Children's Defense Fund (CDF)

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a private national organization that serves as a voice for America's marginalized children and teenagers. Emphasizing racial justice and well-being, the CDF engages in advocacy, service, community organization, and public policy lobbying to ensure children, their families, and their communities have the resources they need to support the nation's youth. Areas of focus include access to healthcare, early education and development resources, economic mobility, family stability, and equitable communities. The CDF also provides resources for parents, including information on childcare, health insurance, mental health, and preventing teen violence.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, and with offices in states across the nation, the CDF was founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman, who served as the organization's president until 2018, when she transitioned to president emerita. Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson became president of the organization in 2020. The CDF receives no government funding. Its annual budget is funded by grants from foundations and businesses, and individual donations.

In 1994, the CDF purchased a 157-acre farm that was once the home of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alex Haley. The organization considers the farm to be a place of spiritual renewal, where its members can connect with others who share their child advocacy goals.

Brief History

The CDF was founded on May 24, 1973, by Edelman, the first African American woman to pass the bar exam in Mississippi. Prior to starting the CDF, Edelman had been an advocate for Americans who were discriminated against or disadvantaged. She worked as an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund and helped establish a Head Start program for children in Mississippi. She worked as counsel for the Poor People's March, which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing before his death. Edelman was inspired by the changes brought about by the civil rights movement and wanted to create similar changes—namely, equal rights—for disadvantaged children and teenagers.

In 1975, the CDF and its supporters fought for the right of children with disabilities to attend school. With peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations, they convinced secretaries of health, education, and welfare of the importance of this goal. Their efforts helped pass the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The act requires all public schools that accept federal funds to provide educational access to children with physical and mental disabilities. The goal of the act is to make children's educational experiences as equal as possible, regardless of disabilities, by providing early intervention, special education, and other services.

During the next decade, the CDF combatted government cutbacks in programs that helped children and their families, in particular Head Start and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program.

In the 1990s, the CDF helped to pass the Act for Better Child Care (ABC), which later became the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. The goal of the act is to make childcare more affordable by providing federal funding to states.

The CDF made significant progress in assisting children and families during the Clinton administration (1993–2001). The CDF received the support of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was Edelman's college friend and a fellow advocate of programs that benefit children and families. Clinton served as the chair of the CDF's board of directors from 1986 to 1992. The CDF's many accomplishments include the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC, 1993), which reduces taxes for families with low to moderate incomes; the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA, 1993), which allows eligible employees to take an unpaid leave for up to twelve weeks without fear of losing their job; and the Foster Care Independence Act (1999), which helps youth transition from foster care to living independently. The CDF also worked to establish the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP, 1997), which gives states federal funding to provide health insurance to children of families with an income that is too high for Medicaid but too low for private insurance.

Impact

Since 1973, the CDF has advocated for children; its Leave No Child Behind mission aims "to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities."

Into the mid-2020s, the CDF continued to focus on ending child poverty by ensuring that parents and caregivers have jobs paying livable wages and access to affordable childcare and health care. The organization also continued to rally support for Head Start, a national program that gives children from low-income families a chance to attend federally funded preschool. The organization continues to operate its CDF Freedom Schools, a six-week program designed to help combat learning loss during summer breaks.

The CDF's other campaigns included persuading the government not to cut programs that benefit children, protecting children from gun violence, helping children of color succeed in school, and reducing youth detention and incarceration by giving children what they need—a good education and quality physical and mental health care.

Despite the CDF's many successes, however, the organization has its share of critics, some of whom think it is too liberal. These critics also argue that the CDF wants to initiate programs that have failed in the past. Others point out that Edelman's views and predictions have not always been correct. Edelman sharply criticized the welfare reform bill enacted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton's tenure, saying it would impoverish millions of American children. The bill required welfare recipients to work and set a limit on how long they could collect benefits. Census Bureau data indicate that the welfare reform bill mostly helped children, especially children of single mothers and African American children. The poverty rate among children in these groups declined, and the poverty rate among African American children dropped significantly after the welfare reform.

Bibliography

"About Us." Children’s Defense Fund, childrensdefense.org/about-us. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

“The Cradle to Prison Pipeline: America’s New Apartheid.” Children’s Defense Fund, 7 Feb. 2009, www.childrensdefense.org/the-cradle-to-prison-pipeline-americas-new-apartheid. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

Daley-Harris, Shannon, and Marian Wright Edelman. Hope for the Future. Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.

"Frequently Asked Questions." Children’s Defense Fund, www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

Hymowitz, Kay S. "The Children's Defense Fund, Not Part of the Solution." City Journal, Summer 2000, www.city-journal.org/article/the-childrens-defense-fund-not-part-of-the-solution. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

Sellers, Frances Stead. "The Story of Hillary Clinton's 'Totally Confusing' Relationship with Her Liberal Mentor." The Washington Post, 3 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-hillary-clintons-long-tense-relationship-with-her-liberal-mentor/2016/06/02/b204f6de-22af-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

“2023 State of America’s Children Report.” Children’s Defense Fund, childrensdefense.org/tools-and-resources/the-state-of-americas-children. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.