There are forces at work right now that may make it a tough year for school finance. The value of homes throughout the nation has dropped between 15 and 20% in many areas. With property values down, less taxes will be collected. Some property owners will not be able to pay their property taxes because they haven't even been able to make their house payments.
Add to the property value problems the fact that cities and states aren't collecting as much sales tax or any other tax from businesses and corporations because of the slowdown in the economy. As a result many schools will collect less money than they did last year while prices for fuel and many supplies will actually go up significantly.
The question is not whether you should write grants for your school this year. The question is can you write and receive enough grants to offset the shortfall that is almost surely coming. What can you do about it?
I suggest you do three things.
First, if you are not already a subscriber to The School Funding Center Grant Database, subscribe today. Our database
will allow you to spend a maximum of your time filling out grant applications and a minimum of your time actually looking for grants that are a fit for your school. The subscription fee is so small in comparison to the time our database will save you, it's just a fact that you should spend the money and save the time. It's the efficient thing to do.
Second, recruit and train several people to write grants at your school. You need to be working on a grant application at all times---in fact, several of them. A person cannot write his/her second grant until he/she writes the first one. Get other people involved so you can get enough grant applications out there that it will really make a difference.
Third, consider using The School Funding Center's grant writers. We write on contingency, so you will only risk a $500 up-front fee in order for us to write any grant for you. If you get grant money, you will owe us a percentage based on the amount of money you receive (this money cannot come from the grant itself). If you don't receive the grant money, you won't owe us another penny. We do only write grants on contingency for those schools with a 12-month subscription to our database.
There are just two keys to getting large amounts of grant money for your school. You have to make sure the grants you apply for match up well with the needs of your school. And, you have to fill out enough grant applications, so that if you only get 25-30% of them funded, you'll still have plenty of money to cover your needs.
The bad news is that tough economic times are already here for most schools. The good news is that you can address this problem in a positive manner with the number and quality of grant applications you submit this year.