Ensuring that children enter school ready to learn is now a well-established national goal. Dramatic changes over the past three decades in U.S. families and the economy, as well as emerging research on the importance of early brain development, have increased the demand for public investments in early childhood supports and services, especially health care, child care, and preschool education. Yet policies and programs to ensure that young children receive basic health care, that they are well-cared-for when their parents work, and that they have access to resources which enhance their social and intellectual readiness for school, have lacked a shared vision and a sustained public and private sector commitment. As a consequence, in most states and communities services have been fragmented, inequitable, and too often of poor quality. In many cases, they have also been sporadic and short-lived. As pressure mounts for communities to strengthen their commitment to families and meet the demand for services at a reasonable cost, there is also a growing eagerness to find better ways of financing programs and services to make them sustainable. Moreover, after several years of economic prosperity and public budget surpluses, the current downturn heightens the sense of urgency for improved financing strategies. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau's (MCHB) State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative gives states an opportunity to think more strategically about how early childhood services are delivered and funded. This paper presents a framework to help SECCS partners develop a strategic financing approach to meet these requirements. It is intended to help SECCS partners see themselves not just as fund mappers, but as fund managers. It is organized into the following sections: (1) Financing Challenges to Developing Comprehensive Early Childhood Systems; (2) Principles to Guide Early Childhood Investments; (3) Making the Most of SECCS: Strategies for Financing Comprehensive Early Childhood Initiatives; and (4) Keys to Successful Financing. The following are appended: (1) Federal Funding Sources for Early Childhood Supports and Services; (2) Template for Funding Comprehensive Early Childhood Services; and (3) Other Resources. (Includes 1 table and 25 endnotes.)