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.
