Show Me The $$$

Grant Writing and Other Funding

Hope everyone is having a fantastic summer vacation!  As for me, I've already done my "summer slide"--aka I'm now going to bed at 2 am and waking up around noon (aaagggghhhh!)  It happens every summer!

Anyway, during my waking hours when I'm not in my mini-coma I've been working on finding money for my classroom.  And no, I'm not out waiting tables!

A few years back I discovered I had a knack for grant writing.  It all started when I was called in to re-write a proposal for the state ARRA grant (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), which was a $250,000 grant which we used for professional development and technology to focus on student achievement.  We'd tried and failed once, so the stakes were pretty high for the second round (and we were the only school in the district who did NOT receive it the first time, yikes! No pressure....)

And so began my side gig of grant writing. I'm up to about $500,000 in grant funds so far. My goal is to break a million in the next ten years.

So along the way, I've learned a few things about grant writing, and I get a lot of questions about how it's done.  People will congratulate me but then declare that they could never do what I've done.  This could not be farther from the truth!  (Mom, I'm talking to you right now!)

My mother and me in the early 80s

Before you put any of these into practice, check with your Principal to make sure you are following district protocol when securing grant funding for any project.

Start Small.  

I know, I know, my first was that big mommy quarter-mil grant.  That was a bad one to start with because it just got me hooked for more money! 😛Start with Donors Choose.  I know it's not a grant per say, but it's a nice starting point.  These can be left up for several months and random donors (like the owner of the Cleveland Cavs) and corporations (like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) will do a sweep and partially or fully fund projects.  Make the ask small, a tablet or two at a time, to ensure you get funded.

Do a search of your local businesses and see if anyone is offering to fund for projects.  Facebook is a good place to start.

Also, focus on the grants that are less than $1000.  Those tend to require the least amount of paperwork.  One example is Limeades for Learning, which is a $600 grant from Sonic.  Another is the Target Field Trip Grant which pays up to $700 for bussing to get your kids out to see the world.  I love this grant because one of my pet peeves in my urban district is having a "free" field trip or event to take the kids to, but then being faced with the cost of bussing to get us there.  Your mother was right, in life, there is no such thing as "free." 😆

Organize!

Oh my gosh I wish I had a Hermione Granger Time-Turner and could go back to my earlier self and tell me to keep track of all the things I'd needed or written for grants.  I'd have saved my later self so much time!  On a more serious note, here's what I mean:  Most grants ask a series of the same types of questions, like vision/mission statements, description of the school/student body, percentages of student population be it minority or low income etc., fiscal operating budget, accounting information like "Who do we make the check out to?" (and no it's not to you most times, lol)  Gathering this information is the time-consuming part of the process.  Once you have it, however, it can shave hours and even days off your grant writing time.

I use Google Drive and OneDrive from Microsoft.  I like these two because it's easy to get to from any device mobile or otherwise, and it's easy to collaborate on documents when you have a particularly beastly grant and need multiple brains working in tandem. I save links to grants in a bookmarks folder on Chrome, but I've used Pearltrees and Pinterest in the past.  It all depends on your preference.

I've seen people use Dropbox and Evernote, too.  My boss likes to try to make us use Google Classroom to organize, which I love Classroom for my, er, classroom, just not so much for organizing my grants.  I don't like dismissing things right off the bat though, so I'm still trying to acclimate to using it.  I'll keep you posted!

Also, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend saving a final copy of any grant you submit.  These grants are often submitted via a secure portal with a username and password attached that you may or may not have set up yourself, and may or may not dump into your own email.  You will need to see what you wrote later on, like when it's time to fill out those mid-year and final grant evaluation forms (we'll discuss later.)  And if you're like me and would forget your head if it weren't attached, you'll forget at least some of what was in the proposal by semester.  Additionally, some of the questions you answered for this grant could pop up in other grants later on so work smarter not harder 👍💪😎

Keep track of all due dates on a calendar.  I set up a Google calendar for my Grants & Competitions team that is shared among the members.  I also use my Any.do app to keep track of my to-do lists.  Both of these send me reminders and alerts.  Typically with grants, you will have a due date for the idea proposal and, if they like it, a due date for the actual grant, but someone from the company may want to proofread before you submit so you will have to leave time in there for the revision. Then there are the due dates for mid-year and final grant eval paperwork.  There's also your project timeline and budget which you will need to keep track of. A good rule of thumb here-if you say in the grant that you're going to do XYZ by November, then you better make sure you do XYZ by November.

Gather your Peeps

Me and my work bestie, Diana.

And no I don't mean the marshmallow ones (unless of course, you need snacks, then sure bring those kind, too!)  It is essential, especially for larger grants, to have a small but mighty think-force at your disposal.  In my building, we created a team that met during TBT time.  There were pros and cons to this. The pro was that we met weekly, so it was a motivator to have grant items on the agenda.  The con was that the meeting time was shorter than I'd prefer.  I find that a few hours at a time is ideal to really get the creative juices flowing.  There's a lot of word charisma that goes into writing grants.  People need time to think and process, as well.

The smaller grants won't require additional people, but the bigger one's will.  If you try to do it all by yourself, you'll burn out and/or run out of ideas.  I've found the best people to have on your team are:

A. The Principal- Vital component and always a part of the team,even if it's just a team of two.  Either the Big Cheese or the Assistant Principal, they have to approve what it is you are writing the grant for,and they have access to all of the data-type information you'll need.

B. Someone Language-Artsy- Somebody has to proofread your grant and look for those grammatical errors, so you don't sound like a dummy.  This person may or may not have a dual-role (see others below).

C. Content Expert,or in other words, someone from the department that you are writing the grant for- For example, if you are writing a grant to buy new library books, you need to consult with the librarian.  If you're writing a grant to buy new microscopes for the science lab, well then, you need the science teacher.

D. Your Bestie (if you're lucky enough to have a work Bestie)- Your bestie is your work buddy who will sit down with you on a Friday-evening-like-a-mad-woman-why-are-we-still-here-at-work and pound away on this grant right along side you.  This person is your counterpart, the one who helps you keep your sanity and helps keep you organized.  It's the two-brains-are-better-than-one philosophy.

E. "The Consultant"-This is your big idea person.  This is the one you call to bounce an idea when you're thinking it through and you're just not sure it will work, the logistics of it all, or if you need a third opinion.

So that's it.  At most 6 people.  Anymore and you're work flow slows to a craw.  I find that a lot of the times my "consultant" is also my proofreader, or my principal is also my content expert.  Above all else, remember to delegate, delegate, delegate.  Decide who is responsible for what information and hold them accountable.  The last thing you want is for a big grant project to turn into another rendition of "The Little Red Hen."

Ready for the Big One?

Okay, so before you dive head-first into a $250,000 federal grant, there's some things you need to understand first.  

Big Grant Parts

Once you get the feel for it, move into the bigger grants.  Bigger grants typically consist of the following:

1. an idea proposal (the RFP)-where you pitch your project concept.  An RFP is a Request for Proposal.
2. the actual grant-where you use much of your initial pitch to answer essay-style questions
3. a project timeline-what it sounds like.  grants want projects accomplished during a particular time-frame.  Make sure you're within that time-frame.
4. a project budget-where's the money going?  They want to know. Grants may or may not have restrictions on how funds can be used.  Make sure you know that the restrictions are.
5. mid-year evaluation-where you report out to the grantor where you are on the project timeline and what's been purchased so far.  If you're lucky, you are on track with what you said in the initial timeline and budget.
6. end-of-year evaluation-where you report to the grantor how it all went down, what was accomplished, what was purchased, how it affected your "whatever you said it was going to benefit" and any data you have or they want to back that up.

I've also seen bigger grants skip the idea proposal, but add in a voting component whereby grant funds are awarded to the idea that generates the most public votes.  The Fab Labs grant was one such voter-driven grant.  We also won a grant for paper from a local credit union that was driven by likes and shares on Facebook.

Identify your Objective

Just like Backward Design, begin with the end in mind. What is it that you're trying to accomplish, and why?  How long do you think it will take you to accomplish this given the proper funding? Who are your key players in this project?  How does this help/impact the community?  Is this idea self-sustaining?  How does this project help kids? The community?  How could a contributor become involved in the project?

Furthermore, be cognizant of how much time you need to/are willing to invest into the project. For example, a school garden project requires some serious commitment over the summer.  Who's going to insure that this project is completed within the allotted time?  Who takes over if something unexpected occurs?  These are questions that need answered with your team long before the grant writing starts.

Here's an objective of establishing an objective. I just got moved into a very large classroom space.  I have a vision for this space to become the epitome of a 21st century makerspace/fab lab with flexible seating and some seriously cosmic audio-visuals. I've been thinking about how this would look for a few months now.  I've bounced ideas off of my janitors, my principal, my teacher friends, my mom, my own kids. While I want it done now (lol) I'm flexible on time.  I just need money, and the more I have the better my room will be.  I prioritize my wishes so I know what I need to do first (find a Smartboard), next (audiovisual room), and ongoing (flexible seating). I know enough of what I want and how it will impact stakeholders that I'm now actively looking for grants that will help me bring this dream to fruition.

Identify the Common Goal

In every grant, there is an agenda, a mission the company is seeking to fulfill.  Maybe they have a desire to support STEM education.  Maybe they want to promote literacy.  Perhaps they have a strong desire to inspire teachers to use technology. Whatever it is, it is critical that you understand this and use it to drive the grant proposal.  It does you no good to write a grant for a fab-lab to a company whose sole mission is to promote urban gardening, understand?

Know Your Grantor

Plan to spend some time looking at everything they offer.  Read the list of requirements and FAQ's for their particular grant.  Go to their webpage and read about who they are and what they do for the world.  Take notes. Write down sentences and phrases that you come across in your research that are impactful and speak to who they are as a company and what you are as a school.  Use these in your grant essays.

For example, in a grant I wrote last year, the grantor's website mentioned promoting women in the workforce in three different areas on their site.  So when it came time for me to write, I tweaked my original project concept to promote and recruit female students in STEM.

Know their timeline and their grant restrictions.  Some grants want to see projects done that only rely on their contribution.  Others want to see that you've secured funding from another source as well. Most want the project completed in one year, some two years, some 6 months. None of them want to fund projects that fizzle and die after the grant goes away, so consider how your project is going to be sustainable.

Answer the Questions

I know, seems like common sense, right?  Well....I've seen grants written where the answer is beautifully written, all flowery and nice with grant vocabulary.  But it didn't answer the question.  If they ask you how your project will impact the community, then tell them exactly how your project will impact the community, and if you don't know how your project will impact the community, then don't write the grant.  At least not to this grantor.

Many grantors want specific qualitative and quantitative evidence of the impact of their funds.  Make sure you spell these out.  Explain exactly how you will measure the success of the grant project.  This step is a lot easier if you plan ahead (see my comments above under "Identify your Objective").

Know Your Limits, Set Limits

Here's where you have to be realistic.  What can you really get done in the time allotted with the money they are offering?  The grantor is no dummy, nor are they expecting miracles.  They want to see reasonable goals that can be achieved.  So don't tell them you are going to turn their 50k into a fully functioning mobile food truck company with organically grown produce all done by ten kids after school in six months, okay?

Adhere to the Timeline

Never, ever submit a grant after the deadline.  Also, do what you said you were going to do, by the time you said you would do it.  This alone saves you so much effort later when you have to report out.  Reality is that some things will be out of your control and will inevitably change, like the time I wrote a grant for solar panels and then found out our business office wouldn't let us install them into our power grid.  But the more you can stick to the plan the better.  This will also save you from scrambling at the end to spend funds before the end of the fiscal year (fyi what you don't spend by the deadline goes back to the grantor).

And that's about it.  Hope I didn't miss anything! Enjoy your summer!

Oh, here's a list to get you started :-) Edutopia Big Grant List


Peace out~