School Grants

School Grants is a comprehensive site of resources for finding–and obtaining–funds for classrooms. From identifying grant makers to writing proposals, this site even includes samples documents that clearly identify what foundations look for.
> schoolgrants.org

Grants.gov

Grants.gov brings all governmental grant programs together on one site so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Better yet, you can find and apply for grants electronically.
> www.grants.gov

U.S. Dept of Ed List of Educational Grants

> web99.ed.gov/GTEP/program2.nsf/vwNetOffice?OpenView&Start=1&Count=50&Expand=3.33#3.33

List of Open Grant Applications

> www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/grantapps/index.html

Federal Grant Forecast

> www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html

State Grant Opportunities

> www.schoolgrants.org/Grants/state.htm#SEA

Electronic Federal Grant Applications

> e-grants.ed.gov

Federal Grant Award Postings

> www.ed.gov/admins/grant/awards/list.jhtml

Federal Government Assistance with Developing and Writing Proposals

> 12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.GRANT_PROPOSAL_DYN.show

Ed.Gov Site Map

> www.ed.gov/help/site/map/sitemap.jsp?src=gu

Show Me the Money: Tips & Resources for Successful Grant Writing

Many educators have found that outside funding, in the form of grants, allows them to provide their students with educational experiences and materials their own districts can't afford. Learn how they get those grants -- and how you can get one too. Included: Practical tips to help first-time grant writers get the grants they need.
> www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev039.shtml

Grantionary

The Grantionary is a list of grant-related terms and their definitions.
> www.eduplace.com/grants/help/grantionary.html

U.S. Dept of Ed Federal Register

> www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/announce/index.html

U.S. Dept of Ed Press Releases

> www.ed.gov/news/landing.jhtml

No Child Left Behind Desktop Reference

> www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbreference/index.html

Our School District Has Never Applied For A Grant - How Do I Get Started?

Pamela K. Fite, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Technology at Mt. Pleasant ISD in Mt. Pleasant, Tx recognized that her school district had several unmet needs and a dim forecast for additional funding from state and local levels. Pamela had some previous experience in writing grants and she wanted to apply her knowledge to help Mt. Pleasant ISD meet some of those unmet needs, so she went to work showing Mt. Pleasant ISD how to acquire additional funding through grants. In this document, Pamela shares her experiences at Mt. Pleasant ISD.

This is how it can and should be done:
In the beginning it might be difficult to get things started because grant writing will be such a new concept to the administration and teachers. Start out by getting together a team of teachers willing to invest their time after school and in the evenings. After you have assembled a team, have the team members start ’interviewing’different curriculum departments, teachers and administrators to assess individual needs within the district. When that process is complete, the team will have compiled a list of very specific needs that are critical to the student’s education, but are unmet due to the current funding situation.

Using this list of specific needs, the next task is to identify grants that fund those needs. This is done by researching grant websites, subscribing to grant newsletters, consulting with other grant writers on a grant listserv and possibly taking a course on grant writing. Slowly but surely, the team will start to identify grants that will specifically fund the individual requests from department chairpersons, teachers and administrators. Some of the grants will be available from the Federal Government, the state, corporations and philanthropic sources.

Once you have a handful of grant applications, arrange the applications in order based on their application due date. The first few applications the team tackles should have due dates well in advance, giving the team members ample time to learn the process of reading the grant requirements, doing research, gathering information and filling out the grant application with the required data. If any of the grant applications identified by the team are due in a short time, consider skipping those and going on to applications that offer more time before they are due. Most applications open every year or even sooner, so you can apply for that grant again in the future. Some grant applications will be considerably more involved than others. Consider creating sub-teams of 3 or 4 members that can work on the more time-consuming applications together.

One by one, the team members will complete grant applications and mail them to the grant funding sources. At first, the process may seem slow, but be patient. The team members are learning about applications, guidelines, directions, eligibility requirements and school data. They are also trying to fit this extracurricular work into their everyday routines. Eventually though, the team will start to see the fruits of their labors and when they do, educators in your school will take notice.

Pamela K. Fite is in a district that decided to go for grants and it has paid off in a big way! Today, Pamela Fite has a grant team that consists of administrators, teachers, parents and community leaders.

If you have questions or need further assistance, Pamela is available and can be reached at 903-434-8511 (office) or 903-639-2742 (home) and her email address is pfite@aol.com.