Walton Family Foundation Inc.

The Public Charter School Initiative aims to increase the number of children who have access to high-quality public charter schools. The Foundation focuses its support on 27 urban school districts and Arkansas and supports groups that are:

• Planning and starting public charter schools that show potential for dramatically raising student achievement;
• Developing state and national associations that serve, protect and cultivate the public charter school movement;
• Recruiting and training leaders and teachers for public charter schools; and
• Addressing the need of public charter schools for facilities.

http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/educationreform/index.asp#2

School Choice

The School Choice Initiative supports initiatives that empower low-income students to choose and attend quality private schools. The Foundation supports state and national groups that:

• Build support for public policies that provide school choice;

• Manage and strengthen publicly funded scholarship programs;

• Provide families with clear and useful information about their traditional public, public charter, and private school options; and

• Evaluate the performance and effects of large school-choice programs.

http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/educationreform/index.asp#2

Arkansas Education

The Arkansas Education Initiative seeks to raise the performance of Arkansas schools and prepare students for post-secondary education and careers in industry. Specifically, this initiative seeks to support statewide programs designed to:

• Encourage greater accountability, transparency and choice in Arkansas schools and provide incentives for improved performance; and

• Produce school district improvement, quality public charter schools, and school choice programs that align with the Foundation's national education reform initiatives.

http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/educationreform/index.asp#2

Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities

The Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program provides assistance to help charter schools meet their facility needs. Under this program, funds are provided on a competitive basis to public and nonprofit entities, and consortia of those entities, to leverage other funds and help charter schools obtain school facilities through such means as purchase, lease, and donation. Grantees may also use grants to leverage funds to help charter schools construct and renovate school facilities.

http://www.ed.gov/programs/charterfacilities/index.html

Charter School Resources

http://www.ed.gov/programs/charterfacilities/resourcescsf.html

National Charter School Clearinghouse Funding Links

Provides links to a variety of resources of potential value to grant seekers. Resources are divided into the following sections: Cause Related Marketing, Corporate/Other Opportunities, Federal, Foundation, Grant Tips, Grant Writing Assistance, Grantwriter Database, State, and Successful Proposals.

http://www.ncsc.info/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=8&page_id=1

NCUST Award Excellent Urban Schools

The NCUST Excellence in Education Award was established exclusively to recognize public schools or public charter schools serving urban communities. To help urban school districts and their partners transform urban schools into places where all students achieve academic proficiency, evidence a love of learning, and graduate well prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, the workplace, and their communities.

The district where the school is located must serve a city with a population of at least 50,000. At least 50 percent of the school's students must meet the eligibility criteria for the federal free- or reduced-price lunch program. Secondary schools, however, may be considered if at least 50 percent of the students meet the federal criteria in two-thirds of the elementary schools that feed into the secondary school. To be considered for an Excellence in Education Award, a school may not have any selective admissions criteria. A school must have met AYP performance goals for all student subgroups for the previous two academic years. http://edweb.sdsu.edu/ncust/awards/criteria.html