Grants

Money, money, money (think Abba)! There never seems to be enough money and with budget cuts, even less. Grants are a great way to help fund various needs and wants for classrooms and schools. 

        Olathe School District has several grants that teachers and schools can apply for. The Olathe Public Schools Foundation is just one grant program. This foundation awards grants up to $1000 for innovative classroom projects and up to $5000 for bigger projects used by multiple classrooms, grades, or schools. I have been lucky enough to receive a Foundation grant for a project titled "Opera, You say?" I know when applying for grants the committees are looking for new and innovative projects. The project I did had not been done before and I collaborated with classroom teachers, which they like as well. It took quite a while to write the grant but it was well worth it. 

        Soundtree is a website that provides lots of information and ideas in regards to music education. They provide monthly updates on available and appropriate grants for funding music technology purchases. Fundsnet Services.com has a large fundraising and grants directory. This website can be quite overwhelming because of the number of sites that are listed. it is first broken down into categories and then a large list of websites are listed in alphabetical order. I find many grants are considered by invitation only. Some groups have you submit your grant idea first and then if you are accepted a full application is filled out. Edutopia website also has a great number of grant resources. SchoolGrants is a site that you can get to from Edutopia. Not only are their many more sites with grant information but also has sample proposals that received grants.

      We could spend hours upon hours seeking grants. I think this is why many teachers do not pursue grant information, it is overwhelming. However, I think if someone has an innovative idea that would be beneficial to many students, writing a grant is worth the time and effort.