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7 Proven Strategies for Winning Ed Tech Grants: In the Fierce Competition for Funding, Here's How You Can Make Your Application Rise to the Top

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN THIS ERA OF LIMITED BUDGETS, K-12 educators looking to add technology to their classrooms often have to find creative ways to pay for their projects. Fortunately, there has never been a wider range of ed tech funding sources. Joining the lineup of traditional federal, state and private foundation grants is a new generation of donor programs and contests. "Writing a grant" today can mean anything from stating your case in a Word document to producing a video or making a direct pitch on a website. Whatever the medium, it's how you tell your story that sets you apart from the competition. Whether you're writing a traditional grant, entering a contest or reaching out online to a potential benefactor, you'll increase your chances of success by applying these seven strategies. Start With Your Need Because they can get funding for telecom and infrastructure through E-rate, educators write ed tech grants primarily for end-user equipment. So you might be tempted to start your grant proposal talking about the tech, but that would be a mistake, said Alice E. Owen, executive director of the Texas K-12 CTO Council, the state chapter of CoSN that supports school district chief technology officers. Always begin your story, Owen said, with your need. "Look at your community," she said. "Maybe there's a high rate of poverty in your district and the kids are not achieving. Maybe you have a large number of non-English-speaking students who are not doing well. You can get together with your colleagues and brainstorm a list, and then pick one that you feel very attached to. That's where you focus first." Owen, a sometime trainer, is a former principal, staff development director and technology director. More importantly, she's a savvy veteran of the grant-writing wars. During her time as executive director of technology at Irving Independent School District (TX), she led grant projects that secured $3 million to $4 million for her district. Once you've identified your community's need, Owen said, make a list of the barriers this problem creates for your students. Then explain how the technology you're asking for will help them to overcome those barriers. "It's truly in your best interest to make this need you've identified seem very dire and very sad," she said. "You are competing for this money, so your need has to seem greater than someone else's. You want it to be clearly understood that, if you don't get this help, your kids are going to continue to do worse, and not achieve." Keep the Students Front and Center Always remember: You don't need this technology; your students do. Talk about their problems. Maybe you have kids in your district who reach high school and then have no clue what they want to do when they graduate. Maybe you have a high dropout rate, or graduates who are floundering. Maybe your ninth-graders desperately need support to improve their algebra scores. According to Owen, "You can always find a need and way to tie it to the progress of students' current performance or future careers, but the technology always comes in as a support resource, not as the main objective of the grant." In short, put your students first in your narrative and keep the focus on them. Students were literally in the spotlight for the Compass Learning Classroom Refresh Contest. The applications for this grant took the form of student-and-teacher-produced music videos that aimed to demonstrate how technology could enhance classroom instruction. Grants of $185,000 worth of personalized learning software, hardware and professional development packages from Compass Learning and other vendors were awarded to classrooms in grades K-5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. Eileen Shihadeh, vice president at Compass Learning, said, "We were looking for folks who were very motivated. The fact that they were willing to put the sweat equity into making these videos was strong evidence of the buy-in, both of the students and the teachers, which we felt was essential. …