programs, good things happen,” Cowell says.
