Best ways to search for grants/funding for school enrichment programs?

November 13, 2014 7:56 AM

I'm on a committee at my kid's elementary school and have been asked to start working on a spreadsheet of all possible funding opportunities that we could pursue for enrichment projects. What's my best strategy for searching for projects?

I've done the standard google searches and come up with a reasonable amount of stuff, but obviously a lot of them are geared to teachers. I'm looking for either databases that I may have missed or other ideas that I should be looking at (e.g. I found that Home Depot gives grants of materials that we could potentially use in our school garden.) I'm not looking for specific grants per se, although if you know of any please post. Just for search strategies/unconventional avenues of funding that I could be following up.

Notes:
- the principal will sign off on what we find, but this is a parents association-driven project, so stuff like donors choose, that have to be teacher-initiated is out
- all geared toward enrichment, so arts, health stuff, school garden etc. etc. etc.
- the school in question is a NYC public school, elementary (PK-5th), Title 1 (high poverty) with 1250 students

thanks!

posted by gaspode to Education (5 answers total)

When I was researching grants for an after-school community center program, I did the following:

1) Identify your area's largest employers. Go to their websites and research their philanthropic/charitable programs. Nearly every single company has a foundation of some kind. Unless they're national or global, many companies prefer to give locally and some companies prefer to give to organizations supported by their employees so see if the companies where the parents in your PTA work provide grants or in-kind donations.
2) Create a spreadsheet containing company name, grant name/program, eligibility requirements, deadlines, type (goods or money), contacts, website urls, etc. You'll see quickly which ones aren't appropriate for your program. Keep adding to your spreadsheet and then you can review which ones makes sense to apply for.
4) Create a calendar based on application deadline.
5) Research local foundations and charitable trusts
6) Research city and state programs

In my experience, grant databases were helpful but of limited use. I had the most luck researching grants based on location and subject area (health, school garden, technology, literacy). So, if you want support for the school garden, google school gardens and New York school gardens. (By the way, Whole Foods has a school garden grant program.) See if the the Parks department offers support or subject matter experts that will provide guidance (which looks good on your application).

I'm also assuming your organization is a 501(3)(c ). That's a requirement across the board.
posted by shoesietart at 10:14 AM on November 13, 2014

Thank you, that's a useful strategy. This is all new to me! Yes, the PA is a 501(3)(c).
posted by gaspode at 10:57 AM on November 13, 2014

Depending on where the school is you might be able to write fundraising letters. One school I worked at was very close to many hospitals and colleges, we would do a yearly ask for monetary help for my library, and most gave every year. It's important to have a demonstrated need, an expected outcome, and how the money will help meet the outcome. The issue with grants is that they are usually a one time only thing, and cultivating relationships with organizations that give money years helps to keep programs consistently funded. I can't tell you how many programs my school has lost because we got funding and then none.

Build A Bear has community grants, Verizon and Target do too. Lowes has a $5000 grant called Toolbox for Education, that I have managed to get twice. It is technically a PTO grant, but I wrote it on behalf of the PTO. And that leads me to my next point, I have partnered with the PTO and posted projects on Donor's Choose that we will both be involved in, is there a teacher at your school who you could partner with? As long as the materials are being used in the school, with school children, then you should be ok. Donor's Choose is a great resource because they offer matching codes as well as flash funding and other ways to get different types of people donating to your cause.
posted by momochan at 4:31 PM on November 13, 2014

Yes, we have tried for a long time to get teachers on board with donors choose (and our PA is a PA at the moment -- we are about to become a PTA, but are not yet) and the teachers at the school just don't want to. Several of them said they were leery about giving out their personal info on the website. Not being a teacher myself, I can't access the site to see what they are getting at (I mean, I donate often to DC, I know what it's about, but I don't know what the teachers have to do.)
posted by gaspode at 5:53 PM on November 13, 2014

1) Identify your area's largest employers. Go to their websites and research their philanthropic/charitable programs. Nearly every single company has a foundation of some kind. Unless they're national or global, many companies prefer to give locally and some companies prefer to give to organizations supported by their employees so see if the companies where the parents in your PTA work provide grants or in-kind donations.

I came in to mention this exact thing - I work for a Fortune 500 company, and we have a program where every single employee can sponsor up to 3 $1000 grants per year. But if it's for a project that emphasizes our particular focus (STEM) other more lucrative grants are possible. So seriously, do this. It's good PR for the companies and works their tax angle, but for those of us who feel like we "sold out to the man" I LOVE taking that $3000 a year and tossing it into poverty level school libraries.
posted by librarianamy at 5:18 AM on November 14, 2014