Why Your K-12 School Should Apply for Grants and 3 Top Tips

As an individual working at a K-12 school, you know just how valuable funding for your organization is. You’re probably tapping into all the fundraising sources you can, from soliciting online donations to hosting fun events to building relationships with major donors. While these are all valuable revenue streams, you may be overlooking others that are just as, if not more, impactful.

School grants are an opportunity that you may not have experience with. Instead of soliciting individual donors to make gifts to your school, you’ll submit a grant application to a grantmaker or grantmaking organization. They’ll review it and then approve or deny your request for their grant.

Though school grants take a lot of effort to pursue, they’re well worth the time. In this guide, we’ll take a look at why your K-12 school should apply for grants and discuss three top tips for your grant application. Let’s dive right in!

Reasons to Apply for School Grants

Although the grant writing process can be long and arduous, there are many reasons why schools across the country apply for them regularly. Some of these reasons include:

• Financial support. The biggest benefit of school grants is the increased, reliable financial support you receive from them, allowing you to pursue programs and initiatives you may not have been able to otherwise. Plus, grants allow you to diversify your revenue streams, ensuring your nonprofit has enough support even when times are tough.
• Credibility. Receiving a grant indicates to your audience and other interested parties that your school is credible and reliable. Not only will this increase trust with your existing audience, but it may also lead to opportunities with other stakeholders, such as other grantmaking organizations.
• Opportunities for students. Ultimately, more funding and an improved reputation allow your school to offer more opportunities for students, enriching their learning experience. For K-12 schools especially, students are in their formative years, making any additional programs or initiatives extremely impactful for them.

Whether you need the funding to purchase school recreation software, build a new science lab, or fund your theater program, grants can provide key support. As long as you stick to the grant’s rules and regulations, you’ll have a successful partnership with the grantmaking organization that will positively impact your community.

Tips for Applying for School Grants

Now that you understand why it’s valuable for your organization to pursue school grants, let’s take a look at best practices for your application.

1. Choose grants wisely.

The grant application process starts with researching which grants are best suited for your school. Many different types of grants might work for your organization, such as:

• Federal grants. These grants are bestowed by the federal government and can provide substantial, multi-year funding to your school. Because of this, the application process for these grants is generally very competitive. They may also be long and complex. Before you attempt a federal grant application, it’s recommended to have successfully applied for smaller grants.
• State grants. State grants are provided by your state or local government. Much like federal grants, you can receive a substantial amount of funding in exchange for undergoing a rigorous and complicated application process. However, since these are aimed at organizations within your state, you may have less competition.
• Foundation grants. These grants are provided by foundations set up by corporations, wealthy philanthropists, nonprofits, and more. In terms of the amount of funding they provide, this can vary greatly depending on the specific foundation.
• Specific education grants. This refers to grants aimed at improving specific educational programs, such as STEM or the humanities. These grants are a great opportunity for schools who want to improve a certain program, rather than those needing support for more general projects.

If you’re uncertain about which type of grant to pursue, you may wish to discuss your options with a fundraising consultant or fundraising coach. These professionals have many years of experience in the industry and may already know of grants that will benefit your school.

Regardless of which type of grant you choose to pursue, check the requirements before you begin applying. Make sure that your school meets these requirements—if not, then you’ll be wasting both your and the grantmaker’s time and resources.

2. Craft a compelling grant proposal.

Much like you want to craft compelling email subject lines to encourage viewers to click, you want to write an interesting and impactful grant proposal that answers the question: Why does your school deserve grant funding more than the other applicants?

Learn Grant Writing recommends following these tips when you’re just getting started with writing grant proposals:

• Follow the funding guidelines. These guidelines are instructions from the grantmaker on how to apply for their grant. They’ll include crucial information about eligibility, what they require, and more. Use this to tailor your grant proposal to your funder’s needs.
• Start with a narrative skeleton. Based on what information the grantmaker needs from your organization, lay out the skeleton of your proposal. Create headers and subheaders for all the sections you need to cover. This gives you a solid foundation for your proposal.
• Lay out your grant budget. A common requirement of grants is that you lay out exactly what you will do with the funds. Work with your finance team to create a realistic budget and break it down for the grantmaker in your proposal.

As you apply for more and more grants, you’ll get more comfortable with creating proposals. In no time, you’ll be drafting them like a pro.

3. Underscore need with data.

To stand out from the other K-12 schools that also need funding, emphasize your organization’s needs with data. In particular, quantitative data is especially impactful for demonstrating that you meet the grantmaker’s eligibility requirements and that their funds would allow you to provide a better experience for students.

Tracking this information, however, can be difficult for schools that don’t have the right tools. To solve this problem, CommunityPass recommends organizations use dedicated software that helps them stay informed. For example, let’s say you’re applying for a grant that requires you to have at least 1,000 students. With a school registration solution, you can easily access the number of registered students and submit those reports to the grantmaker.

Pair grant applications with other school fundraising ideas to diversify your revenue streams and garner the funds your school needs to improve the student experience. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to getting started with your first grant application!

About the Author

Mary Coyle

Mary Coyle is the Head of Product Management at CommunityPass and has held senior level roles in Program Management and Marketing Operations. She has an MBA from University of Texas at Austin and a Finance degree from University of Illinois.