I'd like to thank you once again for subscribing to the
SCHOOL FUNDING NEWSLETTER. We've added about 2,000
subscribers since our last newsletter in September, and
I especially want to welcome our new readers.

Our two main features will continue to be articles helping
you to write better grant applications and the grant
sources themselves. If you have not visited our site
lately, go to our new site at:

http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info/

Thanks to the feedback from our newsletter subscribers,
we have made an important change to our web site. You can
now do multiple free searches for grants. We wanted to
make it as easy as possible for you to see the power of
our school grant database, so we changed from letting you
do one, free ten-minute search to allowing you to do as
many free searches as you like.

Visit today to see just how quickly and easily you can
find grant information for your school. Remember, we have
over 100,000 grants av ailable to all U.S. schools and
colleges worth over six billion dollars.

Our other big news this issue is our exciting, new
relationship with the #1 educational site on the web,
Education World. You can still go directly to our site,
but you will also find multiple opportunities to link to
our site and search for grants by going to:

http://www.educationworld.com/

When you click on this link, you will see why Education
World receives over 1,000,000 visitors per month. It's
truly a first-class site. It's totally free and has
wonderful information along with great links to some
other very helpful sites. Visit Education World today!

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Feature Article

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Finding the Funds
by Don Peek

If you expect to win grant money, you need to address
every part of a grant application. If you leave out a
part or simply put fluff in to meet the grant's
requirements,it is likely your grant will not be
competitive, and you will not receive money.

Let's say you are going to fill out an application for a
reading grant. The grant has seven individual parts, and
one part is community involvement. You are trying to
write a grant for a reading lab that, in your initial
planning, would not require community involvement.

The other six parts of the grant are worth 95%; the
community involvement part is worth only 5%. You decide
to simply put that community involvement is not required
for your grant. You figure the rest of your grant is
strong enough that the 5% won't matter.

This would be a devastating mistake. Many grants are so
competitive, the applications that are funded have scores
of 97% or higher.&nb sp; Those other grant writers know you have
to get every single point available if you're going to get
the grant money.

But you say, I'd never leave a section of a grant
application blank. I'd put something in there whether we
intended to implement it or not. That's the second biggest
mistake you could make. Believe me, grant readers are
pretty good at sniffing those things out.

Now for the solution. In the planning stages, even
before you begin to write your grant, make sure you have
a good, strong, balanced program that more than meets
the criteria for every required section.

Make sure that every required area actually enhances your
program. Be sure the community is involved
in your reading lab in a way that will make your reading
scores go up and will also make the community feel as if
they are partners in the new program.

In essence, regardless of the requirements of the grant,
YOU SHOULD WRITE EACH SECTION AS IF IT WERE THE ONLY
SECTION THE GRANT READERS WILL SCORE. Make each section
that good and that vital to the overall program, and you
will get the points you need to win the grants you write.

For sample grants and additional tips on grant writing,
go to:

http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info/

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Tips

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Make sure you start at the end with a clearly successful program in your mind and build backward.
Make sure you show strong evidence of need, including
test scores, free or reduced lunch counts, etc.
After you finish each section of the grant application,
ask yourself if you would score it high or fund it if
you were a grant evaluator

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Subscriber Feedback

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Please read our entire newsletter and visit our web
site at:

http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info

Let us know what you need---more samples, more links,
more articles on grant writing. We want our site and
our newsletters to be as useful as possible. You can
help us with your feedback.

Drop me an email or give me a call:

Don Peek
dpeek@schoolfundingcenter.com
Toll free 1-877-856-7400

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Q & A

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Q. On many of the foundation grants, they fund lots of
subjects, not just the one for which I'm applying. Do
I have less chance of getting that type of money?

A. No, not at all. If a foundation has a web site, go
there and get as much information as you can about all
of the programs they fund. Unless particular ones are
specified, they all have an equal chance of being
funded. When you go after grant money, you have to be
as aggressive as possible.

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Grant Announcements

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Grant name: Allstate Grants
Funded by: Allstate Foundation
Description: Education grants are in the area of personal
safety and security and include after-school programs with
initiatives that safeguard against gangs and delinquency,
fire safety, child safety advocacy, and anti-dr inking and
driving programs.
Program areas: After-school, at-risk, safe/drug free
schools
Recipients: public schools, private/charter schools, but
does not support private secondary schools.
Proposal deadline: None
Telephone: 847-402-5502
Email: allfound@allstate.com
Web site: http://www.allstate.com/foundation/funding.html
Availability: All states

IF YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THE SCHOOL FUNDING CENTER DATABASE,
YOU WILL GET EMAIL ALERTS FOR NEW GRANTS AS THEY ARE PUT
INTO OUR DATABASE!

Grant name: National Schools of Character Award Grants
Funded by: Character Education Partnership
Description: Awards of $2,000 will be given to K-12
schools who have been teaching character education
initiatives that yield positive results in student
behavior and academic performance. Must emphasize
ethical values.
Program areas: General education, social studies
Recipients: Public school
Proposal deadline: 12/8/2003
Amount: $2,000.00
Website: http://character.org/eventsawards/nsoc
Availability: All states

Visit a great web site and our new partner:

http://www.educationworld.com

Grant name: Kellogg Foundation
Funded by: W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Description: National support for youth and education.
The web site reviews current grants funded, and these
should be studied before applying.
Program areas: Adult literacy, community involvement,
early childhood, math, reading, science, social studies.
Recipients: Public school, private/charter, higher
education
Proposal deadline: None, apply online
Total given: $207,000,000.00
Average amount: $5,000 to $1,000,000.00
Telephone: 269-968-1611
Web site: http://www.wkkf.org
Availability: All states

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New Grant Writer Manual

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Need help writing your grants? On a limited budget?
Get Dr. Deborah Porter's step-by-step grant writing
guide, SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL GRANTS: Fulfilling the
Promise of School Improvement.

It's all the information you need to get your grant
funded, and it's written by one of the best grant
writers in the country.

To order this step-by-step manual, you have 3 options:

Fax a signed purchase order for $38.00 to:
The School Funding Center 1-903-856-5272

Call 1-877-856-7400 and order with your credit card.

On your computer, go to our secure line at:

http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info/grantTeam.aspx

Order the Step-by-Step Guide for $38.00.

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General & Unsubscribe Info

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School Funding Newsletter © Copyright 2003,
Don Peek, except where indicated otherwise.
All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission
from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of
their respective owners. Advertisers are solely responsible
for ad content.

This ezine may be accessed online at:

http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info/newsletter/latestNews.aspx

To contact us with feedback, questions or praise, email:
dpeek@schoolfundingcenter.com

Please feel free to use excerpts from this newsletter
as long as you give credit with a link to our page:
http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info/newsletter/latestNews.aspx

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