More Grants Than You Can Imagine!

Do you know the grant category that offers more grants than any other? It’s not a secret by any means, but apparently many educators don’t know the answer. It is reading. More grants are provided in the area of reading than any other. In fact, almost twice as many grants are offered in reading than any other single grant category.

How many reading grants are available? Using the Discount School Supply free MySchoolGrant grant database, I put in Alabama, Public School, and Reading. It listed 333 different grants. I put in Pennsylvania, Private School, Reading. I got 436 results. California, Public, Reading netted 582 results.

Is your school or organization going to be eligible for every one of those grants? No, it won’t be eligible for 25% of them. But if it were eligible for just 10% of them, it would mean that you were eligible for 30, 40, even 50 or more reading grants.

Why do so many granting entities make reading requests eligible for their grant money? That’s easy. Reading is the most important skill we teach students in school. If they do not attain that one skill, most of the rest of their school careers will be a bust. It is very difficult to do work in math, science, social studies, and language arts unless a student is proficient in reading. Grantors understand this.

It is so important that our government has poured billions and billions of federal dollars into Title I reading programs. The results have not been that great, but they continue to fork over that money in the hopes that we will finally find the answer to the nation’s reading problems.

Not many schools in the country are able to keep their entire populations achieving at grade level in reading. Most could use some grant money to help them in their efforts. Well, here’s the good news. The money is out there, especially for innovative programs that have promise. Your innovative program might apply to pre-readers, elementary, middle, or high school students, dropouts, or adults. It doesn’t really matter. Problems exist at all those levels, and grants are out there to help schools and organizations make improvements.

Not every grant you find listed under reading in the Discount School Supply database will specifically be for reading. With some listings you will have to read between the lines to understand exactly how reading programs would be eligible, but they are. Read the listings carefully and decide how your reading problem fits into their program.

If you want to win grant money for your school, reading is a good place to start. The more grants you find listed, the more likely you will be eligible. Don’t hesitate. Find those granting entities that are most likely to help you improve the reading problems you are experiencing and apply, apply, apply. Most of the time reading grants are the easiest path for getting grant money into your school.