Elizabeth Gaines

Communities for Kids Convening Topic Speaker

Elizabeth Gaines is the founder and executive director of Children’s Funding Project. Begun in 2018, Children’s Funding Project is the response to Gaines’s 25-year career in child advocacy that persistently led her to question whether adequate resources were being directed to children. Her career began with leading after-school and community-based youth programs at the Atwood Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. She later served as youth policy analyst for Citizens for Missouri’s Children, followed by 13 years at the Forum for Youth Investment, where she helped policy leaders develop tools and techniques to improve their use of data, increase their policy alignment, and more efficiently apply resources for greater impact. As an expert on children’s policy at the state and local level, Gaines has worked with communities in nearly all 50 states to establish children’s cabinets, conduct fiscal maps, and pursue dedicated funding for youth. Since 2018, she has guided Children’s Funding Project through over 40 projects with national networks, state and local governments, advocates, and youth leaders. A native of St. Louis, Gaines attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently resides in Washington, D.C.