Frequently Asked Questions

Schools or departments who have informed Grants Administration (GA) staff about an awarded grant will receive notification by the Office Manager as soon as the School Board approves the grant. Executive Summaries of the grant can be found on the Board agenda item for the month.

As a grant recipient, you are responsible for carrying out the activities in your grant proposal and for tracking the results of your project. If you are not meeting your objectives, keep records of the problems you encountered, how you addressed them, and things you learned along the way. In most cases, failing to meet objectives is not critical, as long as you can justify why.

Most funding agencies require an interim and/or a final report about how grant funds were spent and what results were achieved. Make sure you are familiar with the funding agency's program reporting requirements. Contact GA for assistance with questions about program and fiscal reporting.

Principals must sign application forms when their signature is specifically requested. However, the principal is not authorized to sign in place of the Superintendent. If the form asks for the signature of the Superintendent, Executive Director, Chief, or Authorized Official, then the Superintendent must sign.

In all cases, proposal applications must be coordinated through GA and approved by the Superintendent and School Board (see Grant Application Processes). If there is no place for the Superintendent to sign on the form, our department will prepare a cover letter for his signature.

Contact our department! We will work with your school and the Budget Department to set up the grant account and get your project underway.

There are a limited number of competitive funding opportunities specifically targeted to support the purchase of computer hardware and software. Most grantor agencies want to fund innovative, creative projects that address significant community issues. From the funder's perspective, what is innovative or significant about a proposal that is nothing more than a request for technology?

Many grant programs will fund limited technology or equipment purchases, provided they are a well-justified and necessary component of the applicant's overall project. Be careful, though. Many grant programs place limits on the percentage of funds that can be spent on technology and equipment. Some actually prohibit the use of funds for equipment purchases. Read program guidelines carefully to make sure your budget items are allowable, and your requests are reasonable in relation to the scope of your project.

Remember... when developing a grant proposal, let the project drive the technology - not the other way around. The proposal should be based on client needs, a sound plan to address those needs, and objectives and evaluation measures to guide positive change.

In fact, there are hundreds of different books and publications that list thousands of local, state, federal, and private grant funding programs. Each program varies with respect to eligibility (who can apply), funding priorities (what they want to fund), and funding availability (how much money will be awarded). Which grant program is the right one depends on many factors, including the applicants' needs and plans for addressing them, the priorities and requirements of the funding agency, and the number and amount of grant awards to be made.

Because of the number and variety of programs out there, it would be impossible to list them all in one comprehensive source. However, to assist schools in finding opportunities, our department:

• develops a book of recurring external funding opportunities for schools and disseminates to schools annually;
• disseminates funding announcements through written correspondence and this website; and
• assists schools by evaluating funding opportunities and conducting customized searches; and assists grantseekers in accessing the many Internet resources that provide information about available funding opportunities - including the Federal Register, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, the Foundation Directory, and others.

GA helps schools and departments to pursue external grant opportunities, develop grant proposals in response to these opportunities, coordinate the Grant Proposal Approval Process, and track grant activity in the District.