At Jennifer Livingston's new teacher orientation, she, like the other new teachers, received a $200 new teacher grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation (LWSF). She was pretty excited. So when her principal alerted her to a free grant writing class, also offered by LWSF, she was the first to sign up.
Together with a team of teachers from Rose Hill Elementary, Livingston attended the two-hour free seminar held at the Lake Washington School District Resource Center in December 2005. For Jennifer Livingston and the staff at Rose Hill, Grant Writing 101 has already paid off - Rose Hill Elementary received $3,000 in grants this past spring and the staff is ready to take on more.
The idea behind the free class was simple: The foundation was brand new and didn't have the resources to give away the kind of money it wanted to. But they can still help generate dollars for the district by helping teachers, staff and parents get support from other, bigger foundations. It's like the old Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime." Teaching grant writing is essentially teaching people how to sell their good idea to the right donor.
According to the Giving USA Foundation, $33.84 billion in private funding was given away in 2004 to support education - representing nearly 14 percent of all private support. About 16 percent, or $555 million, of that came from foundations and corporations, much of that in the form of grants. That's a lot of fish.
And the best place to learn how to get it is right next door at the Nonprofit & Philanthropy Resource Center in the Redmond Regional Library. Headed by Jeannette Privat, the Resource Center serves the entire King County Library System and is "the" source for nonprofits. Their database, Foundation Directory Online Professional (FDO Professional), is available on three computers specifically reserved for anyone interested in researching grants.
A visitor can spend up to two hours (three if no one is waiting) scouring the database and allowed to print out up to 75 pages per week for free. The database includes information on 80,000 foundations and corporate giving programs, and is updated weekly.
The best resource, though, is Jeannette herself. Truly passionate about supporting nonprofits, she literally built the King County program and is more than happy to share her experience and expertise. You can find her Mondays 1-9 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and every other weekend.
To learn more about the Nonprofit & Philanthropy Resource Center, go to their website, www.kcls.org/philanthropy or stop by. The Lake Washington Schools Foundation is offering Grant Writing 101 on Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 12-2 p.m. For more information, e-mail info@lwsf.org or call 702-3414.
Anne E. Garrett is the executive director of the Lake Washington School Foundation.
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