Grants for Elementary Schools

A grant is usually financial support in exchange for someone’s commitment to fulfill a promise. The promise can be to attend school, to help third grades students to read better, or to assist a fourth grade teacher with supplies for a unit on butterflies, as defined in the application. Usually an applicant will respond to a request from an agency, person, or organization through an application process. For an elementary school there are several agencies willing to grant funding for a well written application. A school, teacher, parent group, class, or school district can apply for various grants. The federal government offers grant opportunities to elementary schools. Each state in the Union offer grants to elementary schools. Private organizations also offer financial grants to schools.

The federal government has a website located at www.grants.gov. Through this web portal every grant available to schools is listed. The website provides a calendar of when the grants are due and how much each grant is worth to the grantee. The site even gives guidelines on what past awards were and to whom they were awarded. The applications are available online as well as a place to upload some of the applications. Grant seekers can also find successful grants that have been submitted to get an idea of what is expected in the applications. Contact names of someone in the United States Departmentof Education is also available to answer questions about specific guidelines for the grant in question.

Each state has a department of education in their capital city. Through the state department of education grant writers can find grants for their specific state. Usually there are calendars with information available to the schools. State departments usually sends the information to the various school districts to the contact name of the grant writer or special projects contact for the district. If the school is a charter school, the information is sent to the charter holder or school administrator. Grants for schools are usually pretty straightforward to respond to. All requested information must be included in the application and deadlines are always strictly adhered to for all application.

Many private organizations offer grants to elementary schools. Sometimes the granting organization is looking to support teachers and will offer grants like the Michael Jordan Foundation that only offer grants to teachers working in the classrooms with students. Other organizations may offer grants to parent groups who are working to support literacy like the Barbara Bush Organization. Reading is Fundamental offers free books to elementary schools if someone will write the application requesting books for students.

There are many ways to get grants for help at elementary schools. The first thing the grant writer has to understand is what are the needs of the students at their school. Once they understand what the needs are, they can request funds from the federal, state, or private agencies that match their specific needs. Grants are available for reading, math, science or other academic courses. Grants can be written, for supplies, teacher training, parental involvement, computers, or a host of other reasons. Finding grants are easy if you know what you are looking for online. Start with a simple search of elementary grants and go from there.