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Foundation Grants from the Lumina Foundation for Education- Giving on a national basis. The foundation’s primary goal is to raise the proportion of the U.S. adult population who earn college degrees to 60 percent by 2025. The foundation is dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school. While their mission focuses on both student access and success in higher education, the foundation’s emphasis is on attainment, defined as completing post-secondary certificates, associate and baccalaureate degrees and credentials.
States: All States
Average Amount: $1,000.00 – $500,000.00
Total Amount: $30,000,000.00 – $60,000,000.00
Address: PO Box 1806, Indianapolis, IN 46206-1806
Telephone: 317-951-5300
E-mail: newinquiry@luminafoundation.org
Website: The Lumina Foundation
Eligibility: Higher Education, Other
Program Areas: Adult Literacy, Arts, Early Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Library, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, Special Education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Vocational
Deadline: Ongoing
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Educational Grants from the Mockingbird Foundation- Grants given to support K-12 music education on a national basis. Education may include the provision of instruments, texts, and office materials, and the support of learning space, practice space, performance space, and instructors/instruction. Mockingbird is particularly interested in projects that foster self-esteem and free expression. The Foundation is interested in targeting children 18 years or younger, but will consider projects which benefit college students, teachers, instructors, or adult students.
States: All States
Average Amount: $100.00 – $5,000.00
E-mail: grants@mbird.org
Website: The Mockingbird Foundation
Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Other
Program Areas: Arts, At-Risk/Character
Deadline: 8/1/2014
by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS
Happy New Year, gentle reader! My resolution for this blog is to keep it fresh and very useful for fledgling grant writers in schools everywhere.
This article is part of a series of articles about grant writing for teachers and school personnel. I’ve been outlining steps to take in the process, and have provided you with some templates for your narratives, and a budget planning Excel document that will help you make sure you cover all the financial bases. This blog is part of a super Grants Database you can search for appropriate resources.
You’ve decided that grant writing is for you, the discipline required to meet deadlines is in your genetic code, you love the social nature of making relationships with the power brokers in your community, and you love the adulation you receive from the other teachers in your community. This is the pretty picture; most of you who have done this for a while know that there is a dark side to the grants world. We’ll talk a little bit about that today.
We’ll say you now have a couple of successful grant applications under your belt, you’ve made inroads in your community for developing a steady stream of funding from several sources, things are really going well. You were not, however, prepared for the enormous amount of time all of these activities have taken from your schedule. Your husband/wife is now permanently angry with you all the time for missing all those soccer matches that little Poindexter has played. The bags under your eyes are deeper than the Grand Canyon, and the laundry is about a week overdue.
Don’t despair, you will find ways to manage your time so that all can be accomplished, and you will even be graceful doing it. One of the keys is to delegate. Some sections of a grant narrative can be done by people who are eager to help. In an earlier blog I cautioned against writing grants in committee, it rarely produces a coherent application. However, to delegate some of the demographics paragraphs and maybe budget research is acceptable. You’ve made a list of the costs you will incur in your project, but someone else can help you get the three bids you’re going to need to find the lowest costs. This one is sort of fun, you get to work with vendors and learn to sweet talk them to a fair price. Don’t kid yourself, it is always negotiable. Someone accused me of being unfair to corporate America for doing this, come on now folks, think about that for a minute.
Another cast member in the dark side of the grant writing drama is the whiner. There’s a teacher in your building who snipes at you behind your back, suggesting that you don’t know what you are doing, and that your motives are impure. This person is making a career of trashing your work, and it isn’t fun. My solution to this one is to sit down with the whiner to try to find out what the real issues are. Chances are its jealousy; they want some of this limelight you are now basking in. A good solution to this is to find something for the whiner to do. Bring him into the fold, and then be sure to give him lots of credit for being helpful along the way. Amazing how fast the whining will stop.
There are other parts to the dark side, the fact that now that you’ve been successful, people expect this level of success on a regular basis. I can tell you from experience, there will be dry spells along the way, you will develop writer’s block on occasion, and life will intervene to take you away from the tasks of putting together an application. You are not a superhero, you do what you can, and it’s all you can do anyway.
So, grant writer that you are, suck up to the dark side, learn to embrace it, and continue on your path to glory.
It’s all for the kids anyway, right?
Please comment on this post, let me know if there are topics you’d like me to cover. I have a million stories to tell, seven years as a grants manager has taught me a few things and I’d love to share it all with you.
Foundation Grants from the Easton Sports Development Foundation II- the goal of The Easton Sports Development Foundation is to promote the sport of archery and/or bow hunting and continue these efforts through college and university programs. We want to be a catalyst in the development of archery as a mainstream sport and help it to grow at the state, regional, and national level. Requests for less than $25,000.00 can be submitted at any time.
States: All States
Average Amount: $1,000.00 – $50,000.00
Total Amount: $1,000,000.00 – 5,000,000.00
Address: 7855 Haskell Avenue, Suite 360, Van Nuys, CA 91406
Telephone: 818-909-2207 Ext. 306
E-mail: ibriones@esdf.org
Website: Easton Sports Development Foundation II
Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other
Program Areas: Health/PE
Deadline: 3/1/2014
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Computing Education for the 21st Century from the National Science Foundation- the Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) program aims to build a robust computing research community, a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and a computationally empowered citizenry. In this undertaking, there are three interrelated challenges: the significant underproduction of degrees needed for the computing and computing-related workforce, the longstanding underrepresentation of many segments of our population, and the lack of a presence of computing in K-12. CE21 thus supports efforts in three tracks: Computing Education Research, CS 10K, and Broadening Participation.
States: All States
Average Amount: $600,000.00 – $1,000,000.00
Total Amount: $15,000,000.00
Address: 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230
Telephone: 703-292-8900
E-mail: jcuny@nsf.gov
Website: National Science Foundation
Eligibility: Public School, Higher Education, Other
Program Areas: General Education, Technology
Deadline: 3/12/2014
by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS
This article is part of a series of articles about grant writing for teachers and school personnel. I’ve been outlining steps to take in the process, and provided you with some templates for your narratives, and a budget planning Excel document that will help you make sure you cover all the financial bases. This blog is part of a super Grants Database, you can search for appropriate resources.
If you have been selected to be “the school grant writer”, it’s probably because you raised your hand in a faculty meeting when the subject of fund raising came up. You have a reputation for being organized, detail oriented, and timeline friendly. These are all great traits, but the process of getting a grant can sometimes be a “be careful what you wish for” situation. Working through the writing process will take weeks, perhaps months if you are doing it right.
Sounds daunting, but once you have a few grant applications (successful ones) under your belt, subsequent applications will become easier. You have an opportunity to become a hero in your school, and if you are really good at it, develop a career in grantsmanship.
Assuming you are in this now for the long haul, it may have occurred to you that there might be some formal training available that can help you become an effective grant writer. I’ve outlined a few of the possibilities (free and not so free) for formal training in this blog.
Concordia – online and distance education solution.
So many resources and great training opportunities, so little time. All you have to do is Google (or Bing, or Yahoo) “grant writing training”. You will be astonished at what pops up.
Let me know what you think about formal training! Maybe you are more organic and learn best by doing – let me know your training selections.
Ford Foundation Educational Grants from The Ford Foundation- The foundations grant making focuses on reducing poverty and injustice; promoting democratic values; and advancing human knowledge, creativity and achievement. Types of grants the foundation makes: General/core support, Project, Planning, Competition, Matching, Recoverable, Individual, Endowment, Foundation-administered project, and Program-related investment.
States: All States
Total Amount: $450,000,000.00 – $480,000,000.00
Average Amount: $100,000.00 – $500,000.00
Address: 320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY 10017-4801
Telephone: 212-573-5000
E-mail: office-secretary@fordfound.org
Website: The Ford Foundation
Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other
Program Areas: After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Early Childhood, Family Services, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Technology
Deadline: Ongoing
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EngineerGirl Essay Contest from Lockheed Martin- In honor of the NAE’s 50th anniversary, we invite you to imagine how engineering might change our lives over the next 50 years, in one of the following areas: Nutrition, Health, Communication, Education, or Transportation. Guidelines for length are: Grades 3–5: about 400 to 500 words; Grades 6–8: about 600 to 800 words; and Grades 9–12: about 1100 to 1500 words.
States: All States
Average Amount: $100.00 – $500.00
Address: National Academy of Engineering 500 Fifth St. NW Rm. 1047 Washington, DC 20001
E-mail: EngineerGirl@nae.edu
Website: Engineer Girl
Eligibility: Public School, Private School
Program Areas: General Education, Science/Environmental, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
Deadline: 3/1/2014
by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS
You are well on your way to finishing your narrative for your grant application to XYZ Foundation. I’ve been concentrating on the technical aspects of grant writing so you’ll have a template, outline and budget planner to use for any grant application process. Just in time for the holidays, let’s step back and scratch the itch I know you’ve been developing. What’s is like to write grants for a living?
First, I need to help you distinguish between grant writing and grants management. If you’re getting really good at this, and enjoy the process (deadlines and stress included), you may want to explore the wonderful world of a career in grantsmanship. If you are the go-to grants person in your school, you are a grant writer. Your school district most likely has a business manager (many are deputy superintendents) who takes the proceeds of successful grant applications and manages the cash flow and expenditure of those funds. If you haven’t done this yet, make an appointment to sit down with the district business manager to explain your progress and interest in working with him/her to make this process smooth and professional.
If this relationship is already perking along, and you are comfortable with your role and the lines around which you actually experience the money, you’ll also want to make sure your principal is aware of your desires and professional management skills. Your district superintendent will want to be in on these discussions, leaving any one of those people out of your conversation is very bad practice, and your new career will end quickly.
I began my career as a teacher and library media specialist who wanted to bring in some funds to improve my school/s. Sound familiar? Believe me, it is intoxicating when the approval letters start to arrive, and checks are cut. Be sure your foundation managers know to whom they will be sending the funds, and how the checks should be endorsed and deposited. Most likely, you will never see the check, unless it’s a small local grant from a merchant in town who has heard of your project. It is critical that these checks are handled correctly and handed over promptly to the appropriate parties. Make copies of everything, put your paperwork in a binder, and keep it secure. Create a duplicate binder for your business manager and update it for her frequently. Hand deliver checks or send via certified mail.
Pretty soon in my grant writing career, I knew I wanted to do this again, and again, and ….. I had no idea where to take this new found ambition. You have now entered the spooky world of school district politics. The way you approach this, and the manner in which you communicate your intentions is very important. Transparency rocks!
I knew I wanted to broaden my education, so I went back to school to finish a master’s degree in educational administration. Good education junkie that I am, this degree program was heady and full of promise, and I happily completed it for many reasons having nothing to do with grants. The possibilities are endless for advancement in public (or private) education. School districts need great leaders. Keep in mind your school year will lengthen, summer vacations will vanish, and your colleagues will look at you in a whole new light. Don’t get bogged down by faculty room nattering about “those idiots downtown” even if you’ve jumped right in to those conversations in the past. If your plans pan out, you’re about to become an idiot.
My first administrative job in a large urban district was in the curriculum office. This was ideal for me, coming from special education and library media, I could now broaden my outlook to curriculum k-12, a great vantage from which to view the needs of your learning community. If you remember you are creating with standards as your guide (Common Core State Standards), and all subjects as your palette, you can start painting pictures that illustrate the road to the improvement of academic achievement for your students. Remember, it’s not about the money; it’s really about children and their path to learning. You can become well rounded in the curriculum office, or as a principal.
Then as time went by and a position opened up in the grants office, I saw the opportunity and went to work. My responsibilities were for acquiring and managing state, federal, private and corporate grant resources for schools. There were times when I felt I was ill-suited for the job, bean counting and attention to meticulous detail were really not my forte, but I had a great staff of accounting clerks to help me keep it all straight.
I had big wipe off calendars on the wall to keep me on track, and with help from some professionals in the field, it has become a great career. I have now moved on to consulting, blogging and grant making, another avenue with promising career possibilities. For your perusal, I present you with some organizations that may help you decide if this is for you, and help you scratch your itch:
Networking: LinkedIn, Grant Manager Profiles
Education and Training: Lists of degree programs. Professional Organizations, How-to sites. and Blogs.
You’ll work long hours, have stressful days, and think you’ve lost your mind on several occasions, but you will join a group of professionals who are in it for the kids in a very big way. If it’s not about the kids, you’re in it for the wrong reason.
Let me know what you think!
Mini-Grants from the Music Is Revolution Foundation – 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. Only projects that clearly contain a music education focus, 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.
States: All States
Average Amount: $500.00
Address: PO Box 11899 Portland, OR 97211
E-mail: grants@musicisrevolution.com
Website: Music Is Revolution Foundation
Eligibility: Public School
Program Areas: Arts
Deadline: 1/15/2014
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Educational Grants from the Edward E. Ford Foundation – Giving limited to the U.S. and its protectorates; providing grants for independent secondary education only. Independent secondary schools must hold full and active membership in National Association of Independent Schools to be eligible for consideration. No grants to individuals, or for emergency funds or deficit financing and no support for public elementary or college-level schools, schools that have been applicants within the last three years, or schools that do not have individual membership in NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools).
States: All States
Total Amount: $2,727,000.00
Average Amount: $50,000.00
Address: 66 Pearl St., Ste. 322, Portland, ME 04101-4165
Telephone: 207-774-2346
E-mail: office@eeford.org
Website: Edward E. Ford Foundation
Eligibility: Private School
Program Areas: General Education, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
Deadline: 3/1/2014
by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS
You are well on your way to finishing your narrative for your grant application to XYZ Foundation. You now understand why the dollar amount you are requesting was a big question mark when you started this process; it needed to be revealed along the way, as part of the process. If you started your grant writing project with “We’re going to need and write for $10,000.00 you know you started from the wrong place in the process.”
A caveat is probably due from the author at this point. The processes and tips I provide are what have worked for me. I am a veteran grant writer and manager, I’ve raised millions of dollars for schools and over time, I’ve developed a rhythm of what needs to happen when. You may find a better way, one that works best for you, but some of the words of wisdom I provide will save you a great deal of time and get you off on the right foot.
The three big caveats are:
1. You are not writing a grant to get money for your school, you are creating an appeal to a foundation to join with you in a partnership that will solve a problem and help improve academic achievement in your school.
2. When you start to write the narrative, you have only a very vague idea of how much money you are requesting, that is being revealed as you go along and identify research based ways to solve your problem.
3. The relationship you develop with the foundation or corporation you have identified from your research through the Grants Database will be a long-term partnership. Once you have a grant from this organization, the door is open for future support. They will become your benefactor in many ways. You may find that corporations will want their employees to volunteer in your school to get real-world experience and become partners in the education of children in their community.
4. A bonus fourth caveat is that you may need to write several grants to different funding organizations to cover all the costs of your project. This happens all the time. You’ll get to know what each supporter will and won’t pay for. There’s always another who will step up and pay for that last little piece of the puzzle.
I’ve provided you with a budget planner spreadsheet. It is a great idea to stop now and take a closer look at it. You may want to add to it, print it out, and keep it handy so you can be sure you are not forgetting any details for providing for your needs. Please print it out right now, and let’s look at some of the line items (now you’ll know what people mean when they talk about things like line items.).
You’ll want to give every grant application a number. On the budget planner you’ll see a place for “ORG”. That’s the internal number you will use to identify the grants you pursue and keep them all organized. You will want to start creating and identifying numbering systems. A combination letter and number code has always worked for me. A state grant might begin with S1 – your first state grant might be S1 and so forth. You might want to add a date, call it S1111513 (first state grant submitted on 11/15/2013).
You’ll find lines for salaries, this will include part and full time staffs you will need to carry out your plan. Your principal might want to cover part of a teacher’s salary with funds from the grant. This amount will fall under “instructional salary.” A stipend is usually an hourly rate for staff you will hire part time. You want to keep administrative, instructional, clerical and paraprofessional salaries separate. If you’re paying for part of a teacher’s salary, you’ll want to be sure to cover their fringe benefits (how much will you need to subsidize their health insurance for example).
Contractual stands for companies or consultants you will bring in to provide services that support the project. Start thinking now about drawing up an actual contract with your service providers (more about this later in the series). Everyone is happier when things are carefully spelled out and all parties have signed an agreement. There is no such thing as a casual relationship when money is involved.
Your supply lines need to be specific. Grantors will want to know the percentages of your budget that you are setting aside for different items. You will want to work with your foundation representative to see if they have limits on lines. They may only be willing to support a salary at 10% for instance. Or computer software and supplies can only represent 15% of the total request. They will help you with the budget, take advantage of their expertise. In the beginning of my grant writing career I was intimidated by the budget, but quickly learned that the foundation was very eager to help with the details. They want you to succeed. Private grants (foundations and corporations) are competitive but that doesn’t necessarily mean “impossible to get”. If, by the time they score your application with their scoring rubric, you have been on the phone with them to work through details; they know about your needs and have a name and face to go with the application. You will be that much more ahead of the curve.
You’ll want to be sure you are supplementing not supplanting. The grant funds you seek will support the materials and supplies your city is paying for, not taking the place of, or becoming the sole source for materials that should be covered by your local budget.
Yes, it’s complicated; it’s a great deal of information to absorb all at once. That’s why this blog is crafted in a logical progression, to describe bits and pieces. It’s all intended to help you become a confident and successful grant writer.
Please feel free to comment on this blog and provide ideas and suggestions. I value your insights.
by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS
You are well on your way to finishing your narrative for your grant application to XYZ Foundation. You’ve crafted a most persuasive argument, using data and demographics from reliable sources; your need has been thoroughly explained and documented. You’ve developed a tone and voice that is professional, but compelling.
As you’ve moved on to the next item on the narrative section list, “Activities”, you are confronted with the dreaded methodology. OK, we get it, you need your kids to improve their reading scores, an afterschool program is missing from your repertoire of solutions to the problem. It is a demonstrated and research-based method for solving your particular problem. You just don’t have the stuff or the staff you need to pull it off.
In focus groups with stakeholders, you’ve determined that there are some really great supplementary materials, software and Internet resources that are available with your reading curriculum from ABC Reading Company. You need more books, some have become torn or have gotten lost, you want to add a couple of lower and higher level readers to what you have. There are workbooks available in e-book and paper formats that would help fill out what you already own. You want to add some supporting fiction to your library media center, online resources, videos and audio support perhaps. Your district only purchased the bare bones set for all the classrooms it serves. All of your teachers have been trained to use this curriculum so you don’t necessarily want to throw out the baby with the bath water.
You’ve reached the point in your narrative that begins to justify your budget request. At this stage you really don’t know how much you will be asking for. The dollar amount will emerge as you go along. Don’t worry about whether or not the foundation will provide all the money you need. If necessary, your appeal can be spread among several funding resources. Right now, you just want to be sure you analyze your needs carefully and that you include every possible item needed in your budget.
Here is a “budget planning sheet” you may find useful. It has been my guide for years. It is a list of all the funding categories you might possibly need to be sure you include all required items for your project. It forces you to think of everything. It is an Excel spreadsheet and it automatically adds everything up so you can keep track of what your budget request will be when you finally submit your application.
This document differs from the budget document the foundation will want you to use when you submit. It is your internal guide. You can write all over it, add and take away lines, and print it out for others to review. Someone else in your group may think of something you’ve left out. There’s nothing worse than finishing your application and having someone point out that you forgot the software that links the curriculum to smart board exercises for phonics (for instance).
If you started your grant-writing exercises with a firm dollar amount in mind, you will be surprised by how much it has changed now that you’ve really taken the program apart. Your activities section might be structured as a timeline, you have a twenty-week afterschool program planned, and you have lesson plans sketched out for how you want each of those twenty week sessions to build on the last. There are visits to the library, a field trip or two, and oh yes, don’t forget stipends for your teachers. Unless you have a very unusual climate and culture in your district, these folks will expect to be paid. You may need an administrator on hand to be sure you stick to the script. You’ll need office supplies, do you want to have a clerk available in the office to meet and greet parents at the end of each afterschool session? Do you need an assessment specialist to help you build out your measurement instruments for the program? Your grantor is going to want to know if your program meets their expectations (and yours) for success.
Don’t forget to add one or two post-program sessions for staff to have everyone meet and decide how the program succeeded, failed, or should be repeated next year. So much to think about, but your budget planning sheet will help you with all of it.
I know, I know, you started reading this blog because you want to write a grant. You don’t want to be a number cruncher or a technology nerd. And you’re a teacher, not Ernest Hemingway. Welcome to the wonderful world of grant writing and grants management. At the end of the day, no one else will do it for you. It’s definitely a “be careful what you wish for” proposition. However, I am alive and here to tell you, it’s all worthwhile. You will be stretched and all the accumulated skills and talents of a lifetime will be called into play.
Please feel free to comment on this blog and provide ideas and suggestions. I learn from teachers each and every day.
How to Get a School Grant 