The Goddard School®, the nation’s leading premium early childhood education provider, was honored by FRANdata as a 2023 TopScore FUND Award winner at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas. The annual award recognizes one food and one non-food brand with a leading FUND score. The winners exemplify a commitment to supporting their franchisees' access to financing.
With an industry-leading FUND score of 930, The Goddard School ranks high in the franchise system and franchisor performance categories, which are key indicators of a healthy franchise system. For franchise systems with high scores, lenders are inclined to offer better lending terms to franchisees. The TopScore FUND Award was created to highlight those brands that have risen above their peers by simplifying the financing process while understanding and improving key performance metrics that lenders look for when lending.
“We are truly honored to receive the TopScore FUND Award,” said Kevin Brickner, vice president of franchise sales, Goddard Systems, LLC, the manager of The Goddard School franchise system. “This recognition, coupled with our industry-leading FUND score, is a testament to our commitment to providing world-class support for our franchisees, from marketing and training to operations and financing.”
The FUND score is a franchise credit risk score which rates 12 credit risk categories such as franchise business success rates, franchise unit profitability and franchisee support. The FUND scoring system is embraced by banks of all sizes that collectively represent over a trillion dollars in assets. Used in conjunction with an assessment of the franchisee borrower, lenders are able to determine the overall risk profile associated with a loan, set appropriate terms, and establish appropriate loan capital reserves.
In addition to the TopScore FUND Award, recent accolades underscoring the strength of The Goddard School brand include being ranked #94—the highest-ranking childcare provider—in the 2022 Franchise Times Top 500, being ranked #60 in Entrepreneur’s 2023 Franchise 500 and induction into the outlet’s Hall of Fame, as well as inclusion in Franchise Business Review’s 2023 Top 200 Franchises and Top Recession-Proof Franchises.
For more information about The Goddard School, please visit goddardschool.com, and to learn about Goddard Systems and how to become a franchisee, go to goddardschoolfranchise.com.