Technology Grants: Write It, Sell It, Get It!

Purpose & objective

The overall purpose of the workshop is to provide participants with the skills necessary to find funding for projects that provide hardware, technology embedded professional development, and the means to implement a technology program in their districts, schools, or classrooms. Grants are an excellent vehicle for this. Workshop objectives include: 1) participants will be able to identify and assemble a grant-writing team; 2) participants will identify sources of funding, including Internet sites; 3) participants will visit a Web site designed for funding technology initiatives and identify potential funding sources and 4) participants will begin to develop an effective grant proposal. This lab/ workshop has been presented at previous ISTE national conferences and it was very well received and named one of the Best of the Best for several years! I have presented at ISTE conferences on this topic and the workshops are always sold out. I continue to add content and refine the session to make it even better and more relevant to participants. Since I first presented this workshop, I continue to receive numerous positive e-mails and hits on my Web site from participants praising the value of my sessions and the information I provided them! In fact many former ISTE participants have received many grants and have let me know about it via email. Workshop participants will gain insight into the hard-fought battles being waged in today’s grantsmanship arena. They will join an accomplished educational grant expert and hear the straight facts - disclosing exactly what funders look for in a grant proposal - as well as the pitfalls that will send their proposal speeding to the rejection pile. This session will ensure participants come away with the know-how to devise fundraising strategies certain to connect with the folks who control the major money in the educational arena. They will gain proven strategies for capturing a piece of the $$$ billion dollar funding pie!

Outline

The objectives will be achieved by initially addressing who should be included on a grant-writing team and the selection criteria that should be considered (10 minutes). The session will then focus on the various components normally requested by funding organizations with specific examples from successful grant proposals (10 minutes). The introduction, objectives, evaluation instruments and procedures, budgeting, as well as reporting results will be examined in great depth (30 minutes). In addition to the specific examples used during the presentation, participants will be provided with a grant writing handbook (online, authored by me, and I will give them the handbook containing suggestions and forms that can be used to prepare draft proposals (10 minutes). Each participant will be provided with a listing of Internet resources and access to a Web site specifically designed for this session. They will also receive a grant template that was developed by the presenter. Participants will ask questions, begin researching and locating funding sources and plan a specific funding proposal using the provided template and resources (30 minutes). Attendees will leave this learning lab/workshop with a draft proposal and funding organizations where they can submit a grant for technology for their classroom, school, district, university, company or other organization.

Supporting research

Grant writing is not really a researched topic, but all of us agree that increased and sustained funding to improve access to technology is essential and critical to school improvement.

The Evidence is Clear: More Money For Schools Means Better Student Outcomes http://neatoday.org/2018/08/01/money-matters-in-education/

How School Funding Impacts Technology in Your Classroom
https://study.com/blog/how-school-funding-impacts-technology-in-your-classroom.html

Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/09/20/457750/fixing-chronic-disinvestment-k-12-schools/