Sometimes I’m amazed at people when they ask me about projects they’d like to fund with grant money. I’ve had people ask me to direct them to the grants that will pay for their senior class to go to France. I’ve had football boosters who needed direction to the nearest grant that would build them a new field house. At least once a year someone needs to find a grant that will help keep a job that’s being cut.
I’m not saying that grantors never fund projects like these. I’d say it’s more like a one-in-a-million shot. That’s not never, but it’s really close.
The majority of grant money seems to be set aside for academic problems that schools face. To a lesser degree, the arts get a good share of grant money, too. Quite a bit of money is also available for technology. More and more attention is being paid to the environment and environmental projects in schools. One more rather hot grant topic is school nutrition and child obesity. Naturally, it is always a help when each of these latter topics mentioned fit into the realm of broader academic problems.
Reading and math grants lead the pack in sheer numbers, but science grants are relatively numerous, too. Within these grants, do schools have an advantage if they have large low-socioeconomic and at-risk students? Yes, they do, but that doesn’t mean that other schools don’t have a shot at plenty of grant money as well.
As I’ve often said, finding grant money for your school is a numbers game. You throw the net out wide using a school grant database, and then you narrow and narrow until you find the grants that you are most eligible to receive. If you complete one grant proposal, and you’re not all that eligible in the first place, chances are you’re not going to get a lot of grant money. If you apply for five grants that exactly match your needs and qualifications, you have a very good chance of getting grant money.
With all of that said, there are still grants out there that fill some unusual needs. One grantor resurfaces several tracks each year. Another helps build baseball fields. Another supports soccer programs. One helps build skateboard parks. Another helps build bicycle paths. Target has a large program that funds field trips for schools. Several organizations let you advertise your project and help you find sponsors for it. One organization helps put used band instruments into needy schools. Another gives good, used computers to schools.
All in all, I’d say most worthy projects can find grant backing if you are both patient and persistent. You just have to think about the grantors. Would they rather see their money being spent to send a senior class to France or having at-risk students in an inner-city school read better?
In summary, it is going to be easier for you to find grant money to fund projects in the areas of reading, math, science, technology, the arts, the environment, and nutrition and childhood obesity. Still, that does not mean that grant money is not available for a host of other worthwhile projects that your school needs in order to overcome some of its other problems.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Academic Enrichment
Grants
Funded by: McCarthey Dressman
Education Foundation
Description: The McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation offers Academic
Enrichment Grants designed to develop in-class and extra-curricular programs
that improve student learning. The Foundation considers proposals that foster
understanding, deepen students' knowledge, and provide opportunities to expand
awareness of the world around them. The Academic Enrichment Grants provide
funding for programs that nurture the intellectual, artistic and creative
abilities of children from low-income households. The McCarthey Dressman
Education Foundation awards grants to individuals in amounts up to $10,000 per
year for a maximum of three years, provided the eligibility requirements
continue to be met.
Program Areas: General Education, Math, Reading,
Science/Environment, Social Studies
Recipients: Public School,
Private School
Proposal Deadline: 4/15/12
Telephone: 801-209-3029
Average Amount: $10,000.00
Availability: All States
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant
Name: Music Is Revolution Foundation Mini-Grants
Funded by: Music Is Revolution
Foundation and Svengirly Music, Inc.
Description: The Music Is
Revolution Foundation administers a mini-grant program for Music Is Revolution
activities designed by teachers to implement, support, and/or improve their
ability to provide quality music education for their students. Mini-grants up
to $500 are available to teachers for music education activities of all types.
Only projects that clearly contain a music education focus that is, projects
based on the concept of music education, through musical experiences,
initiating students into a sense of their social, academic, and cultural
identity, and humanizing them through the emotional, cognitive, and/or physical
impact of music will be considered. Applicants are encouraged to include
activities that expose students to genres and styles of music not likely to be
experienced as a part of their normal daily lives, and to plan the project with input from students, parents,
and school administrators, so that the project supports the imaginations of the
students while maintaining relevance to the curriculum already in place.
Program Areas: Arts
Recipients: Public School
Proposal Deadline: 4/15/12
Average Amount: $500.00
Availability: All States
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Basics of Finding a Grant
I’ve been writing this
blog for several years now. I do my best
to make my advice straightforward and easy to follow because many of my readers
are relatively inexperienced grant writers.
In fact, quite a few are still threatening to write that first grants.
I have a list of seven
or eight steps I usually recommend for finding and completing a successful
grant application. Today, I just want to
remind you of the steps you need to take to find an appropriate grant to write.
The very first step in
finding a good grant has nothing to do with grants. You must take a close look at your district,
your campus, or your classroom and find a problem that needs to be solved in
order for students to achieve at a higher level. Of course, if you find a problem that your
district has already allotted money to solve, you don’t need to write a grant. You need to find a problem that needs to be
solved and one that has either no funding or inadequate funding.
So far, you have a
problem at your district, campus, or classroom, and you have no money to fix
that problem. It’s time to find the very
best grant database you can find in order to match your problem with any grant
money that is available.
Since you are a
customer of Discount School Supply®, recommend that you first use the DiscountSchool Supply grant database. It is free for you to use and is very
comprehensive for the eight categories it contains: after-school, arts, early
childhood, migrant, professional development, reading, science/environment,
special education. If your problem fits
under these categories in any way, you should spend a lot of time in this fee
database to match your problem with a grantor that is interested in helping to
solve that kind of problem.
In the event that you
don’t find what you need in this database, you should go to The School FundingCenter Grant Database.
It is also comprehensive and up-to-date.
In fact, it contains every federal, state, foundation, and corporate
grant available to U.S. schools. It
contains thirty categories from which to choose so you might find grant money
in it that is simply not listed in the Discount School Supply database. Again, as with any database you use, you are
looking to match your need with grantors who are interested in helping you.
Another good choice is
the FoundationCenter. It lists
all the foundation grants available to schools in this country. It, too, is comprehensive and reasonably
current. It, however, does not list any
grants other than foundation grants.
If you are looking
specifically for a federal grant, you should go to either Grants.gov
or the U.S. Department of Education. If you are looking for a state grant, you
should go directly to your state education website. You can find all fifty of those links at Ed.gov.
If you don’t have a
legitimate problem at your school, you’re not likely to find grant money. If you don’t use a grant database of some
sort, you are not likely to find an appropriate grant to help you solve your
problem. That’s back to the basics. That’s where all successful grant
applications should start.
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Ezra Jack Keats
Minigrant Program
Availability: All States
Funded by: Ezra Jack Keats
Foundation
Description: The grants support programs that encourage literacy and
creativity in children and may be used for activities such as: bringing in
guest authors, illustrators, or storytellers; puppet making, book making, or
other projects; book writing contests, etc. Application is online and must be
printed and mailed to the address listed below.
Program Areas: Arts, Library, Reading, Other
Recipients: Public School, Other
Proposal Deadline: 3/15/12
Amount: $500.00Availability: All States
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Annual Competitive
Book Donation Program
Funded by: Roads to Reading
Availability: All States
Funded by: Roads to Reading
Description: The
Annual Competitive Book Donation Program is designed to donate books to
literacy programming in small and rural communities only. The organizational
budget limit to be eligible is currently set at $150,000.00 annually. The
community where the organization is located must be an underserved community.
It is not enough to have a certain number of families within a community that
are under served to qualify. The population where the organization is located
must be under 50,000. All programs must have a strong focus on remedial reading
programming or a tutoring component as part of the program. Books for bok bags
programs, mobile libraries, gifts and give-a-ways, events or book club requests
will not be granted through the Annual Donation program. In addition, School
Districts, Lead Agencies or umbrella agencies may not apply for donations. Each
site within group agencies or districts must apply for donations separately.
The books that are available through this program are appropriate for ages 6
months to young adult. Books in this program are available in hard and soft
cover. Currently all books in this program are available in English only. Our
organization will only entertain requests for books from organizations that are
located within the United States and the books must be for use in the United
States.
Program Areas: After-School, Library, Reading
Recipients: Public School,
Private School, Other
Proposal Deadline: 3/30/12
Email: annual@pwirtr.orgAvailability: All States
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Educator Grants and
Scholarships
Website: http://www.capmembers.com/aerospace_education/aem_specific/educator_grants_and_scholarship_information.cfm
Funded by: Air Force
Association
Description: The
Air Force Association (AFA) helps provide educational opportunities for
America’s youth. These opportunities were initiated to help ensure that future
generations of Americans: * Appreciate the important role of aviation and space
in America’s future * Have the technical knowledge necessary to understand
aerospace issues * Have the educational background required to pursue aerospace
careers To accomplish their educational goals, the AFA communicates directly
with the American public about the importance of maintaining a sound aerospace
infrastructure and the importance of maintaining a strong Air Force to ensure
national security. Another important part of their educational efforts is to
support the educational objectives of the Air Force and CAP. As part of that
support, the AFA recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of aerospace
education. To support CAP’s aerospace education programs, the AFA provides
aerospace education grants for Civil Air Patrol units. Since 1996, the AFA has
provided over $240,000 to CAP units and teachers to help fund their aerospace
education programs.
Program Areas: Science/Environment
Recipients: Public School
Proposal Deadline: 3/31/12
Average Amount: $250.00Website: http://www.capmembers.com/aerospace_education/aem_specific/educator_grants_and_scholarship_information.cfm
Availability: All States
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