The Internet is a great place to learn about grants. You can visit Web sites that list lots of grants to find precisely the one that meets your needs (see "But Wait, There’s More!"). Sometimes an entire application package will be available at t
The Internet is a great place to learn about grants. You can visit Web sites that list lots of grants to find precisely the one that meets your needs (see "But Wait, There’s More!"). Sometimes an entire application package will be available at the funder’s site. You can get advice on how to write your proposal and review successful ones to see how they’re done. While it’s the strength of your concept that matters most, the sites below are good starting places for finding, writing, and winning grants.
Sample Winning Proposal
It never hurts to look at a winner for ideas. Check out Core Values, the California Technology Literacy Challenge Fund grant to the Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, Calif. Read an abstract, the entire proposal, and other documents.
Types of Grants
In general, grants fall into four main categories: federal, state, corporate, and foundation. For details on the requirements and parameters of these types of grants, check out the representative samples below.
Federal
National Endowment for the Humanities Schools for a New Millennium
Purpose: To enable schools through partnership with colleges and communities; to design professional development activities integrating digital technology into the humanities classroom.
State
California’s Technology Literacy Challenge Grant
Purpose: To stimulate effective applications of education technologies in communities across the state. The challenges include: uses of information technology to improve learning in classrooms, homes, and workplaces; the need for teacher training and support services; better software that involves students in engaging activities to meet high academic standards; and strong partnerships to link schools with new learning opportunities at home, in the community, and at work.
Corporate
Open Gateways Grants from Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Purpose: To strengthen a school’s capacity for utilizing technology as a tool to deliver effective models for instruction and to help improve student outcomes.
Private Foundation
Toshiba’s Grade 7-12 Grant Program from Toshiba America Foundation
Purpose: To encourage programs, projects, and activities that have the potential to improve the classroom teaching and learning of science, mathematics, and the science and mathematics of technology.
Advice on Writing Grant Proposals
Proposal Writing Short Course
This includes a short course on proposal writing that is free and online. It looks at the components of a grant proposal and describes the type of information you need to provide and advice on how best to do it.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting evaluates hundreds of proposals each year for a variety of funding purposes. Their publication, "Basic Elements of Grant Writing," is an easy guide to the basics of grant writing and is offered to assist applicants to CPB and other funding sources.
Beginning Grant Writing, An Educator’s Guide
The Internet gives the beginning grant writer a distinct advantage, because it allows one to locate funding sources, access information about the grant writing process, and to seek technical assistance as needed. This Web site provides advice, technical assistance, and resources.
About.com’s Advice for Secondary School Educators
Grant Writing Tips includes techniques to help the grant writer navigate his/her way through the grant proposal process. A Grant Match Rubric helps grant writers choose the right programs so they can find the ones that match their needs and goals. There are also lists of sources of federal, state, foundational, and corporate grants, as well as ideas and tips to help you write.
Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal
This proposal guide, created at Michigan State University, provides instructions on how to write a funding proposal and shows actual examples of a completed proposal. While it is targeted to higher education, the advice is universal and the writing hints apply to K-12 educators.
Grant Writing for Educators
This site begins with advice on writing grant proposals and includes links grant searches on the Web and related resources, as well as advice on the grant-writing process.
National Science Foundation Guide for Proposal Writing
From the National Science Foundation (Division of Undergraduate Education), this guide was compiled with the help of staff, grant readers, and grant recipients. It provides information about the whole process of grant making. Sections offer descriptions of a proposal, criteria used for evaluating a proposal, and suggestions for proposal writers. There are lots of great ideas, even though this site targets NSF grants specifically.
WestEd’s Tips for Preparing a Successful Proposal
This U.S. Department of Education regional education laboratory provides advice on preparing a successful proposal, developed by project reviewers and others familiar with proposal development and review.
TERC Grant Writing Guide
This guide was written to provide high school science teachers with guidelines for submitting proposals for science education enhancement to foundations, government agencies, and local philanthropies, but the advice is generic enough to be valuable to others. It’s divided into four chapters that deal with identifying your goal; researching and establishing a relationship with a prospective funder; the actual writing of the grant; and possible review procedures. Appendices offer sample documents and sources for feedback before you submit the grant application.
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse Funding Opportunities
ENC’s Funding Opportunities provides a series of articles about locating and applying for grants that were originally published in their newsletter. Other information includes resources to help educators locate and apply for educational funds from corporations, agencies, and foundations. There are links to other Web sites with information for grant seekers and a guidebook of federally sponsored programs in math and science.
Eleonora Panto