Funding Opportunities After the End of the Fiscal Year
October 3, 2011
Although the closing fiscal year provides few new federal grant opportunities, there are a couple of new ideas that may provide opportunities for public media.
The Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program is new from the U.S. Department of Education. Funding was set aside in the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution for competitive grants for teacher training and professional development for national nonprofit organizations. Several organizations, such as Teach for America, saw their dedicated funding streams eliminated after a moratorium was placed on earmarks. This grant seeks to support similar programs, but on a competitive basis.
SEED funding can only go to national nonprofit organizations, so although stations cannot apply alone, PBS and CPB are eligible for funding and could be competitive candidates. In addition, eligible entities may be looking for partners to make their applications and service offerings more robust. Priorities with potential connections to public media include:
- Professional development and enhancement of teachers of English language arts with a specific focus on writing. This seeks to provide professional development to ELA teachers to improve student literacy and writing.
- Advance certification and advance credentialing. Applicants under this priority must propose a plan to award advance certification or credentialing through high-quality professional development programs that improve teaching and learning.
- Competitive preference is given to projects that increase efficiency -- time, resources, money -- while improving educational outcomes. Innovative technology could be a great way to meet this priority.
Additionally, the White House is sponsoring a new nonprofit organization, Digital Promise, focused on educational technology. Created by Congress a few years ago, this is the first time the project has been funded. It will be independent but receive some federal funding.
The three primary goals of Digital Promise are identifying breakthrough technologies, learning more quickly what is working and what is not and transforming the market for learning technologies.
As part of Digital Promise, a coalition of organizations, including CPB, PBS and Sesame Workshop, are launching the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge. Public media is already heavily involved in this initiative, and as competitions roll out, the Grant Center will help stations identify strong opportunities. Find out more.
