Grants

This page is designated to share information on grants that may be available for your school or program! Would you like to share information on a grant with others? Please forward information to postmaster@greenstepschools.com.

Need grantwriting tips? Green Steps mentor Sonya Younger suggests www.schoolgrants.org, a collection of resources and tips is intended to help K-12 educators apply for and obtain special grants for a variety of projects, and Show Me the Money: Tips and Resources for Successful Grant Writing.

Bright Ideas
Mid Carolina Electric Cooperative's Bright Ideas grants program is open to classroom educators of grades kindergarten through twelfth grades in Lexington School Districts One, Two, Three and Five: Hollywood Elementary (Saluda County) or at Pinegrove, Rhame, and Sandel Elementary schools (Richland County). Private schools within MCEC service territory are also eligible. Hurry, this year's eadline is September 7.

Captain Planet Foundation Grants
The mission of the Captain Planet Foundation is to support hands-on environmental projects for youth in grades K-12 throughout the world. The Foundation?s objective is to encourage innovative activities that empower children to work individually and collectively as environmental stewards. Support is provided to nonprofit organizations and schools for environmental education programs that promote interaction and cooperation and that help young people develop planning and problem-solving skills. Grants generally range from $500 to $2,500. Requests are reviewed four times per year, and the remaining application deadlines for 2006 are September 30 and December 31. Visit the website listed above for more information.

Climate Change Educator Grants
Earth Day Network, through the Campus Climate Challenge, is working with high schools to win global warming victories nationwide. Join us in leading a generation-wide movement to stop global warming and create a clean energy future! Members of EDN?s Educators' Network are eligible to become Climate Change Educators and receive stipends of $500 for their work to help their high school reach a global warming victory through policy and action. Deadline: September 14, 2007.

DHEC's Champions of the Environment Monthly Grant Program
This program rewards projects that help the environment. South Carolina's K-12 teachers, students and environmental educators can apply for a $500 grant.

Earthwatch Educator Fellowships Available to Sponsor Participation in International and U.S. Conservation Expeditions
Earthwatch seeks adventurous, innovative science educators (elementary, middle, and high school educators and administrators) who have an interest in conservation, sustainability, and life-long learning. Participating educators work alongside leading field scientists on some of the most important environmental issues facing the planet today. Educators may help an endangered species, unearth an ancient society, or protect threatened habitats.

EIA Teacher Grants
The EIA Teacher Awards program supports the improvement of classroom instructional practices and procedures. Award proposals may be written for projects that support instructional activities and implementation of the South Carolina curriculum standards including, but not limited to: the implementation of performance assessments; instructional activities for parental reinforcement at home; computer-assisted instruction; techniques for motivating and rewarding achievement; techniques for improving students' study skills; and innovative teaching strategies, activities, and materials for identified student groups. Eligible applicants are currently employed South Carolina K-12 public school teachers (teachers, guidance counselors, media specialists, and speech clinicians). Teacher specialists and curriculum coaches may participate as part of a unit grant but may not apply as the lead teacher for a unit grant or apply for individual grants.

Greenworks Grants
Do you have an idea for an exciting service-learning or community action project for your students but you don't have enough funds to implement it? Why not apply for one of Project Learning Tree's GreenWorks! grants? GreenWorks! offers educators the opportunity to apply for grants to implement community action and service-learning projects that address an environmental issue and involve students from pre-school to high school.

Lowe's Outdoor Classroom Grant Program
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, International Paper and National Geographic Explorer! classroom magazine have partnered to create an outdoor classroom grant program to provide schools with additional resources to improve their science curriculum by engaging students in hands-on experiences outside the traditional classroom. All K-12 public schools in the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) are welcome to apply.

National Education Association Foundation Offers Support for Student Learning Improvement Projects
NEA Foundation Grants
The National Education Association (NEA) Foundation provides $2,000 and $5,000 grants to public school teachers, public school education support professionals, and faculty and staff in public higher education institutions for the purpose of engaging in high-quality professional development or implementing project-based learning and break-the-mold innovations that raise student achievement.

Oracle Education Foundation Invites Students and Teachers to Take Part in ThinkQuest International 2008
ThinkQuest is open to students between the ages of 9 and 19 and their teacher-coaches worldwide. Students are encouraged to team with peers in other regions to develop Web sites on educational topics. The program is designed to help participants develop important skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, self-direction, problem solving, and technology skills. In addition, students become published Web-authors in the popular ThinkQuest Library, sharing their work with thirty million Web learners each year.

PalmettoPride Challenge for the Environment Grant
PalmettoPride is now accepting proposals from elementary, middle and high schools to particpate in their Challenge for the environment grant program. This competitive grant provides funds for educational and developmental activities concerning the importance of community-based beautification and litter reduction inivitives. The proposal deadline is October 15.

Progress Energy Grants
Progress Energy is giving $50,000 worth of classroom supplies to energy education projects in North and South Carolina. In order to participate, teachers must: 1) Register on the DonorsChoose website as soon as possible; 2) Post 2 projects for up to 3 points (up to $1200 dollars in supplies). If you find that you do not have enough points to request all the materials you need, you can 1) Split your larger project into smaller projects and list them separately (incandescent bulbs as one project; compact bulbs in another, etc); 2) 2. Have several teachers split up a larger school-wide project into 3 smaller ones each and post them on the site

Prudential Spirit of Community Awards
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, sponsored by Prudential Financial and administered by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, recognize middle and high school students for volunteer community service. Applications are solicited each fall through more than 40,000 middle-level and high schools and through officially designated local organizations across the country. Local honorees are selected at participating schools and organizations in November, and from these winners, two State Honorees are chosen in each state and in the District of Columbia. State Honorees receive awards of $1,000 and all-expenses-paid trips to Washington, D.C. Ten National Honorees receive additional awards of $5,000. Applications must be submitted by October 31, 2006, to local school principals or to one of the officially designated local organizations. Visit the website listed above for program details and application instructions.

SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fujifilm Environmental Excellence Awards
The 2007 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fujifilm Environmental Excellence Awards will recognize the outstanding efforts of students, teachers, and community groups across the United States who are working at the grassroots level to protect and preserve the environment.

Starbucks Environmental Literacy Grants
Starbucks funds programs for youth, ages 6-18, which integrate literacy with personal and civic action in the communities where they live. The Starbucks Foundation invites letters of inquiry from qualifying 501(c)3 organizations that work with underserved youth in the fields of environmental literacy, especially programs that offer place-based approaches to addressing environmental literacy and empower youth to be heroes for a sustainable environment in their own communities. Deadlines: February 1st - March 1st; August 1st - September 1st annually . Grants range from $5,000-$20,000.

Toyota Tapestry Grant
Over the past 14 years, the Toyota TAPESTRY grant program, sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and administered by the National Science Teachers Association, has awarded 552 grants totaling over $5 million to teachers in the United States and U.S. Territories. This year, 50 grants of up to $10,000 each and a minimum of 20 "mini-grants" of $2,500 each are available to K-12 teachers of science.

Washington Mutual Corporate Giving Program
The Washington Mutual Corporate Giving Program supports nonprofit organizations in communities where the company does business, including South Carolina, and provides in the area of K-12 public education. Applications are accepted throughout the year. For more information, click the title above.

Watershed Protection: Catalog of Federal Funding Sources
A Web site that is a searchable database of financial assistance sources (grants, loans, and cost-sharing) available to fund a variety of watershed protection projects. To select funding programs for particular requirements, use either grant or loans search areas. One is based on subject matter criteria, and the other is based on words in the title of the funding program.