How To Successfully Write A Classroom Grant?

Know what you need for your classroom.

The secret ingredient to getting what you need is knowing what you need.

Imagine if you go grocery shopping and start shopping without actually knowing what you need to buy, perhaps you will start buying things that you actually don't need. It would be a waste of time, energy and materials. It's similar with writing grant proposals, you need to know what you actually need for your classroom.

Examine your daily instruction and classroom management, then reflect on them. Think about things that would make your instruction and classroom management easier and more effective for students' learning, then start making a list of what you need for your classroom. The more detailed the better, because this list will help you to make the budget as well as set goals and purposes for your grant proposal writing.

Start writing the grant proposal based on the grant criteria.

In most grant application, grantors give the guidelines for applicants to follow through, such as instruction, application forms, and rubric or criteria. From my succesfull grant proposal writing experiences, following this guideline is the most important step to having a successful grant writing. Those guidelines helped me to meet the standard required by the grantors. If they provided you with a rubric, refer your writing to the rubric--aim for the highest point on the rubric when you write.

Be smart and wise to make your budget

Most grants have a limit on the money that they will give you, therefore if you are using the money to buy equipment then you need to consider taxes and shipping costs. Usually if you order the materials through your school's Amazon business account, then you will not have to worry about taxes and shipping. They are covered since public schools are non-profit government organizations. This can be different if you order from different companies. Don't make a mistake by having to pay taxes and shipping costs that are close to or more than the materials price of your order.

Do research on the materials you are planning to buy and compare their prices from the seller. This way you can make an educated decision to buy good quality and reasonably priced materials.

Ask someone else to review your grant proposal and make changes if necessary

From my experience writing grant proposals, I never skip this part where I would have at least three people to read the proposal. Who are these people? These people could be a person who has a background in teaching (a colleague at school), and others could be from other backgrounds (spouse, friends from church, etc.).

It is easier for other people than yourself to find mistakes such as typos and unclear and/or unnecessary sentences in your writing. That's the reason why you would want multiple people to read and review the proposal so that you can make some changes if necessary before your submit it. You would be surprised by how many mistakes they would find in your writing. More importantly, if these people don't understand what you wrote in the proposal because of unclear sentences then there is possibility that the grantors would also not understand your writing. Unclear writing could reduce the possibility for your grant to be rewarded.

If you want to know more about writing a grant proposal, these are a couple of good books that you can learn from:

1. McGinnis, P. & Petrova, K. (2016). Be A Winner! A Science Teacher’s Guide to Writing Successful Grant Proposal. NSTA Press. The authors are teachers with decades of experience and experts in content area science, and have obtained a national board certification. McGinnis has received numerous grants and awards through her career as a teacher, and Petrova has received funding from local, state, and national organizations for her students.This book that they wrote lays out great writing instruction, practical and step-by-step, that will help teachers to successfully write a grant proposal. Writing templates, a sample of a grant proposal rubric, science-related grant listings and teaching awards, etc. are also provided in this book.

2. Smith, N. (2023). The Complete Book of Grant Writing. Sourcebooks, Inc. Nancy Burke Smith is a professional grant writer and philanthropy consultant and grant maker E. Gabriel Works. This book teaches readers to understand the five core components of grant proposals, how to write like a professional writer, and offers samples of full grant proposals.

There are many opportunities from non-profit or profit organizations and companies for teachers to apply for grants. Be a proactive grant seeker.

Here are some samples of websites that offer grants for teachers to apply every year:

1. Pets in the classroom grant: https://petsintheclassroom.org.

2. STEM Classroom grant for schools using TVA service: https://www.tsin.org/classroom-grants.

3. Grant for teachers by Space Foundation Discovery Center: https://discoverspace.org/education/resources-for-educators/grants-for-teachers/.

4. Grant for teachers (6-12 grade) by Toshiba America Foundation: https://www.toshiba.com/taf/612.jsp.

5. Grants from local industries, e.g. Shaw Industries Groups, community grants: https://shawinc.com/Corporate-Responsibility/Community-Grants.

6. Grants from local public education foundations, e.g. grants for classroom teachers who reside in Bradley County, Cleveland, Tennessee area: https://bcpef.org/grants-info/.

7. Teaching grants and Leaderships, The NEA Foundation: https://www.neafoundation.org.