Granted! Author Offers Five Tips to Assist Arizona Teachers with Navigating the Grant Writing Process

ANTHEM - February 4, 2010 - Because of reduced education budgets statewide, Arizona teachers may need creativity when searching for funds for innovative classroom projects.

Grants can provide great sources for such funding, yet many teachers feel unsure and intimidated by the grant process. One Anthem teacher, desiring to start a middle school reading club, decided to get help in navigating the grant writing process from her next door neighbor.

During her first year of teaching, Colleen Collins-Moreno, a sixth-grade teacher at Anthem's Canyon Springs School, wanted to purchase several sets of classic novels. Collins-Moreno needed help in order to purchase the books, but she was unsure where to turn. That's when her neighbor, author Chris Taylor, suggested she needed a grant.

Much of Taylor's guidance to Collins-Moreno can be found in the book, Granted! A Guide to Writing and Winning Classroom Grants. Taylor's book provides a step-by-step guide through the grant writing process, including useful forms, helpful suggestions and plenty of encouragement.

Collins-Moreno's efforts led to success, much to the delight of her avid young readers.

"Receiving the grant was my first step in building my classroom library and establishing a school-wide reading club for upper grade students," Collins-Moreno said. "....(Grants cost) nothing and can give teachers an opportunity to build much-needed resources in their classrooms!"

Below, Taylor provides five useful tips to educators beginning the grant process:

1. Do your homework!
Teachers are used to giving homework. Now is the time they should do their own! That includes talking to colleagues about their own grant writing experiences. Ask questions
and take notes. What grants did colleagues seek? Were they successful? What tips can they offer? Grants may be given by governments, non-profits, foundations, professional organizations, companies and even individuals. It's best to research several different types of grant givers to learn what's available.

2. Get organized!
Create a grant writing notebook. During the process, teachers will be gathering a lot of information regarding grant giving entities and writing lots of ideas for grant worthy projects. The cost of items and services to be purchased should be recorded. Taylor urges teachers to keep all the data well-organized so it will be at your fingertips when needed.

3. Ask for help!
A teacher may have a bunch of ideas for promoting learning in the classroom. But, if they are already overloaded with work, the thought of writing a grant seems overwhelming. Taylor encourages them to bring others into the process. Parent volunteers may be looking for a way to help you that doesn't involve selling candy or gift wrap!

4. Just write it!
Whether they are writing their own grant, or relying on parent volunteers, Taylor says fears about the process shouldn't stop them. She encourages teachers to focus on the specific guidelines of the grant giving entity and build your proposal around the elements that most grant applications have in common: project description; project need and/or goals; project budget; and evaluation methodology.

5. Don't stop!
If the first grant writing experience is not successful, Taylor says learn from it and write another one. If you ARE successful, don't stop at just one grant award. Write more! Teachers undoubtedly have more than one idea for projects supporting learning in the classroom. Taylor encourages teachers to use the methods used in the first grant writing effort and hone them for future grant proposals.

Granted! A Teacher's Guide to Writing & Winning Classroom Grants (ISBN: 978-1-58985-113-9), a Five Star Publications book, retails for $24.95 and can soon be purchased in bookstores and through BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target.com, indiebound.org and FiveStarPublications.com. Visit www.CafeGRANTED.com for more information.