APPLICATION RESOURCES
GRANT PROGRAM 2025

You will use Reviewr to submit your application. We highly recommend that you draft your proposal via the Google doc version of the application, before submitting your final proposal into Reviewr.

Share about how you will implement your project throughout the school year. Describe your overarching project goal or learning objective, and identify corresponding activities, timeline, and evaluation methods.

• What is your overall goal or learning objective? How will students and/or other community members connect their learning to the area of focus? (College & Career Readiness, Educator Experience, Literacy, and Other/Unsure)
• What learning activities will you facilitate to reach this goal?
• When will these activities take place?
• What evaluation methods will you use to learn about the impact of your project?

We have found that collaboration with partners across the school community increases the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of projects. Describe how this project will foster collaboration on your campus or department.

• How will you collaborate with other teachers, staff, grade levels, teams, leadership, and/or community members to broaden the impact of your project?
• How will you partner with families and caregivers?

The impact of your project can be measured in a variety of ways. Describe your plan to capture the impact it had on students, staff, and families.

• How will you know that your project has been successful?
• How will you measure success (through data, stories, surveys, or student work)?
• Describe your planned data collection processes that are aligned to your project goal, activities, and milestones. We encourage you to use existing data methods available to you, like pre/post surveys, interviews, observations, assessments, or other measurement approaches. You may choose to cite data from both external (public or academic) or internal (school or classroom specific) sources.
• The intention of data collection is to understand what is changing and who is being impacted as a result of your project. The methods you choose should give you insight on what is/isn’t working, to guide shifts for improvement throughout the project. While measurement is required, grantees will not be penalized if the project does not meet stated objectives.

We hope that grant projects will create lasting impact or change for your school or district community. Describe your plan for sustaining your project after the initial grant period ends and the funds have been spent. This may include continuing the project through additional funding sources, collaborating with businesses or community partners, maintaining cultural or systemic change in your community that may be continued without additional funds.

• What additional funding sources might be utilized to continue the work of your project? This may include external grants or fundraising resources. See the AISD’s grants website for more ideas. How would you utilize additional funds to continue the impact of your project?
• How might you collaborate with businesses or community partners to extend your project?
• What changes in the systems and/or culture of your campus or department can be sustained after the grant period ends? How might these continue the intention of your project?

Austin Ed Fund is excited to award $500,000 this grant cycle. A maximum of $2,500 per project will be awarded for projects that impact individual classrooms. A maximum of $10,000 per project will be awarded for projects that are collaborative and have a team, campus-wide impact, or that will have an impact across multiple campuses. 

Applicants must provide an itemized budget for your project, where the total matches the requested amount above. List each item in your budget, including its cost and how it will support the goal. Be sure to include a line item for your stipend(s). See stipend table below.

There have been several updates to district purchasing policies and procedures. When building your budget, please visit Austin ISD’s Strategic Supply Agreement to ensure that you utilize district approved vendors and follow procurement processes. You should work closely with your bookkeeper throughout this process as they have the financial knowledge to support you.  

A few things to remember.

• As you develop your project timeline, build in extra time for anticipated delays to accessing your funds. Once the funds are transferred from Austin Ed Fund to Austin ISD, it takes some time for the accounts to get set up. Be sure to work closely with your bookkeeper to estimate how long it will take to process orders and shipping of your items.
• All technology purchases must be on Austin ISD’s Strategic Supply Agreement. If they are not, then Austin ISD Technology will not service them if needed. They can only service items found on the Strategic Supply Agreement.
• If your project requires construction-related work, build those costs into your budget. Please complete Austin ISD’s Construction Management Department Project Request Form to loop in their team.
• If your project includes gift cards for students, staff, or families, please include the quantity and $ amount in your budget, as well as $1 per card and $10 shipping fee. These gift cards must be processed and accounted for when the funds are disbursed at the beginning of your grant. We will not be able to process them later in the school year.
• It may take some time for campuses to receive their funds in their Graystep account. Please refer bookkeepers to this helpful document on how to access and start spending.

To honor project leads and co-leads for their work in implementing their project, each grant recipient will be eligible to receive a $250 stipend paid out during the summer immediately following the initial year of the grant period (single or multi-year). For multi-year grants, stipends will only be awarded following the first year of implementation. The stipend amounts will be deducted from the overall grant award. See the scenarios in the table below.

Austin Ed Fund will consider requests for projects implemented over one or two school years. All funding will be awarded at the beginning of your project implementation in year 1 (up to $10,000 to be spent over two years). Multi-year applicants will be required to complete progress and end-of-year reports for each grant year.

• Experiences & field trips (including exposure to colleges & careers)
• Academic materials/supplies
• Professional learning opportunities and collaborative action research projects
• Transition camps
• Family engagement events
• Cross-cultural opportunities
• Clothing aligned with academic success
• Food and snacks for student and family engagements
• Function (formerly supplemental) pay for staff

• Salaries
• Maintenance/facility improvements
• Technology/equipment typically covered by public funds
• Event sponsorships

Here are some resources to help you write your grant proposal. We highly recommend that you download our application template, which has guiding questions and examples to help you while writing your proposal.

• Rubric and priorities
• Grant agreement
• Past grant winners
• FAQs