Grant Stuff

....or, more sources than you ever wanted to have for grants, but here they are anyway

Grants are an essential resource for educational programs today. Writing grants doesn't have to be for the professional only. If you know there are things you want to accomplish, but are having difficulty because of inadequate technology, don't despair. Grant-writing can be done by individuals, for themselves or for their whole school. It's not easy ...or fun, but it is very possible. Here's a few hints.

Grants are NOT about the money. To write a successful grant, establish the need your school has, tie that need to an educational goal you want to accomplish, and show how the resources you are asking for will accomplish that goal.
Work in teams. Find others at your school who are interested in the same things, divide the task of grantwriting up. Grants are always broken into sections. Different people can write different sections, but have one person do the final polishing of the language, so the wording has a similar flavor throughout.
Begin to store information that will be useful from grant to grant. Almost all grants ask for very similar information, a history of the school and its educational philosophy, demographics on the students, and other background material of various kinds. Obtain a copy of your school's Improvement Plan, its Technology Plan, documents that outline the state of the technology at the school, etc. As you write more grants, save copies (on disk of course) of other grants you've written. Some material will transfer from grant to another.
See if your district has a Grant Department, or offers training in grant writing.
....or, if you're really serious, hire a professional. If a school pays a grantwriter $30,000 a year, and that grantwriter successfully obtains grants worth $100,000 or more, your money hasn't been wasted (and your teachers have remained free for other duties ...like teaching!).

Ready to get started? Here are some sites to help you out.

Grant Links

State of Texas' TIF Board, Grant and Loan Information
http://www.tifb.state.tx.us/grantloan/grantloan.html

TEA School Finance and Grants Website
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/tea/finance.html

U.S. Government's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Programs and Funding
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/program.html

U.S. Department of Grants and Contracts
http://gcs.ed.gov/

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence - Home Page
http://www.ed.gov/free/

NASA K-12 Internet Initiative: Grant Information
http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/grants/grants.html

The Compaq Contributions Program accepts grant proposals from educational institutions for cash and equipment in communities where Compaq has a presence.
http://www.compaq.com/corporate/community/program.html

GrantsWeb
http://www.col-ed.org/fund/

Grantseeker's Front Page
http://www.col-ed.org/fund/fund.html

Pitsco.com's Grants and Funding Sources page
http://www.pitsco.com/p/Respages/grants.html

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Grant Sources for Educators
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/business/grants.html

Morris Catholic High School's Page of Grant Resources (the private school perspective)
http://www.morriscatholic.org/grants.html

Education Resources: Funding and Related Resources
http://www.mcrel.org/resources/links/funding.asp

Grant Information (for Virginia Commonwealth University, but would apply to anyone)
http://www.vcu.edu/mdcweb/resources/grant.htm

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This page was last edited on June 25, 2001

URL = http://teachertech.rice.edu/Materials/GT2001/East/day07/grants.html

These pages were developed through GirlTECH, a teacher-training program sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEEE) with support from the National Science Foundation through EOT-PACI.
Copyright © Michael Sirois and Susan Boone, GirlTECH, June 2001.

last edited, ms 6-25-2001, 21:39