Here are some resources on grants that I’ve gathered in Delicious, a social bookmarking tool that I use to store and share resources: http://delicious.com/district6/grants Some of the grants in this collection have already expired, but are probably up for renewal soon.

There are several great resources that will help schools and teachers find funding and technology for their classroom. There are Donor Matches, Grant Resource Sites, and even a social network for finding grants.

Donor Matches

There are a few sites that allow teachers to put in their requests in a database on a website, where donors can then contribute to help them out. The more well known of these sites is Donors Choose, but I just heard about another, specifically geared for teachers with technology requests on Wes Fryer’s Technology Shopping Cart Podcast, called Digital Wish. It works the same way as Donors Choose, but teachers can go “shopping” for technology needs. Also, I have bookmarked another donor match site called Adopt a Classroom. I haven’t really heard much about this site, but it looks promising.

Grant Resource Sites

Other grant resources are websites that have a collection of educational grants to choose from. I regularly scan sites like Grant Wrangler, ESchool News Funding, and LACOE’s Grants and Funding Site to see what’s available. Additionally, LAUSD’s Grants Assistance Unit offers a regularly updated list of grant resources. Follow the directions on their site to sign up for grant alerts and applications. All of these sites offer deadline grants, as well as ongoing – foundation type grants. They are a great place to start searching for grants that will suit the needs of your school.

Grant Social Network

Grant Wrangler has also started up a social networking site on Ning so that grant seekers and grant givers can interact. You can join at http://mygrantwrangler.ning.com/

Grant Seeking Guidelines

The most important goal to keep in mind when purusing a grant is that it’s not about the technology or goodies that can be bought with a grant, but it’s more an opportunity to do things differently and out of the box to address the learning needs of our students. Once you’ve established what your need is and how you are going to address it, you need to make sure you have buy-in from the staff for the plan you have. I learned a great deal about grant writing from a presentation on grant writing at our District 6 EdTech Cadre meeting a few years ago. It was facilitated by Ms. Pat Sanford of Tech Ed Services. She gave me permission to record and publish her presenation as a podcast. It’s worth a listen for some great tips on grant writing: Grant Writing Workshop. Ms. Sanford refers to a handout during her presenation. If you would like a copy of the handout, please leave a comment on this blog post, and I will be able to send you that information.