There is no magic formula for winning grant money. I wish it were that easy! Finding and securing grant money can be a slow and tedious process. You have to work hard at it and have a lot of patience if you are truly going to be successful.

I can, however, provide you with some quick tips that, if you follow them carefully, will streamline your efforts and will help you acquire a lot more grant money than those who don’t follow them.

· Determine your school’s most pressing problems that could be helped by grant money.
· Develop a program to address your main problem that is measurable and replicable.
· Spend your valuable time writing grants, not finding them – use a grant database.
· Make absolutely sure the grant criteria match the needs of your school.
· Before you write any grant, visit the grantor’s website.
· Before you write any grant, call the grant contact person.
· Planning is extremely important in grant writing. Plan first, then write.
· Don’t focus on money; focus on student achievement.
· Follow application directions carefully – all of them.
· Complete each section of the application as if it were the only section.
· Use statistics to be convincing about your need for grant money.
· Make sure your application is of the highest quality because competition can be fierce.
· Be persistent. Complete more applications to increase your chances of getting money.
· Use your computer to check for errors. Get a colleague to proofread your application.
· Don’t give up! Thousands of grants are available. Keep applying until you’re successful.

Again, these short tips won’t make you a successful grant writer overnight, but if you consistently apply them to your grant writing, you will be more successful given a little time and practice.

You should always start your search for grants using the free grant database provided by Grants for Teachers at:  http://www.grants4teachers.com/

Don Peek is an expert in school funding. He has run The School Funding Center since 2001. Its database contains over 100,000 grants available to all types of schools in the United States. Don worked in education for 20 years as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent before becoming the VP then the president of the training division of Renaissance Learning, developer of the Accelerated Reader.
http://www.schoolfundingcenter.info