Resources to find Funding for Schools and Technology

Schools are always looking for ways to find funding for projects, especially for technology. Here are some great resources that I have used in the past.



1. Edutopia - The Big List of Educational Grants and Resources - Get a roundup of educational grants, contests, awards, free toolkits, and classroom guides aimed at helping students, classrooms, schools, and communities. Check this page weekly to get the latest updates! https://www.edutopia.org/grants-and-resources



2. GetEdFunding - GetEdFunding is a free and fresh grant-finding resource, dedicated to helping educators and institutions identify the funding they need in budget-tight times. http://www.getedfunding.com/



3. Lowe’s Toolbox for Education http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/



4. Toshiba America Foundation grants – K-5 and 6-12 - http://www.toshiba.com/taf/



5. Device Grant Listed (list maintained by Google, has a lot of different grants listed) https://goo.gl/WD6YpS



6. THE Journal K-12 Grant Opportunities and Ed Tech Event Listings https://thejournal.com/articles/list/listings.aspx



7. Edsurge - Where to Find Money for Your School's EdTech Purchases https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-11-21-where-to-find-money-for-your-school-s-edtech-purchases


More resources:

• Federal grants from various agencies are listed at www.grants.gov. 
• State and local grant opportunities can often be identified by state legislative offices. 
• Micro-funding through school- and classroom-specific grants can yield substantial results. Often donors are willing to fund projects whose impact they can directly observe. Such organizations as Donors Choose, Class Wish, and Adopt-a-Classroom facilitate individual donations. 
• Contact local businesses to see what programs they have available to support schools. 

Don't be scared to apply for a grant - you may just get it!

Good luck and happy hunting.

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Great Back to School Challenge looks to raise money for classrooms

Teachers spend a lot of their own money on resources for their classrooms and students. I know I do. We get a Federal tax deduction but it comes no where near how much we spend.

TakePart has some interesting data about how much teachers spend: $ 3 Billion each year. That's $3,000,000,000 each year! That's crazy as far as I'm concerned. Remember, our pay isn't very high.

Budgets keep getting cut, people are out of work, so students and classrooms are in even more dire need of supplies and teachers can not afford to keep buying these things on their own.

Throughout the month of September, TakePart is partnering with DonorsChoose.org for a Great Back-to-School Challenge. Every day they will be shining a light on a different classroom in need—and their excellent teachers.

Whether it’s funding for books, musical instruments, or art supplies, what all of these great projects have in common is that a little money will go a long way to help educate hundreds of students across America.

Check out the infographic to learn more and donate to your favorite classroom project. 

Share this with your friends and family. Share DonorsChoose with them. Share all of this with the local media. 

Via: TakePart.com
Take Action: Support These Classrooms in Need with The TakePart Back-to-School Challenge

How US Federal Dollars are spent on Education

H&R Block has an interesting infographic on how US Federal Tax Dollars are Spent on Education.

4.8% of the Federal budget is spent on education (seems way too low to me). The infographic breaks down dollars by elementary vs. secondary vs. higher ed, how students pay for college, IDEA, and more.

It's interesting to see how the money is spent.

Click image to enlarge

Source: H&R Block

DonorsChoose - a great way to get supplies and equipment for your school

DonorsChoose is an awesome site, created by former educators, that allows educators to create a project idea, select the materials and equipment needed, and get funding for those supplies. The teacher fills out the project format and selects materials and then DonorsChoose does the rest. Donors go to the site (and the site is advertised) and donate to projects. DonorsChoose then orders the supplies and ships them to you. Then you just have to complete the thank you package, which is very easy to do.

Sometimes a project is funded by one donor, other times a project may be funded by a lot of donors. Donors donate any amount they want. I've seen $5 donations up to over $1,000 single donation.

As you complete projects and follow all of the requirements, you earn more points. The more points you earn, the larger (ie. more expensive) projects you can apply.

Teachers can also promote their projects via social media like Twitter and Facebook.

The site is very easy to use and in this economy and shrinking school supply budgets, DonorsChoose can help out. I've gotten thousands of dollars worth of equipment and supplies, as have many of my colleagues. Laptops, digital cameras, printers, Flip video cameras, dissecting equipment, physics lab supplies, and so much more!

You can't afford not to use DonorsChoose.

Sources of Funding and Free Stuff for Teachers

Teachers have always had to scrounge for funding and the current economic situation only makes this more of an issue. Even with government stimulus packages and big grants, teachers don't see much money for our individual use. We've all wished we had more money to purchase books, supplies, equipment, and other items for our students and our classrooms. But what do we do when the money just isn't there?

The first place to look is grants. There are a lot of grant sources out there. Not all of them are easy to get though. I always suggest that people ask for help from grant writers or other teachers who have been successful in getting grants. Most grants have tips and advice on their own web site also.

Some schools may qualify for Priority School District grants and other State and Federal grants. These are for low income districts and can be used for supplies and equipment to help with extra programs related to drop out prevention and improving student performance.

A great resource for funding classroom projects is Donors Choose. Donors Choose was actually started by teachers. You sign up for an account, fill out a project proposal, selecting the items you need from a variety of vendors, and then people with money to donate go to Donors Choose and select projects to fund. I have had multiple projects funded through Donors Choose. It is a very simple process and the staff can help you with any problems.

Corporate grants are another source of funding. Toyota, Toshiba, Verizon,Microsoft, Best Buy, and Target all have grant programs you can apply for.

Some vendors have their own grant programs, special pricing or can help you find grants to buy their products. Smart Technologies, Epson, Mimio andVernier are some of the companies that will work with you to hep you find funding.

Donations are another source. Local Businesses may be looking to donate money, supplies or equipment. Many companies would rather donate old equipment and supplies to a school rather than just throw it out. Your school gets supplies and the company gets a tax write off. I have gotten lab supplies from a DNA company that updated their labs, a computer from a small company that upgraded theirs, and our school has gotten office supplies and furniture from a nearby business that was moving their headquarters. Many teachers have contacts at area businesses through friends or family. Use these contacts to your advantage.

Do more with less. Look for cheaper or free alternatives to the major brands. There are a lot of manufacturers of interactive white boards out there. Shop around and find the best deal. Make your own white boards using melamine coated hardboard from a hardware store at a fraction of the cost of a commercial white board. 

Use free software and web services instead of paying for licensed software. There is a free resource for pretty much any paid software (check this blog you are reading along with some on my blogroll to the right).

Partner with local colleges. Sometimes they have older equipment that they can donate to you. They may also have grants that they can get that can also benefit the K-12 system.

Look for grants and funding opportunities on the web. TechLearning has a great section on funding tips. There is a Grant Guru column, as well as a data base of grant sources.

Edutopia and Nortel Learn It also have grant and funding resources. And of course, you can always "Google" for more information. Educational conferences are another great way to find funding resources and talk with vendors on different ways of funding purchases.

You can also look at professional societies for the subject you teach. For example, I use aviation and aerospace examples to teach physics. I have gotten grants and resource from the Air Force Association and American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Many of these types of groups have classroom grants. 

Please share your funding and money tips with us!

Related Articles:

Tips for saving money and finding free resources for school

Free Stuff for Educators - New TL Blog posted today

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

DonorsChoose - get materials for your classroom project funded

DonorsChoose is an awesome site, created by former educators, that allows educators to create a project idea, select the materials and equipment needed, and get funding for those supplies. The teacher fills out the project format and selects materials and then DonorsChoose does the rest. Donors go to the site (and the site is advertised) and donate to projects. DonorsChoose then orders the supplies and ships them to you. Then you just have to complete the thank you package, which is very easy to do.

Sometimes a project is funded by one donor, other times a project may be funded by a lot of donors. Donors donate any amount they want. I've seen $5 donations up to over $1,000 single donation.

As you complete projects and follow all of the requirements, you earn more points. The more points you earn, the larger (ie. more expensive) projects you can apply.

Teachers can also promote their projects via social media like Twitter and Facebook.

The site is very easy to use and in this economy and shrinking school supply budgets, DonorsChoose can help out. I've gotten thousands of dollars worth of equipment and supplies, as have many of my colleagues. Laptops, digital cameras, printers, Flip video cameras, dissecting equipment, physics lab supplies, and so much more!

You can't afford not to use DonorsChoose.

Sources of Funding for Teachers

(cross posted at Tech&Learning) 

Teachers have always had to scrounge for funding and the current economic situation only makes this more of an issue. Even with the government stimulus package, teachers will not see much money for our individual use. We've all wished we had more money to purchase books, supplies, equipment, and other items for our students and our classrooms. But what do we do when the money just isn't there?

The first place to look is grants. There are a lot of grant sources out there. Not all of them are easy to get though. I always suggest that people ask for help from grant writers or other teachers who have been successful in getting grants. Most grants have tips and advice on their own web site also.

Some schools may qualify for Priority School District grants and other State and Federal grants. These are for low income districts and can be used for supplies and equipment to help with extra programs related to drop out prevention and improving student performance.

A great resource for funding classroom projects is Donors Choose. Donors Choose was actually started by teachers. You sign up for an account, fill out a project proposal, selecting the items you need from a variety of vendors, and then people with money to donate go to Donors Choose and select projects to fund. I have had multiple projects funded through Donors Choose. It is a very simple process and the staff can help you with any problems.

Corporate grants are another source of funding. Toyota, Toshiba, Verizon,Microsoft, Best Buy, and Target all have grant programs you can apply for.

Some vendors have their own grant programs, special pricing or can help you find grants to buy their products. Smart Technologies, Epson, Mimio andVernier are some of the companies that will work with you to hep you find funding.

Donations are another source. Local Businesses may be looking to donate money, supplies or equipment. Many companies would rather donate old equipment and supplies to a school rather than just throw it out. Your school gets supplies and the company gets a tax write off. I have gotten lab supplies from a DNA company that updated their labs, a computer from a small company that upgraded theirs, and our school has gotten office supplies and furniture from a nearby business that was moving their headquarters. Many teachers have contacts at area businesses through friends or family. Use these contacts to your advantage.

Do more with less. Look for cheaper or free alternatives to the major brands. There are a lot of manufacturers of interactive white boards out there. Shop around and find the best deal. Use free software and web services instead of paying for licensed software.

Partner with local colleges. Sometimes they have older equipment that they can donate to you. They may also have grants that they can get that can also benefit the K-12 system.

Look for grants and funding opportunities on the web. Tech&Learning has a great section on funding tips. There is a Grant Guru column, as well as a data base of grant sources.

Edutopia and Nortel Learn It also have grant and funding resources. And of course, you can always "Google" for more information. Educational conferences are another great way to find funding resources and talk with vendors on different ways of funding purchases.

Please share your funding and money tips with us!