Grant Writing Example

Prompt:

Please describe the community need your organization is addressing with this proposal and how it fits into your overall organizational goals. Please specify how this project relates to one or more of Facebook’s criteria: 

1) Putting the power of technology to use for community benefit; 

2) connecting people online or off; and/or 

3) improving education. 

Please note: we recommend this description is no longer than 500 words.

Talking points received from the client:

• Career Readiness – STEM Career Exploration
• Face to Face interviewing of staff and other students might be an offline communication benefit
• Technology introduction (introducing the student to video editing and communication skills)
• Providing video clips to our offline learners via USB drives 
• Student leadership (Leader-in-me)
• Student-created videos on how-to
• Morning news announcement
• Teachers/staff can create videos to send home (how-to, informative, etc)

Final Revision:

Education in America changed the first week of March 2020 and will, most likely, never return to the way we knew it. COVID-19 spread across our country and world, forever leaving its mark. Most of the impacts of COVID-19 have been negative. However, one change has shown us that we are capable of much more when educating children. As educators, we have learned to use technology in more powerful ways than we had imagined. Students as early as kindergarten regularly login to virtual classrooms and engage with teachers and students from the safety of their homes. While this is not the norm we want, it is our current reality. As educators, we know there must be a balance between hands-on, in-person learning, and knowledge of how to function successfully in a digital, virtual world. At ABC Elementary, we want to embrace both worlds- in-person learning and virtual learning- as we educate the whole child.

As ABC Elementary returns to in-person learning and brings our students back into the classroom, we want to create a multimedia program. Specifically, we want to provide a video production studio for use by students and teachers. We are asking Facebook for the funds to purchase the necessary start-up equipment.

The ABC Video Production Studio will immediately benefit both teachers and students. Teachers will have a dedicated space with appropriate and adequate AV equipment (i.e., no more trying to use their cell phones) to create instructional videos, deliver informative material, read stories to students, send information home to families, and more. We want a library of USB drives so these videos can be distributed to students who have school-issued Chromebooks but limited or no internet access. As a rural school, communication with these students is challenging yet crucial. Distributing USB drives loaded with instructional and informational material will better allow us to educate this population.

Students and families will directly benefit from the ABC Virtual Production Studio in three ways:

1. Students will receive higher quality instructional videos from their teachers regardless of internet access.
2. We want to empower our students to create their own videos and learn how to use a production studio.
3. ABC families will receive educational and school informational videos.

We plan to teach our students all aspects of video production from researching and pitching an idea, writing an outline or script, creating digital material, editing, to final presentation. We envision our students doing such things as researching potential careers and creating informative videos to share with classmates, interviewing staff members in a “Get to Know Your School” series, creating a Welcome Video and Tour for new students, and eventually producing a morning news show to replace traditional morning announcements. 

ABC Elementary is already a Leader in Me School, and the presence of a video production studio illustrates our core belief that all students are leaders and contribute to our school’s success. The ABC Video Studio will provide us with another avenue to expand our students’ leadership and STEM skills.

Prompt:

Describe how your organization will measure the success and impact of the project. 

For example: 

• How many people do you estimate will be impacted by this grant? 
• How will you measure and report that impact? 
• How will you know the project has been successful?

Talking points received from the client:

• The entire school community will be impacted by this grant because the students producing the news cast will broadcast their morning announcements and news updates to the student body, faculty and staff.  USB drives with files of the programs will be provided for offline students because they are part of the school community and need the interaction.
• A number of …successfully broadcast morning news announcements would measure technology skills gained by students
• A number of …student-created how-to videos
• A number of…Student initiated interviews with peers and staff

Final Revision:

-This grant will impact the entire school population, including ABC’s parents and families. Specifically, we want each teacher to make instructional or informational videos to use with students and parents. We plan to have staff training on using the studio and training 2-3 staff members to be assistants in the studio.

-We plan to involve our AIG (identified gifted) students first in using the studio. We envision training these students and teaching them about video production. We want these students to produce 2-3 videos this school year. We will expand the studio’s use to our older students (4th and 5th grades) in subsequent years.

-Individual teachers are encouraged to use the studio with his/her class. This way, more students will be exposed to video production and the studio itself.

We will measure this program’s success based on the overall number of videos produced by staff and the overall number of videos produced by students.

-The measure of success statistics will be reported in the School Improvement Plan, specifically in the area of engaging and informing families.

-We will know this project has been successful based on feedback from students, parents, and teachers.  Feedback would come from PTO meetings, Student Council, School Improvement Meetings, and Leader-in-Me surveys.