Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

In my last column (“Where to find grants for education,” October 2010), I wrote abut how to find grant opportunities from public funders, such as government agencies. This month, I’m going to focus on finding grant opportunities from private funders, such as foundations and corporations. However, I need to add one more source of information for federal grant opportunities.

According to its website, Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on more than 1,000 federal grant programs and provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual awards. If you haven’t registered yet with Grants.gov, I would encourage you to do this now, even if you’re not currently interested in applying for federal grants. The application process is free, and applications can take a few days to be processed. Registering now can help you avoid any problems with missed deadlines if you decide to apply for a federal grant in the future.

Today, applicants must use the Grants.gov system to apply for most federal grants, although there are few grant programs that still do not use this electronic system. Grant seekers can search for federal grants using Grants.gov and can receive eMail notification of grant announcements from specific federal agencies. Clicking on these announcements will provide you with the guidance needed for these programs, as well as the online grant package that must be completed and submitted, if applicable.…Read More

I recently held a question-and-answer session with eSchool News readers via Twitter—and the No. 1 question that kept coming up was, “Where can I find a grant for _______?”

Because this seems to be such a popular topic, I’ve decided to devote my next two columns to finding grant opportunities. Why two columns, you might ask? Because, depending on the type of grants you’re looking for, there are several different resources you can use to find this information.

There are two main groups you can turn to for grant support: public funders and private funders. Government grant sources fall under the umbrella of public funders and include federal departments and agencies (such as the U.S. Education Department, or ED), as well as state agencies. For private funders, you can look to foundations, corporations, and national organizations for potential grant opportunities.…Read More