Dear Friend Thank you for requesting this free publication with

							Dear Friend:

Thank you for requesting this free publication with suggestions on
how to get grant money. While there are a gazillion books and
websites out there, we’re hoping that this will give you a little
“jump start” towards your goal. Let’s focus on getting you some
help.

All you need is money, right? But should you get a grant or a
donation? And how exactly do you get one? Where do you find
the right donor? How do you handle the forms? How long will it
take? What are your chances of getting the money? Relax, take a
deep breath. Help is right in front of you.



               Ten Insider Tips to Getting
            A Windfall of Grant Money
TIP# 1: Have A Positive Attitude. The Money’s Out There!
Thousands Of Teachers Receive Grants Every Year

Reality is - school budgets are being cut. Teachers increasingly
need to seek grants to help finance classroom improvements and
receive educational funds to use for staff development.

There are more than 51,000 corporate, independent, and
community foundations in the United States, with the number
growing weekly. The total assets of these foundations are more
than $385 billion. Foundations are required by federal tax laws to
give away an average of at least 5 percent of their assets to charity
over a three-year period. As foundation assets and businesses
continue to grow, and as individuals and families begin to inherit



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enormous amounts of wealth and establish their own foundations,
this creates a vast market of untapped money.

In the fall of each year the federal government publishes a catalog,
entitled Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). It lists
more than 1,300 granting programs that disseminate approximately
$80 billion in grants annually. It also provides the grant seeker
with all sorts of valuable information, including deadlines. The
CFDA is available on the Internet. Go to www.ed.gov and click on
the “Programs” icon. You may purchase the CFDA for under
$100; however, your local library will have a copy for you to use.

TIP# 2: Some money is easier to get than others.

Here are three good reasons for applying for corporate and
foundation funding at this time. They are:

a) Most corporations and foundations are more interested in
providing grants to schools, and many teachers and administrators
have not yet discovered this funding opportunity. If you know how
to obtain corporate and foundation funding, you will be at an
advantage over other people who are not yet aware of this funding
source. Therefore, by having fewer people apply for corporate and
foundation grants, competition will not be as keen as for applying
for grant opportunities that are better known, such as federal
grants.

b) Most corporate and foundation funding agencies require an
application of just two to ten pages or a one-page letter of
application. Is this great, or what? This is reason enough to apply
for corporate and foundation funding. Teachers and administrators
are very busy people. So are the program officers and other staff
members at funding agencies.             By keeping application
requirements short and to the point, everybody wins.


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c) Most corporation and foundations fund more than once a year.
Some of these agencies fund four times a year, and others fund
every time the board meets, which could be twelve times a year.
The funding timetables are much more favorable than government
grant deadlines where, if you get turned down, you are out of luck
for an entire year. If you miss a corporate or foundation deadline,
you have an opportunity to apply in another month or two, or go to
another funding agency with your project.

TIP# #3. Be willing to do what it takes. There is a good reason
why some folks get the money and others don’t. It’s called
“playing the game.”

The people who give money away have guidelines for how it’s
given away. They want to meet those guidelines and goals. They
want to keep their shareholders or board members happy. Most of
all, they want to feel that they are getting what they want--to feel
like they are doing real good in the world.

Your request will either help them meet their guidelines or it won’t.
Your application will either inspire the donors, or it won’t. That’s
why you have to set about this process with the right mindset. The
attitude you want to have is, “I can help you (the donor) feel good
about how your money is being spent. In fact, with me, your money
is being invested and the returns will come back many fold.”

TIP# 4: Treat this as a project, not a simple “to-do”. That
means you must take this seriously and have a plan for this
process.

Here are the parts to your plan. Get out your laptop or some paper
and get yourself organized. You want big bucks and no one’s just
going to throw it at you (at least not yet). Jot down these steps and
make up a flow chart to keep track of your progress.


                                  3
A) Start with an innovative idea and vision in mind. If you don’t
have one, get some help. Generate your ideas from teams of two to
five people. These teams should be made up of people having
similar ideas and visions for funding. Obtain administrative
support for your ideas.

Maybe your starting idea was: “I want to go to San Diego for a 6-
Day training.” But a more appealing grant-getting idea to a donor
might be: “Create a high-performing, Jensen-certified school team
that can performs in-services and transform our whole district.”

Create a realistic budget. Start with a clear long-term goal and
document every little aspect of the project. Breakdown the figures
and categorize them. Food, travel, hotel, tuition, resources for
staff, even tips to the doorman. It is better to have more money
than not enough money for your project. Be realistic.

B) Start the process of looking for a donor after you’ve roughed
out what you want to do, when you want to do it and how much
money you will need to accomplish your goal. Begin to do
prospect research by becoming familiar with corporate and
foundation funding agencies in your local area, the state, and the
nation that are interested in funding PreK-12 education programs.
It is usually easier to obtain monies from local and statewide
foundations and corporations rather than national foundations that
traditionally fund projects having national implications and
significance. However, if your project meets the criteria of any of
the national foundations, go for it.

Access the Foundation Center website at www.fdncenter.org to
locate corporations and foundations in your area, including
community foundations that might be interested in making grants
to schools. The FREE Foundation Center website is loaded with


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worthwhile information for people doing basic research on
corporate and foundation giving.

C) You are now ready to request the most recent information,
yearbooks and applications from the corporations and foundations
that are potential funding sources for your school or district. This
can usually be accomplished via email, telephone or fax, or by
writing directly to the corporation or foundation. In school
districts or counties where corporate and foundation files are kept
up to date, contact the district or county person who is responsible
for fundraising and ask for assistance. Or, go onto the district
website to look for grants and grant writing links if the district has
moved in this direction.

Make multiple copies of relevant applications and materials and
read and study carefully. Immediately, before you do anything,
check for deadline dates of which you need to be aware. The
deadlines will drive your entire timeline.

If possible, telephone the program officer at the foundation or
corporation to discuss your ideas and to begin the nurturing
process. If it appears that the program officer is interested in your
project, and that monies are available to meet your needs based
upon your prospect research, ask for an appointment to visit the
foundation with your site or district level administrator. This
consistent person-to–person contact, especially with the heads of
both organizations, could do wonders for your corporate and
foundation fundraising effort. If you are unable to visit the funding
agency, invite the program officer of the funding agency and other
staff members to visit you.

D) Now it’s time to start the actual process of proposal writing.
Whether you have arranged for a site visit or have been
encouraged to submit an application without a site visit, begin to


                                  5
fill in the application, responding specifically to what the funding
agency is asking. Note: In some instances, the corporation or
foundation does not provide an application, it merely will tell you
to respond to its guidelines.

Get outside input! No matter how “genius” you are, there are
things you won’t see that another set of eyes will pick up. Have
one or two persons in your field of interest read the completed
application for clarity and input. You might also consider having
one or two persons who are not in your field of interest read the
completed application to be sure that you have made a very clear
and concise argument for the funder to choose your proposal over
others.

E) Put together your final draft. Include a cover letter that “grabs”
the reader. Obtain needed signatures and approvals. Mail your
application to the funding agency with a return receipt. Mail it in a
priority envelope well in advance of the deadline. The special
envelope helps get attention.

TIP# 5: Don’t wait for your ship to come into port. Swim out to
it! Become a proactive grant-seeker.

To determine how to get started in grant seeking you must first
decide to be a proactive grant seeker. Recognize the needs of your
projects and the solutions to meet those needs.

Here’s the OLD, reactive way: Grant seekers (you) are so focused
on what they (you) want to do and why that they forget to take into
consideration the reasons a funding source would be interested in
supporting their projects or programs. Grant seekers begin by
focusing on who has money. They then try to develop a proposal
that will appeal to the funding source, whether it be federal, state,
foundation or corporate. Frequently they are enticed into the


                                  6
grant’s process when they learn of the availability of grant funds
through a colleague, a district publication, a professional journal or
a newsletter. Unfortunately, this sequence of events sets in motion
a reactive grants system that is deadline driven. A reactive grant
system often results in undue stress and tension, hastily prepared
proposals, and usually rejection.

Here’s a better way: You have assessed a situation, discovered a
need and are determined to develop a solution. Armed with
solutions, you search for a source to fund them. When you first
develop a program, project or idea that benefits your school and
then seek out a funder, you establish two important concepts in the
mind of a potential grantor.

Let’s walk through that process. In a proactive grant system you
might, for example, need to provide a prospective funder with the
minutes for the school-community or school advisory committee
meetings at which the problem (low student achievement) was
discussed and innovative ways to solve it were brainstormed. This
may have occurred months before you learned of their granting
program. When funding sources ask to see minutes proving your
efforts to develop solutions to a problem, they really want to be
sure that you had identified the problem before they announced
having money to deal with it, and that teachers and administrators
were involved in developing solutions to the problem.

The second concept you want to instill in prospective funders is
that your grants system provides a program that allows them to
meet their (your) needs at a price they can afford. Most
prospective grantees become consumed by their projects and are
unwilling to view the projects and their benefits from the funding
source’s point of view. By choosing a funder according to its
values, motives and needs you will develop a convincing proposal
that demonstrates your knowledge of what the grantor funds and
why. In the process, you convince the funder that it is not simply

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one of many you are approaching but that it has been selected as
the best possible partner in creating educational change for your
students. Funders are more likely to review your proposal if they
know you selected them to work with you because of the match
between your program’s goals and their values and expectations
rather than simply because you reacted to their announcement of a
deadline. Funders want to know that you target your prospects and
aim for the funder that would benefit the most from making a grant
to your school.

Last, and still important, stay focused and stay positive during the
grant seeking process.

TIP #6: Be absolutely fanatic about details!

Read instructions carefully--you must be ridiculously detail-
oriented. Read, and then re-read them again. Then ask another to
read the instructions. Directions must be followed to the “T”.

Remember: regardless of which funders you have decided to
submit your proposal to, the most important thing you must
remember is to follow the grant makers' guidelines!

When the proposal says “needs”, be sure to differentiate in your
mind between needs and wants. Who says it’s a need? How much
of a need? What data supports that claim, etc.? Be specific, be
accurate and be relevant.

TIP # 7: Learn from the pros. Keep your ears tuned for “grant
talk.” But primarily focus your study of grants on those who
have written winning grants.

Ask around at school. Talk to others in your district. Network at
conferences. Attend breakout sessions on writing grants. If you
don’t have much in-person contact with other writers, go on-line.

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The first place to start is to a review other successful proposals.
One advantage is that you can see how another tied together all the
necessary pieces of a grant. Everything from the needs, goals and
objectives, to the activities, budgets and evaluations have to all
work towards the grant goal. Sometimes when you see another
successful grant, you see an idea for yours. If that happens, be
certain to think it through carefully, then shape it to meet your
specific grant goals.

When you look at other grants, there’s always a tendency to say,
“Hey, these were a success, so I’ll just do what they did. But stop!
That’s usually a bad idea. Why? Here are three reasons:

      • Winning proposals are often locally planned and designed. That
        means if you copied it, it would fit for a different community.
        Wake up! You must meet the particular needs of your own
        community, not another.

     • Different proposals that succeed may have a whole different set of
       guidelines. In other words, what made it work may have been what
       you don’t see, not what’s in the proposal. Stay alert; you must
       match your proposal to the exact guidelines given by the funder, or
       else you risk getting turned down.

     • Even winners have faults. Just because a proposal got funded, it
       does not tell you which part of the proposal was of concern to the
       committee. Maybe on a different day, or in a different climate, that
       same proposal would be turned down. Be original!


Here is a Website with successful proposals. Please note that these
proposals are in PDF format. You must have Adobe's free Acrobat
Reader installed on your computer to access them.

http://www.schoolgrants.org/Samples/sample2.htm#21cclc



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TIP # 8: Cast your net deep AND and WIDE

You not only want to search for amounts of money but also search
for backup sources. If one turns you down, what’s your plan B?
Even though earlier we suggested you get focused on a “preferred
donor” it’s smart to also have a secondary source lined up. You do
not want to go to the Homecoming ball without a date!

There are government grants, foundation grants, and corporate
grants; the dollar figure will vary with each funder. You need to
find multiple matched funders to your project and mail out
numerous proposal packets. Be proactive and keep searching for
new funders. Once you have done one grant packet the next ones
become easier to do. You only need to re-write the proposal to
match the different funder’s needs. Remember, following the
instructions carefully will enhance your chance of getting the
grant. You can get grant money from multiple sources. The sky’s
the limit!

To locate the sources takes a little homework. You can do a
comprehensive prospect research on the Internet, in journals,
newspapers, newsletters and magazines, and through personal
contacts to identify the funding opportunities in advance so that
you have enough time to prepare and complete your application.
Have a comprehensive networking system in place that includes
teachers, parents, community members, principals, and grant
writers. Each of these stakeholders can help in the writing of a
successful grant application.

TIP #9: Learn the four biggest and most common reasons that
applications do not get accepted. Then, avoid them!

You didn’t pay attention to detail. Pay attention to the little
things--they are the big things in grant writing. Do NOT ignore
specific topic areas. Pay attention to every section, every guideline

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and address all concerns. Better to overdo the grant then to leave
things out. When funders see gaps, they see questions. Questions
lead to “NO” answers.

You missed a deadline. Funders frequently see people using
express mail to make the deadline on the due date. Here’s a novel
idea. Set in your mind a due date two weeks earlier. Get the whole
thing done earlier and send it off with time to spare. Most funding
sources have been providing grants for years and follow time
frames that remain relatively consistent year after year. There are
few surprises in the grants field, except for the number of grantees
who do not learn from their fellow grant seekers’ mistakes. Unless
the funding source is new and has never published deadlines or
made awards, there is no excuse for not doing your homework and
using public records to uncover as much information as possible
about the funder.

You sent proposals to the wrong potential donors. You need
to double-check your research to find those donors who are
committed to the same work as your project. Also, grants are often
rejected because of donor restrictions. Your proposed budget may
have been too high or too low, or your project may be a high-risk
venture. Perhaps your organization and/or its leadership appeared
unstable. Work to find more suitable prospects, tailor a proposal to
fit each of their missions, make personal contacts, and follow up
on every one of those contacts year after year to ensure more
funding. Typically, if it’s your first time, your rate of acceptance
is likely to be low. To increase your odds, you need to get your
proposal out to more than one or two funders.

The donor ran out of money. Foundations may put their funds
in many different places, usually on a project basis, in hopes of
helping a number of causes instead of just a few. They have only a
certain amount to give each year, so while your project was just


                                 11
right for them, they may be short on funds. Find out if this is the
case and, if it is, try again next year.

TIP # 10. There is always a lesson. Learn from every grant
written, successful or not.

If you received your grant, congratulations! You got what you
wanted! The grant money is yours for your very noble and
worthwhile project. Good for you! Of course, the first thing you
need to do is write a thank-you letter to your new benefactor. They
love hearing how happy they make people. And it will build on
your new relationship.

In your letter, let them know that they can come visit the project in
action anytime they want. Your words should strive to make them
feel welcome and let them know that by giving funds, they are
valued members of your organizational family. Use warm,
specific language. Note: Be sure to use the exact wording the
funder uses when referring to your grant. The wording may differ
from your own name for the project because, with funders working
on many projects with similar titles, they often give each it’s own
special name. Add the names of the key people at the foundation to
your newsletter mailing list, your holiday greeting card list, and the
invitation list to special events for your project or organization.

If you did not receive the grant you wanted, take in a deep breath,
then let out a big sigh. It’s the pits! Now, after you pick yourself up
off the floor (metaphorically, I hope!), give yourself a pep talk.
First, know that you did your best-- you followed the steps, had all
of your ducks in a row, and still you did not receive the funding
you sought. It’s okay. It happens far more often than not. In fact,




                                  12
more than half of all grant proposals are rejected. Don’t despair:
your effort was as noble as your cause. The only constructive
thing to do is learn why it didn’t happen. Maybe the donor just
wasn’t interested. Sometimes they get another proposal they like
just as much, but it came a week earlier than yours--or a week later
and it got their attention. Relax.

Wait a week after receiving your letter of rejection, until your
spirits are a little brighter, then call the program officer and ask if
he or she could give you some constructive criticism. Some may
not have the time, but from those who do, you’ll learn a lot.

Note: The program officer is not the person who makes the final
decision about a grant, he or she may have even favored your
proposal and defended it during the decision-making process. Use
these tips when talking with a program officer.

    • Be polite. This is not the time for axe grinding. In fact, it’s a good
    idea to start the conversation off by thanking the program officer for
    taking the time to review your proposal and talk with you about it.

    • Ask him or her to tell you briefly how and why your proposal was
    turned down. This is not the time to defend your project or your
    writing. Listen quietly and intently, and take notes-these will be handy
    next time.

    • Ask if you might revise your proposal and apply again during the
    next application cycle. Some funders do not take repeat applications,
    while others encourage them.

    • Ask if he or she is aware of any other funding sources that might
    be more suitable for your project. Don’t try to persuade her to change
    the decision.

    • Send a note thanking him or her for the time. Tell them that your
    organization will reapply (if appropriate).



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Need Other Money Ideas?

Be sure to explore other ways to help yourself, too. Fees, ticket
sales, grants from other donors, public giving… there are many
ways your project might find money to carry on its work. One first
grader teacher creates a proposal for the parents of her kids. She
tells the parents what she wants and what she’ll give back to the
kids in return. Every year she gets a good chunk—direct from the
parents!

Many donors are more likely to be interested in helping you if they
see that you are pursuing and seeking donations from the school
board and community. These ten tips should get you off to a good
start. If you could use more support or if your time’s important,
you may be interested in getting help from an earlier site:
http://www.schoolgrants.org

Good luck, best wishes and we hope to see you in our workshops
in the near future!


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