Network Advancement: Scale & Investment | 2025 Annual Report

Easterseals produces measurable outcomes for individuals and families, strengthens local economies, and advances policy that protects essential services. The indicators below show how affiliation translates into results.

$2B in Direct Services Nationwide

Affiliation enables scale. While Easterseals Affiliates deliver services locally, the national network allows those efforts to aggregate into meaningful, nationwide impact.

These investments demonstrate a scale that few organizations can achieve independently. The breadth and scope of Easterseals' reach nationwide signals:  

• Direct investment in people and communities who rely on Easterseals services
• Operational infrastructure capable of delivering services nationwide
• Sustained program capacity across a diverse Affiliate network

Philanthropy: A Small but Strategic Share of Revenue

Philanthropic funding—gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporate partners—provides flexible capital that supports innovation, infrastructure, and strategic investments beyond the limits of government or fee-for-service funding.

Philanthropy plays a distinct role in nonprofit financial health. While public and earned revenue often support core service delivery, philanthropic dollars are typically less restricted, allowing organizations to:

• Invest in technology, workforce, and organizational capacity
• Pilot new program models
• Respond quickly to emerging community needs
• Stabilize operations during economic or policy shifts
• Seize opportunities as they arise to stay competitive 

Philanthropic funding represents a small share of the Affiliate Network’s total revenue and has declined modestly in recent years—from 6% in 2022 to 4% in 2024.

This trend reflects the range of the network’s government partnerships and service reimbursement streams, which comprise most of the revenue supporting program delivery. At the same time, a smaller philanthropic share can limit strategic flexibility, particularly investments that fall outside reimbursable services. 

For leadership across the network, this metric serves as a diversification indicator. A stronger philanthropic base reduces exposure to government funding volatility and provides the discretionary capital required to innovate and strengthen long-term capacity.

Compared with many nonprofits that rely more heavily on philanthropy, this trend highlights an opportunity to rebuild and diversify unrestricted funding streams while continuing to grow earned and public revenue.

Connecting Families to Essential Supports

Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs demonstrate how coordinated services can improve outcomes for both children and families. Across six Easterseals Affiliates¹—representing program models used broadly throughout the network—90% of participating children and families are connected to services that address key social determinants of health.

By addressing these needs early, ECD programs move beyond short-term intervention. They strengthen the conditions that shape long-term outcomes, including:

• Child development and school readiness
• Family wellbeing and caregiver stability
• Household financial security
• Long-term health and economic opportunity

Early connections to services create compounding benefits over time, improving developmental trajectories while strengthening family stability. Shared program models across the Easterseals network allow replication and expansion of proven approaches, helping more children and families access coordinated supports that improve long-term outcomes.

Footnotes

¹ Easterseals Affiliates included DC/MD/VA, Blake Foundation, Southern California, North Georgia, Chicagoland and Greater Rockford, and Washington. 

Digital Skills for Economic Participation

Digital literacy has become a prerequisite for economic participation, shaping whether individuals can apply for jobs, complete coursework, access telehealth, manage finances, and interact with public services.

Affiliates are increasingly integrating digital skill‑building directly into workforce, youth, and veterans’ programs, ensuring participants gain practical skills better equipping them to participate in today’s digital economy.

Since 2022, the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation has provided more than $2 million to expand digital literacy training across the network, strengthening workforce pathways, increasing training capacity, and expanding assistive technology instruction through initiatives such as BridgingApps.

In 2025, 14 Affiliates² participated in a digital learning community focused on strengthening digital literacy instruction and integration into employment programs. Collectively, these efforts trained 1,446 individuals, with 44% demonstrating measurable growth or proficiency in core digital skills.

Amy added, "The Comcast Digital Literacy Program helped me feel more confident using technology in everyday life. Before, I wasn’t always comfortable navigating different systems, but the Power Program made things simple and practical." Discover more of Amy's story. 

Across the network, additional digital skills training is translating directly into employment and real‑world progress:

• Easterseals Colorado: Project UP participants used new laptops and digital training to apply for jobs, manage finances, and pursue housing stability—meaning they could keep safe, consistent housing and plan for the future. One participant transitioned from a paid internship into employment, while another is training to become a veterinary technician.
• Easterseals Florida: Technology workshops expanded into applied skills such as 3D printing and digital crafting, supporting internships and mentorship opportunities that strengthened communication and workforce readiness.

These examples show how digital literacy enables access to employment, education, and essential services—and how the Easterseals network scales that impact through shared curriculum, national partnerships, and coordinated learning communities, connecting digital skills to long‑term economic opportunity.

Footnotes

² Easterseals Affiliates included Northeast Ohio, Central Florida, Arkansas, Houston, Colorado, Minnesota, Capital Region and Eastern Connecticut, Oregon, Redwood, Massachusetts, Crossroads, Southeast Pennsylvania, Port Health, and Rio Grande Valley. 

Workforce Development: Building Opportunity Through Skills & Access

Expanding opportunity requires more than a single intervention. For many people we serve, outcomes depend on skills development, practical access to services, and public policies that sustain essential systems. Across Easterseals, Affiliates and National work together to strengthen all three.   

Getting and keeping a job requires more than determination. For people with disabilities, veterans, and others facing structural barriers, employment depends on access to targeted skills training, coaching, and modern tools. 

Affiliates integrate workforce development into programs that build technical skills and job readiness, helping participants move toward stable employment and long‑term economic security. 

In 2025, a $600,000 investment from The Coca‑Cola Foundation supported workforce upskilling across 15 Affiliates³, combining digital learning platforms such as IBM SkillsBuild and Northstar with individualized coaching and hands‑on learning labs. 

These outcomes show how coordinated workforce investments translate training into employment—connecting skill development to sustained wages and economic prosperity.

Workforce participation also depends on reliable transportation. With support from the General Motors Foundation, Affiliates in Southwest Florida, Northeast Indiana, Chicagoland and Greater Rockford, and Colorado are strengthening the Accessible Transportation Coalition Initiative—improving access for more than 58,000 community members to date.

Skills development, digital access, and transportation must work together—and the Easterseals network enables integration to scale through shared partnerships, coordinated training models, and cross‑Affiliate learning. 

Footnotes

³ Easterseals Affiliates included Colorado, Greater Houston, Goodwill-Easterseals Minnesota, Northeast Central Florida, Nebraska, San Antonio, East Georgia, Lone Star, Massachusetts, Midwest, New Jersey, New York, South Florida, Southern California, and Washington. 

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