FINDING Funding for a Mentor Program

INDEX:

• A Basic Funding Plan
• The Success Solution Strategies
  • Do your "homework"
  • Seek organization funding as the "core" resource to support your program
  • Locating Grant Resources
  • Identifying Funding Sources That Fit Your Needs
  • Finding In-Kind Resources

A Basic Funding Plan

If you only rely on grants to fund your program, the money is only temporary, and you risk creating an attitude in the organization that mentoring is a "frill" or a nicety that can only be afforded when we can find the money.

If you use only local resources to support your program, you may be unable to grow the program and incorporate better program practices, better training, increased stipends or formal recognition, etc. as your program evaluation suggests you need. If you can't do these things, then you cannot demonstrate to your organization's decision makers that these things can actually save money and are worth doing because of the results they create for the organization.

That's why you really must build both internal and external resources to support your program.

• You need grants for "seed" money to plant and nurture new program elements and gain the data you need to demonstrate their ultimate value.
• You need internal institutionalized funding of those elements where value has been demonstrated and to hold the organization accountable to supporting a program that contributes to it's own strategic goals and mission.

The Success Solution Strategies

Do your "homework". Research the needs of beginning and junior employees. Research the potential impact on retention of them and improvement of productivity and results related to mentoring programs. Look into both the literature and into your local setting to define the needs. Find out your own organization's retention rate. How many new staff leave after the first year, second year, etc.? Find out the extent of your own organization's investment in new employees, considering costs of recruitment, orientation, training, supervisory time, etc. Calculate the "return on investment" that can be gained by an quality mentoring program that cuts staff attrition in half, or by 3/4, to just 5-10%. Then check with other organizations' mentoring programs to see what they have been able to show for results and to what they attribute the results. Finally, use this intelligence to plan your own process.

Seek organization funding as the "core" resource to support your program. If you have done your homework this may be sufficient to get you started with the program or program changes you seek. However, as you seek organization funds, frame your proposal as an experiment and state clearly what you expect to accomplish and in how much time. If you have done your homework, you will not over or under commit. Agree to be held accountable for results. Agree to (and ask for the time to) assess the effectiveness of the program.

If the organization will not fund the program you need, use grant funding to initiate a new program entirely, or to begin new components to your existing program. Write a time line into the grant proposals you submit, describing how long the grant is sought for and what the organization will do to assume a greater share of the support once the "pilot" can be assessed to demonstrate the results attained. Then make sure that this is OK with the organization.

Your basic approach is "I'm going to use grant funding to assume the risks and prove the value and benefits to the organization. Once the value is demonstrated, the organization should see value in assuming the bulk of the support for the program to gain the benefits and cost savings in other areas."

Locating Grant Resources

Donít be intimidated by grant writing. Any decent writer can do it & be successful IF you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Six years ago I helped a foreign language teacher in St. Charles Illinois to write a big planning grant. I gave her the same suggestions this article contains, which she carefully followed, and she was awarded $36,000 for the first year of her peer coaching program and was able to do the development and planning the right way. It's worth the effort to write such a grant.

Basically, you must be able to answer three questions:
1. Where should I look for the funds I need?
2. How can I identify funding sources that best fit our needs?
3. How do you write a winning proposal?

Letís take a closer look at each one of these three questions so we can understand what is involved in each of them, and to explore some important advice regarding the answer for each of these critical questions.

• The state-level office in your state or provincial government probably has a web site full of information and resources for the specific content or topic area you represent or in which you are interested. Try the web first, and carefully review what's available on-line FIRST, before you try to contact a human being.
• If the web site has little or no information about available grants then go ahead and call them (find the phone # on the web site) and:
  • Tell them about your search on the web site and what you did not find. That will let them know you are diligent and willing to work, and this will also encourage them to get the info on-line sooner.
  • Ask them about the grant opportunities for which you might apply. It could be that simple.
• If THAT doesn't work, don't despair It may be that there are funds available and the specific person you talked to does not know of them. Oh the bureaucracy. Try the next step.
• Check the equivalent web site for neighboring states or provinces. If you can locate a grant opportunity there, record the name and source of the grant (it may be a federal source, such as "The Workforce Development Act".) Then return to YOUR state's web site and look for that same title there.
• If you can't find it, call the office again asking specifically about that source and if it is available in your state. If the answer is unclear or no, call a different office at the same agency, especially if they have a public information office. Don't give up too easily. Most state employees do not know about everything that's going on even at their own agency. Really, how could they? persist.

FEDERAL GRANT SOURCES -

B. The federal government frequently funds many projects within which are great opportunities for your program, or at least for finding funding for parts of your program. For example, there may be resources to start a mentoring program but not to sustain it. There ay be resources just for a specific targeted group, or just in specific geographic or socioeconomic targeted areas.

There may be resources for just one aspect of conducting a mentor program, such as training mentors, or researching the effects of mentoring. No problem. These are tasks for which you need support and their money is as good as anyone's, even if it is more narrowly focused than you might wish.

Federal funding opportunities are typically released in two different ways:

• Directly from the federal government through some of the major departments at the cabinet level. Search the web sites carefully for each federal department to see what they offer.
• Through all or just some of the states/provinces, depending on the focus of the money and which states won competitive grants to address those targeted areas.

Do NOT assume too much about what department is most logical for what kind of funding opportunities. Sure, there are some logical places to start, but I promise, you will be surprised what is available from sources that you may not suspect would have an interest in a topic.

C. Municipal or County Level Grant Opportunities also exist and can be a significant resource. The same advice provided above concerning web site searches, calling, etc. apply at this level as well.

D. Private Foundations and Donors or Sponsors

There is a large amount of money put into all kinds of programs coming from private sources. These are wealthy individuals and corporations, foundations, etc. and all with a specific mission, often with a community-minded sense that they want to help others. Even very local entities like banks, chambers of commerce, labor and fraternal groups, community chests/United Way, churches, professional organizations, veterans groups, women's and others are there awaiting your discovery.

It could take a lot of work to research these groups just to find out who to contact, much less to learn if they support programs like you have or want to create. The very best starting place for private money might be the Foundation Center. This is a clearing house of grants related information and it is well worth exploring. They are on the web at <http://www.fdncenter.org>. Go here for specific grant opportunities as well as advice for writing proposals.

In K-12 EDUCATION -

A. Subscribe to Education Week, a weekly newspaper. They have grants announcements about every second or third week or so. Keep a close eye on this resources, however, since by the time they get and publish an announcement, some time may have passed and the deadline for returning the RFP may be short.

B. Check with your State Board of Education contact person for new teacher support programs. Even if your state does not currently have a mandated program there is probably someone interested and informed about it. To find out the best state Board of Education contact person, go to the "What's Happening in Mentoring in the States" section of my educational web site. It is located at <http://www.teachermentors.com/MCenter%20Site/StateList.html.

That web page will give you a link to each state. Select your state. At the bottom of the state page is the link or info about the contact person. When you reach that person, ask about state programs and funding, and also ask about the opportunities described in this article.

Probably the best big opportunity to access grant $$ for starting a new mentoring program is actually federal money that is administered through each state.

ï Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants - Title II

These are federally funded grants with a large amount of resources, but they are channeled through states which have won competitive grants for specific kinds of projects. Mentoring programs are one area which the TQE grants target and there are a number of states using these funds this way. The grants are awarded for 3-5 year projects and are given to states every year. This means that, even if your state already has projects going additional funds may emerge in later years. So... check each year with state Department of Education contacts about this critical source of support.

ï Title II - Eisenhower Math-Science Grants:
Your local school district probably has Title II funds which are for professional development. If they do you need to get on the spending list for next year as by this time (April) it may all be obligated for this year. If your district does not have Title II $, ask the contact person at your State Bd. of Educ. that I mentioned above. Every state gets this money.

While the focus is primarily on math and science, those lines are very hard to draw, and so the actual awarding of the grant money is fairly flexibly handled, as it needs to be. For example, you might be able to get some Title II support for part of an induction program or peer coaching program if the mentors and coaches are going to support improved instruction which includes science and math instruction. That makes sense doesn't it?

For more info about the Eisenhower program on the web you can go to
<http://www.enc.org>.

ï Title IV is another federal grant which can support a number of staff development needs. Check with your district curriculum and instruction administrator or with your own State Board of Education ìGrantsî office for info on this grant.

ï State Staff Development Grants:
Many states provide ìformulaî grants to the school districts. These are noncompetitive grants for which districts must submit a proposal, but which the district is almost always going to get what it seeks. The formula term comes from the assignment of the amount of money in relationship to the number of teachers (or students, or some other factors in the ìformulaî). In recent years, this money has been in the form of a ìprofessional development block grantî which has combined several other grants from previous years and separate programs into a single grant.

The benefit of a block grant is the increased local control over where the money goes. Your district decides. The problem with a block grant is that previous money earmarked just for staff development, or assessment development, for example, has disappeared and the local support for that use may not be enough to maintain the funding for specific local programs.

The trick is districts usually write grants for this money in the spring of the year and then keep control of the grant money, carefully controlling how the money is used to support district plans. The problem is that any school improvement effort or site-based staff development initiative is led by people who don't know about the need to ask their district in the spring time to be included in the grant proposal so they can access the money next year, or that grant money is even there to access during the year.

To search for OTHER GRANT OPPORTUNITIES use the following URL: <http://www.kane.k12.il.us/Links/KCROElinks.html>. This is part of the web site I developed six years ago where I used to work. The page you want is for ìAdministratorsî . The listing I'd check first is the US Government site, but look at "Grantsweb" and the others given there too.

Every grantor makes money available to further a specific purpose. If that purpose is ALSO YOUR purpose, you should seek that funding. If you have done your homework, have a real need that is clearly defined, and follow the advice in this article, you have every right to expect a fair shot at getting the funding.

This means that you may need to locate and review several grants before you find one worth the effort of writing a winning proposal. The essence of this is in looking at each grant RFP (Request For Proposals). What you need to do is:
ï Identify the unmet needs in the area or organization and your program needs
ï Identify the need that the grantor wants to target
ï Determine the extent to which these two sets of needs are the same.

CAUTION: If you go for and finally get money that requires you to do an activity you would not have done otherwise, I believe you will find (down the road) that you have taken a detour and that your time has been ineffectively used. In grant lingo, that's called ìchasing the moneyî and it is almost always a mistake.

• What will you do when the money runs out? Stop the program? Probably.
• Find some internal money to do something that was only started because you could afford to do it? Probably not.

Think before you commit to a new direction. Ask yourself if this is a tangent that diverts you from your focus, or a change that's really needed to become more effective.

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For info on writing winning grant proposals see elsewhere on this web site.

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