Dear Education Leaders,

This free Grants Newsletter is published biweekly by Education World^®, the largest free, independent resource on the Web for educators.
If you enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to others. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you may sign up to receive it at http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml.
To unsubscribe, see instructions at the bottom of this email.

Education World remains a free resource thanks to the support of our advertisers -- so please click on ads of interest and visit our advertisers' sites. Thank you.

==============================================================================

Volume 2, Issue 20
November 2, 2009

How Much Grant Money Should Your School Receive?

by Don Peek

Almost every school in the United States should be getting some grant money every year. The amount of that grant money will always be determined by three factors:
1) the number of grants for which you apply,
2) the dollar amount of those grants, and 3) your level of eligibility.

How many grants do most schools get in a year? We did a survey several months ago, and the results may surprise you. Of the 248 educators who responded and actually knew how many grants their school received, we gleaned the following information:

When asked, “Approximately how many federal, state, and foundation grants did your district receive last year?”

Number of Grants	Response Total	Response Percent
0 to 5 grants	166	67%
6 to 10 grants	42	17%
11 to 15 grants	15	6%
More than 15 grants	25	10%

Even though these are district numbers, you have to realize that almost half the districts in the United States contain four campuses or fewer. Many campuses receive multiple grants every year while some campuses never receive a single grant.

Obviously, you have no control over your school’s level of eligibility. You do, however, have absolute control over the number of grants you submit and a great deal of control over the amounts of grant money for which you apply.

Make sure you are not a part of the 67% of schools that get zero to five grants each year. You should try to be a part of the 10% that get more than 25 grants. All the grants you write don’t have to be large. Even if ten teachers apply for classroom grants of $3,000 each, that’s $30,000 extra dollars for your school. Many times getting grants is simply a numbers game. The more applications you put in the mail asking for more and more dollars, the more grant money you receive. It takes commitment and aggressiveness to get all the grant money you want and need.

Billions and billions of dollars are available to schools in the United States. It’s such a shame that a few aggressive schools get so much grant money while thousands and thousands of schools get so little. That lost grant money could make a tremendous difference to the students in those schools. I suggest that you put a grant committee together as soon as possible and start a widespread effort to bring more grant money into your district.

Don Peek is former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. Learn more about The School Funding Center at the bottom of this newsletter.

Grant Name:
Braitmayer Foundation Education Grants

Funded by:
Braitmayer Foundation

Description:
The Foundation is interested in K-12 education throughout the United States. Of particular interest are 1) curricular and school reform initiatives and 2) preparation of, and professional development opportunities for, teachers, particularly those efforts that encourage people of high ability and diverse backgrounds to enter and remain in K-12 teaching. The Foundation is pleased to have its grants used as seed money, challenge grants, or to match other grants to the recipient organizations. The Foundation does not make grants to individuals, multi-year grants, nor grants for endowment purposes or building programs. Unless a small percentage of the total amount requested, normally the Foundation does not make grants for childcare, pre-kindergarten, or after=school programs nor for equipment including hardware, software, and books.

Program Areas:
General Education, Math, Professional Development, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies, All Other

Recipients:
Public Schools

Proposal Deadline:
11/15/09

Average Amount:
$500.00 - $35,000.00

Telephone:
410-480-2799

Website:
http://www.braitmayerfoundation.org

Availability:
All States

Grant Name:
Seeds for Education Grant Program

Funded by:
Wild Ones

Description:
Project goals should center on the enhancement and development of an admiration for nature using native plants. Projects must stress involvement of students and volunteers and add to the educational value of the site. Creativity in design is encouraged, but must show complete and thoughtful planning. The use of and education about native plants and the native plant community is mandatory, and all plants must be suitable to the local ecoregion and the site conditions (soil, water, sunlight).

Recipients:
Public School, Private/Charter School, Other

Proposal Deadline:
11/15/09

Average Amount:
$100.00 - $500.00

Email:
sfedirector@for-wild.org

Website:
http://www.for-wild.org/sfecvr.html

Availability:
All States

Grant Name:
General Educator Fellowships

Funded by:
Earthwatch Institute

Description:
Get out of the classroom and head into the field to learn about cutting-edge research and conservation efforts, develop professional skills, and make a difference for our shared environment. Bring the world back into your classroom and to your students as you’ve never done before with an Earthwatch Expedition. As an Earthwatch Educator Fellow you’ll receive funding to join one of more than ninety Earthwatch expeditions worldwide. If selected, you’ll join a team of other Educator Fellows and/or volunteers and work alongside leading environmental scientists, actively supporting their work, learning field research methods, and helping conserve threatened natural and cultural resources. You’ll also be asked to share your experiences by developing lessons and giving presentations on your experience, and by attending events designed to spread the word to other educators and volunteers.

Program Areas:
Science/ Environment

Recipients:
Public Schools, Private/Charter Schools

Proposal Deadline:
11/22/09

Average amount:
$250.00 - $5,000.00

Telephone:
800-776-0188, Ext. 268

Email:
fellowshipawards@earthwatch.org

Availability:
All States

Grant Name:
Bikes Belong Grants

Funded by:
Bikes Belong

Description:
The Bikes Belong Grants Program strives to put more people on bicycles more often by funding important and influential projects that leverage federal funding and build momentum for bicycling in communities across the U.S. These projects include bike paths, lanes, and routes, as well as bike parks, mountain bike trails, BMX facilities, and large-scale bicycle advocacy initiatives.

Program Areas:
Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Health/PE

Recipients:
Public School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline:
11/23/09

Average Amount:
$10,000.00

Website:
http://www.bikesbelong.org

Availability:
All States

Grant Name:
ALSC/BWI Summer Reading Program Grant

Funded by:
Association for Library Service to Children

Description:
This grant is designed to encourage outstanding summer reading programs by providing financial assistance while recognizing ALSC members for outstanding program development. The applicant must plan and present an outline for a theme-based summer reading program in a public library. The program must be open to all children (birth -14 years). The committee also encourages innovative proposals involving children with physical or mental disabilities.

Program Areas:
Library

Recipients:
Public Schools, Private/Charter Schools, Other

Proposal Deadline:
12/1/09

Average Amount:
$3,000.00

Website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/profawards/bookwholesalers/10BWIAppl.doc

Availability:
All States

In each issue, Don Peek recommends a Web resource, book, software program, or another useful tool of interest to the grants community.

FundsnetForum.com
http://www.fundsnetservices.com/educ01.htm

This week's resource is a Web site, FundsnetForum.com. This is another free resource to use as you're searching for information about grants available to schools in the United States.

The Education World Grants Newsletter is written by Don Peek, former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. The School Funding Center Grant Database attempts to list every grant available to schools across the United States. It is updated daily and currently contains more than 110,000 grant opportunities worth more than $6.5 billion.

If you are serious about getting grant money for your school, you may want to subscribe to The School Funding Center Grant Database.
12-month subscription: $397.00
6-month subscription: $249.00
2-month subscription: $ 99.00
When you order the 12-month subscription, you get a copy of Successful School Grants, a step-by-step grant-writing manual by Dr. Deborah Porter, one of the foremost grant writers in the country, free with your subscription.

Order your subscription today!

==========================================================================

Education World now incorporates www.SchoolNotes.com ~ "everybody on the same page!" The leading school-to-home communications platform, with FREE pages for teachers and automatic notification of parents and students when new homework is posted!

For a modest $24.95 PER YEAR, upgrade to Personal Edition, "Super SchoolNotes," with thousands of resources linked to your state's standards.

Click here for more information.

==========================================================================

MORE FEATURES OF INTEREST
Reader’s Theater More than two dozen scripts, perfect for the classroom.
Best Books for Teaching About… Booklists for 30 popular teaching themes.
Sign Up for Our Newsletters Ten free newsletters full of practical ideas.
Special Education Center Tools for the special education community.
Techtorials Tutorials take the terror out of tech.

==========================================================================

SIGN UP FOR OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS

We hope you enjoy receiving this Education World e-newsletter. Did you know that Education World offers eight other FREE weekly newsletters?

Have you signed up to receive the...
Education World LESSON PLANNING NEWSLETTER?

The weekly Lesson Planning Newsletter offers links to all new lesson plan content posted to the Education World Web site in the previous week. You will find all our regular features there, as well as links to new tutorials, timely holiday lesson planning ideas, and great lesson plans from our archives.

Would you like to see a sample of the Lesson Planning Newsletter? If so, simply click the link below:
http://www.educationworld.com/newsletters_images/lp_sample.shtml

If you would like to subscribe to the Lesson Planning Newsletter, please click this link:
http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml#lessons

If the Lesson Planning Newsletter is not of interest to you, do you know somebody else who might benefit from it? Perhaps you could pass this information along to that person.

============================================================================

Education World®
http://www.educationworld.com/
newsletter-grants@educationworld.com

Education World
1062 Barnes Road Suite 205
Wallingford, CT 06492

==========================================================================