Jim’s Grant Writing Tips

Identify your educational objective. For example:

• Differentiate instruction to maximize learning for each student
• Enhance communication and collaboration with/among students, teachers, parents, and/or community members
• Foster student-initiated learning
• Enhance student awareness of other cultures
• Facilitate student creativity

The goal of the grant is SHOULD NOT BE to get the tools, materials and funding you want, the goal should be an educational objective.

Support your Ideas

Educational research and standards can help you discover your strengths and weaknesses. Standards help you to identify and support the opportunities and challenges that your grant proposal seeks to address. Your grant should be supported by research, standards and your subject-area curriculum.

For example: The NETS-S standard National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S) number two is Communication and Collaboration “Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. “ A teacher could write a grant to help Students “develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures”.

Target your Message

Learn about the mission of the company or foundation that is sponsoring the grant. Continually demonstrate and describe the alignment of your grant proposal with the mission of the foundation. If the foundation’s purpose is to develop innovative practices in education, be sure to highlight how your proposal is new and innovative.

Learn about the grant evaluators and target your message to that audience. Are they educators or business people? Use clear and concise language they will understand. Do not assume that a business person, or an educator outside of your subject area, will automatically understand terminology or nomenclature specific to your field.

Follow the directions

Make sure to follow the submission guidelines and question prompts to a “T.” Entire applications can be dismissed over something as simple as incorrect formatting.

Whenever possible, use the exact terminology requested in the prompts. This makes it easier for those grading the application to see that you are addressing the issues asked for in the application.

Funding

Plan for long term costs when funding technology with grant funding. Consider the cost of ownership and the need for long-term support. Technology tools purchased with grant funds must be approved and supported by your school district.

Be Persistent

If at first you don’t succeed, try again! You may have had a fantastic idea that the organization was simply unable to fund at that time. That failed grant can serve as the foundation for future grant applications. You can rework and rewrite your ideas again to a different organization. The writing process itself is extremely valuable to reflect on your practice and explore innovative ways to improve your own teaching.

Links to grant sources can be found on my bookmarks at http://delicious.com/vennemeyerj/grants