Update (July 15, 2026): Wyoming has since published its own per-child commitment for foster youth Trump Accounts, verified directly with the governor's office. Its approach differs from Hawaii's – see the "Part of a national foster-youth initiative" section below.
Update (August 5, 2026): Colorado has become the third state to act on its Fostering the Future pledge. Governor Jared Polis's office announced the state's child welfare agency will open Trump Accounts for Colorado's foster youth, though the state hasn't yet published the per-child funding terms Hawaii and Wyoming each have. Details below.
Update (September 21, 2026): The $1,000 federal contribution does not follow automatically when a state child welfare agency opens a foster child's account. Per the IRS instructions for Form 4547, an agency that is the child's legal guardian may elect to open the account, while the election for the $1,000 has to come from someone who anticipates the child will be their qualifying child for that tax year. A new section below, "Who may elect the $1,000," sets out what that means for the newborn end of Hawaii's stack.
Hawaii has become the first state to guarantee that every eligible foster child – from newborns through age 17 – has a funded Trump Account (530A), Governor Josh Green's office announced July 3. Per the announcement, the state is combining the federal seed contribution with two philanthropic commitments to cover an age range the federal program alone does not reach.
Why the federal seed alone leaves a gap
The federal $1,000 Trump Account seed deposit only applies to children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. Foster children born earlier – which describes most kids currently in foster care – are not eligible for that seed contribution on their own. Hawaii's announcement is built around filling that gap specifically for its foster-youth population.
How the funding stacks
Per the governor's office and corroborating coverage, three sources combine to cover every age band:
- The federal $1,000 seed covers eligible Hawaii foster children born in the 2025-2028 window – but per the IRS instructions for Form 4547, who may elect it is narrower than who may open the account, which is the next section.
- The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is contributing $250 to accounts for Hawaii foster children age 10 and under who were born before 2025 – outside the federal window.
- The Stable Road Foundation, a Maui-based foundation led by Ed Freedman, is contributing $250 for Hawaii foster children ages 11 through 17 – the one age band left uncovered by the federal seed or the Dell Foundation's contribution.
Per the announcement, the three sources together cover every age band, so no foster child in Hawaii's system falls outside a funded account because of their birth year.
Who may elect the $1,000
Opening an account and electing the $1,000 are two separate steps with two different lists of people who may take them, and for a child in state custody they come apart.
Per Treasury's June announcement of foster-youth access, "a child welfare agency of a state, territorial, or tribal government that is the legal guardian of an eligible child who has a Social Security Number and does not already have an account may elect to open an initial Trump Account for that child." That is the opening election, and it is the one the agency route covers.
The $1,000 is separate. Per the IRS instructions for Form 4547, where both elections are made together, "an authorized individual is an individual who anticipates that the child will be his or her qualifying child for the tax year in which the election is made," and the child must "be anticipated to be a qualifying child of the authorized individual making the pilot program contribution election." A child is not the qualifying child of an agency – so an agency-opened account does not carry the seed with it.
A foster parent may be the person the instructions point to. Per IRS Publication 501, "a foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction," which puts a foster child inside the relationship test for a qualifying child – so where the age, residency and support tests are also met, the caregiver the child lives with may be in a position to make the election the agency cannot. Our reporting on who may open a foster child's Trump Account works through the order of priority in full.
For Hawaii's stack this bears on the newborn band rather than the older ones. The two philanthropic contributions turn on the account existing – per Invest America, the Dell gift reaches activated accounts – while the federal seed turns on who files for it.
Part of a national foster-youth initiative
Hawaii's program sits inside the broader "Fostering the Future" initiative, a federal effort connecting foster-youth savings accounts to Invest America, the platform administering Trump Accounts nationally. Wyoming has since become the second state to publish concrete per-child terms: Governor Mark Gordon's office said the state will open a Trump Account for every foster child by directing benefits the child already receives into the account, rather than stacking new philanthropic dollars by age band the way Hawaii does.
Colorado is the third state to move beyond the pledge itself. Governor Jared Polis's office announced, per the governor's office, that Colorado's child welfare agency will open and manage Trump Accounts for the state's roughly 3,700 children and youth in out-of-home foster care. Colorado's own fiscal note projects the state committing $131,017 in state fiscal year 2026-27, rising to as much as $1.4 million the following year, to fund the agency's coordination work – state administrative funding rather than a per-child philanthropic stack like Hawaii's or a benefit-redirection approach like Wyoming's. As of this writing, Colorado hasn't published the specific per-child funding terms the other two states have, so foster parents and caseworkers in Colorado should watch for the state's implementation details rather than assume its structure matches either.
Several other states in the 23-state "Fostering the Future" pledge cohort have signaled participation, but as of this writing only Hawaii, Wyoming, and now Colorado have taken public action beyond the pledge, and only Hawaii and Wyoming have fully published per-child terms.
What this means if you're not in Hawaii
Hawaii's structure is a useful reference point for what a complete foster-youth Trump Account program can look like: a state pairs the federal seed with named philanthropic partners who each take responsibility for a specific age band. For foster parents, caseworkers, or child welfare agencies in other states, it is worth asking a state's health and human services department or a state's Invest America contact whether a similar combination is available or planned, since coverage varies significantly from state to state and is not guaranteed by the federal program alone. Where a child was born in the 2025-2028 window, the other question worth asking is who in that child's life is positioned to make the $1,000 election, because the agency opening the account is not.
Families and organizations who want to check what applies to a specific child, employer, or state can use our Match & Bonus Finder to see the federal seed alongside any state, employer, or philanthropic contributions we have sourced and verified.