June 3, 2025

Update: A New Path Toward Sustainability

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Back in February, after two years of funding issues related to the delay of the state’s childcare subsidy, we issued a press release about our impending closure. Within days, two long-time foundation partners - The Rainwater Foundation and another partner who wishes to remain anonymous - jointly committed an infusion of $350,000 to support our programs through the end of May, giving our staff and families ample time to plan and prepare. In response, our leadership team committed to using that gift of time to reimagine our funding and operating models for long-term sustainability. We’re ecstatic and so grateful to announce that Fortress is now in a position to continue delivering the impactful programming that low-income families in our community have depended on for the past 20 years!

Here’s what we’ve accomplished since March:

Immediate Cost Reductions: We reduced expenses by permanently eliminating two staff positions whose responsibilities have been absorbed by other staff. We renegotiated contracts to lower costs for janitorial, pest control, and phone services, and we implemented a strict spending freeze across programs through the end of May.
Program Model Changes: We immediately transitioned from our longstanding 4-day/40-hour week to a 5-day/50-hour week operating model—without adding teaching staff or payroll expense—in order to attract private-pay families whose tuition dollars help sustain the families our mission aims to serve. Bonus: it better serves our community!
Creation of a Sustainability Committee: We recruited a small by mighty committee of community leaders to help us develop long-term strategies to secure Fortress’s future. The committee - chaired by a former nonprofit executive director and composed of a Fortress parent, a nonprofit operations director, and a retired city manager - met biweekly through the spring to help us think critically and make tough decisions.
Stability Impact Scholarships: After 20 years of providing our programs free-of-charge, each Fortress family now contributes a meaningful, income-based amount toward their child’s care. The remaining cost is covered through private donations, CCMS (the state child care subsidy - more on that in a moment), and new partnerships (outlined below). Fortress families have already pledged more than $120,000 toward next school year’s costs. Check out this video we created which outlines this new approach in greater detail.
New Collaboration with the Center for Transforming Lives: The team at CTL has been generous in sharing their expertise and advice as we fine-tune our new operating and funding models, including analyzing the past three years of our financials and working closely with us to build our FY2026 budget. Because of that analysis and their belief in our programs (our missions are incredibly closely aligned!), CTL has committed the funding for two Early Head Start classrooms serving 16 students at Fortress beginning in August. This is just the beginning of a partnership that will also provide family advocacy and access to CTL’s extensive resources for all Fortress families, and which may include additional Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms based on the outcome of an outstanding grant request.
Partnership with Catholic Charities: Catholic Charities has designated Fortress as its preferred early childhood education partner, meaning it refers to us families who are participating in one of their poverty alleviation programs. Not only does Catholic Charities make the referral, but they cover the cost of tuition for the families they refer until those families have achieved enough stability to do it on their own. This partnership will also provide parenting classes (on our campus and at other locations across the city) and access to Catholic Charities’ wide range of case management programs.
Exploring Additional Income Streams: We’re actively working to increase revenue by marketing our building for community rentals—events, meetings, and other gatherings—during evenings and weekends. This allows us to generate additional income without impacting our core programming. Eventually, we hope to use our commercial kitchen to provide healthy meals for other programs who lack a kitchen of their own, generating another income stream out of our facility.
Our Faithful Supporters Answered the Call: What you may not realize is that we were scheduled to switch credit card processors two days before we made our closure announcement. Rather than make the switch and then have to explain to donors why we accepted their gifts when we knew we were closing, we simply let those donations lapse. When we reached back out to those faithful monthly donors two weeks later, we were astounded that it took less than one month to not only recapture the gifts that were lost, but to realize an increase of 36% in monthly giving! Next, we ran headfirst into StoryLand Dinner and Auction planning. With only 5 weeks to pull it off, our supporters once again showed up. We celebrated our first-ever event sell-out and smashed our fundraising goal, netting almost $160,000!

All of these steps have helped us gain a more stable financial footing for the long term; we not only closed out the school year as planned, but our cash position is healthy enough to implement our summer program and to plan for the 2025-26 school year. But there’s still more good news! Late last week, the Texas Legislature approved $100 million for CCMS - the state child care subsidy. (Click the link for a quick news story featuring Fortress!) While our budget is no longer contingent on its availability, we're hopeful that as the funds begin to trickle down to Tarrant County, the 90% of Fortress families who qualify for the subsidy will receive the support they need. It would be a giant win for the families we serve, and for Fortress.

Even with this encouraging news, we will still need donor support to close the gap between what our families can afford to pay for their child’s high-quality education and how much it costs us to provide it. Our families have already pledged $120,000 toward their children’s care — a remarkable commitment. Now, we're working to match that with $10,000 in monthly recurring donations. We’re just $1,600/month away. Will you help us meet the match?

We are deeply thankful for the outpouring of support we’ve received from our community during this uncertain and challenging time. Your prayers, encouragement, generosity, and belief in our mission have sustained us. We truly would not be here today without each one of you.

As we move forward into this new chapter with renewed purpose and greater stability, we do so with full hearts—grateful for the community that stood beside us and excited for what lies ahead.

Thank you for being part of the Fortress family!

With gratitude,

Stacy Agee Martin
Executive Director
stacy@fortressfw.org
817.335.1007 x8
fortressfw.org

February 21, 2025

Fortress Restructuring Statement

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Earlier this week we issued a press release announcing that Fortress would be closing its doors on February 27th after more than 20 years of serving Fort Worth’s Historic Southside neighborhood. You may have seen the resulting article in the Fort Worth Report, which was shared widely by our friends, supporters, and the Fort Worth community at large.

Today, we are overjoyed to share a new and hopeful update: thanks to the extraordinary generosity of two long-time foundation partners, Fortress has the funding to continue operating uninterrupted through the end of the school year. Fort Worth Report ran a follow-up story detailing this news.

This incredible gift not only bridges our immediate financial gap but also provides the much-needed time to thoughtfully restructure our operating and funding models to ensure long-term sustainability beyond this school year. We are deeply grateful for this lifeline and the opportunity to continue serving our families and community.

How We Got Here

Many of you have asked how we reached this critical juncture, and we want to be transparent about the challenges we’ve faced.

In 2021 and 2022, we carefully accepted federal COVID relief funds to expand our programs, helping families in our community get back to work during an incredibly difficult time. To maintain this expanded capacity, we pursued and received Texas Rising Star 4-Star accreditation, a rigorous process that would allow us to accept Child Care Management Services (CCMS), the state childcare subsidy for Tarrant County.

As Fortress made these shifts, we were informed that abundant CCMS funding would continue to support working families, and much of our sustainability plan was built around these CCMS funds. Unfortunately, Texas legislators have failed to make the necessary investments to ensure qualifying families can receive the support they need. Over two years later, more than 20,000 Tarrant County children remain on the waiting list. Despite our planning and patience, only 3% of Fortress families ever received the subsidy.

Fortress has always operated on the belief that childcare costs should never be the barrier that prevents low-wage earners from upward mobility. In line with our mission of “building bridges from poverty to promise,” we’ve offered free programs and, in lieu of tuition, invited parents to invest in their family’s growth through education, personal development, and community engagement.

When it became clear in September 2024 that the CCMS funding delays would persist, our Board of Directors made the strategic decision to allow up to 30% of our enrollment slots to be filled by private-pay students, creating an alternative revenue stream to help sustain our mission. We spread the word far and wide, but we quickly realized that our four-day model was a challenge for working families with five-day schedules. Our long-term plan was to shift to a five-day model for the 2025-26 school year, but we simply ran out of time.

An emergency fundraising campaign in November 2024 helped close some gaps, and we remained hopeful that the Texas Legislature would prioritize working families in the new year. Unfortunately, that funding still has not materialized, and the delays continue to persist. At the same time, private funding sources are dwindling due to shifting economic and political climates, pushing our already strained budget to its breaking point.

A New Chapter of Hope

Fortress has long been a vital part of Fort Worth’s Historic Southside, and the philanthropic community, led by our faithful partners at the Rainwater Foundation, recognized the tremendous loss our closure would mean for local families. Their unwavering support has made it possible for us to keep our doors open and begin the hard but necessary work of restructuring for long-term sustainability. Over the coming months, we will be working closely with our Board, staff, and community partners to develop a funding and operations model that will ensure Fortress can continue serving children and families for many years to come. Our newly formed Sustainability Committee has already moved to implement a 5-day operations model effective Monday, March 3.

We are deeply moved by the support, generosity, and encouragement we have received during this challenging time. Thank you for believing in our mission, standing with us, and helping us continue the important work of “building bridges from poverty to promise.”

In the meantime, your support matters more than ever before. You have asked, “What could we have done to prevent this?” There are six important ways you can be a part of sustaining us moving forward:

Become a Friend of Fortress with a sustaining monthly gift. These donors are the backbone of our budget and allow us to plan for the future!
Make a one-time gift to support the costs associated with opening five days a week.
Mark your calendar for Monday, February 24, when tickets go sale for our 15th Annual StoryLand Dinner and Auction to be held at the Ashton Depot on Saturday, March 29, 2025.
Invite families with young children you know to enroll in our programs, helping us fill out the 30% of slots reserved for private pay enrollment. Enrolling at Fortress is a great way for Fort Worthians to support our mission while ensuring that their own children receive the highest quality early childhood education possible!
Sign up to volunteer in our programs, providing additional support to our staff and students in our classrooms or behind-the-scenes.
Call your state representatives and senators, and express your support for legislation that creates greater sustainability for Fortress and hundreds of centers like ours across the state, including HB 2294, HB 460, SB 171, SB 462, and SB 972. Urge them to introduce legislation to increase the state’s allocation of funds to CCS and other programs providing support for working families to access child care.