Redwood Coast Education Foundation

​MINI-GRANT TYPICAL TIMELINE AND REQUIREMENTS

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• 2023-2024 Timeline:

  • October 30, 9:00 pm: Applications due, and must be submitted through our web form (green button above).

  • November 6, 9:00 pm: Approval by a school administrator due (see instructions in the Administrator Approval section of the application).

  • You can start your application at any time, and come back to edit it until the deadline.

  • You must enter something into every field the first time through in order to save your application.

  • DO NOT CLOSE THE BROWSER TAB until you receive a copy of your application by email (check spam folder). If you do not get a copy by email, go back to the application and make sure you entered something into every field.

  • We expect to be able to inform you of our decisions to fund (or not) your project by early December, and to disburse grant funds by late December.

  • Projects must be completed within the same school year.

  • Written evaluation of your project’s outcomes must be submitted to RCEFgrant@gmail.com no later than the end of the school year. Failure to submit an evaluation on time will make you ineligible for a grant the following year.

• Requirements:

  • Requests cannot exceed $650, and all funds must be used solely for the proposed project.

  • Anything bought with RCEF funds will be the property of the school, not the teacher.

  • Projects must be student-centered, and demonstrably enrich and enhance learning opportunities.

  • Intended learner outcomes must be clearly stated, as well as the methodology of determining success.

  • Funds may be augmented by funds from other sources.

  • Funds may not be used to supplant, or take the place of, regular public school funds, nor may they be used to pay for costs of administration, maintenance, overhead, construction, capital goods, or improvements.

  • Funds may not be used for stipends, travel, or salaries for teachers or administrators.

  • Unused funds must be returned to RCEF if a project is called off, comes in under budget, is reduced in scale, or curtailed due to other circumstances.​

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PROPOSAL EVALUATION AND AWARD OF MINI-GRANTS
 

RCEF evaluates your proposal on the basis of its fit with the following criteria:

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• Potential for student learning (30%): Clearly stated project goals and anticipated student outcomes, project importance and usefulness, and ways the project addresses student learning.

• Potential for use by others (20%): Description and illustration of how the project or elements of it can be offered as a model for dissemination, adaptation, and/or replication.

• Budget and spending plan (20%): Complete, specific, practical projection of costs and a timeline indicating when purchases will be made, introduced, and used in the project.

• Project evaluation plan (10%): Plan/methodology and timeline to assess learner outcomes, data-based (where appropriate) overall judgment of the project, and date when the project evaluation will be submitted to RCEF.

• Overall proposal (20%): Effectiveness of the proposal to communicate the intent and implementation of the project, seen holistically, and the project contributions  to learner development and experiential learning.

• ​An application may not be considered if it is submitted after the deadline, is incomplete, has not been approved by an administrator, or the applicant has failed to submit an evaluation for a previous RCEF-funded project (unless there are extenuating circumstances).

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR PROPOSAL 

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• It is up to you to communicate clearly and convincingly the intent and purpose of your project and to show how it aligns with your project goals.   Thoroughly describe how you will pursue and assess attainment of these goals and the desired student outcomes.  Be concise, but be complete.

• You will be submitting through a web form, with three sections:

• ​Section 1: Basic information: name, role, project title, school, contact info, etc.

• ​Section 2: Project Details. See below for more about this section. 

• ​Section 3: Administrator Approval. After you've completed your proposal, you will need to get the approval of a school administrator, typically the principal, submitted within a week of the deadline for proposal submission. The process for this is explained in this section of the web application.

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PROJECT DETAILS

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• ​Overview: Describe relevant aspects of the setting or contexts in which the project will take place; project goal(s); relevant student characteristics; learning needs identified and how they will be addressed; what you will need to complete the project; what will your project offer students that they would not otherwise experience?

• Timeline: Provide intended project start, timing of major events, completion, and project evaluation. Provide dates where appropriate.

• ​Potential for Others: Tell how your project might serve as a model for adaptation or replication by others and how it might be disseminated.  If your project is not in your judgment a candidate for replication, adaptation, or dissemination, tell us why. What do you consider to be the creative and/or original elements of your proposal?

• ​Evaluation Plan:  Describe how will you assess the attainment of project goals and anticipated student outcomes. What might pose difficulties for anything more than an impressionistic project evaluation? A project evaluation form will be available by sometime in March.

• ​Budget: Describe what you will buy, when and where you will buy it, what it will cost, and when you will put it to use. Be specific on items, costs, sources, and timing. Nonspecific budgets have resulted in potentially worthwhile projects not being funded.

• ​Conclusion: Make your final pitch. Conclude your proposal with anything you wish to emphasize, mention any features you may not have already covered, and summarize your project. Be concise.