Volume 11 Issue 10 August 22 , 2013
Idaho Heritage Conference – Main Street Track
http://www.preservationidaho.org/heritageconference
Plenty of seats are still available for the Idaho Heritage Conference. This year’s conference will contain Main Street track packed full of valuable information for communities looking to revitalize their downtown and business districts. With a registration fee of only $79 this is one of best conference bargains out there.
Environmental Education
The Lexus Eco Challenge is an educational program and contest designed to inspire and empower middle and high school students in the United States to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. The program will award a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships. The competition is open to students in grades 6-12, who are either registered and home-schooled or enrolled in a public or accredited private school, and who are legal residents of the U.S. or the District of Columbia. The winning teams each will receive a total of $10,000 in scholarships and grants, to be shared among the students, teacher, and school.
Classroom Projects
The Kids In Need Foundation is accepting applications from K-12 teachers for grants to support classroom projects. Grants of up to $500 will be awarded to educators for projects that strengthen creativity, critical thinking skills, and/or core knowledge by engaging students in the learning process. Grant awards are based on the creativity of the projects being proposed. Typically, 300 to 600 grants are awarded each year.
Childcare Teachers
The Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation is inviting applications for the Terri Lynne Lokoff/Children’s Tylenol National Childcare Teacher Awards, which acknowledge the critical role of childcare teachers in providing high-quality child care. The program is open to child care teachers in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and on all United States military bases and installations. Applicants must be teachers of infants, toddlers, or preschool-age children, and must work full time in a home, group, or center-based program that is fully compliant with local and state regulations for childcare programs. Fifty award recipients will each receive $1,000 – $500 in acknowledgement of their special dedication and $500 for a classroom enhancement project submitted as part of the application process.
School Gardens
In collaboration with FoodCorps, the Whole Kids Foundation is accepting applications for the School Garden Grant Program, which supports school garden projects that help students learn about complex topics such as nutrition and health, sustainability and conservation, food systems, and community awareness. Applicants must be a nonprofit K-12 school (public, private, or charter) and/or a 501(c)(3) organization that is developing or currently maintaining a garden project on school grounds with the goal of interesting children in fresh fruits and vegetables. Grants will provide $2,000 for projects lasting a year and will be limited to one per school.
School Improvement Projects
Funded by the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program provides grant awards of up to $5,000 to support school improvement projects at K-12 public schools in the United States. For the 2013-14 school year, the foundation will give priority to basic necessities, with a preference for funding requests that have a permanent impact, such as facility enhancement (both indoor and outdoor) as well as landscaping/cleanup projects. Projects that encourage parent involvement and help build stronger community spirit are encouraged. (Please note: grant money cannot be used to pay for memorials, stipends, salaries, artists in residence, field trips, scholarships, or third-party funding.) Sample project ideas include reading gardens, vegetable gardens, physical fitness areas, school landscaping projects, school nature trails, parent involvement centers, peer tutoring centers, playgrounds, and rotating student art exhibits. Any public K-12 school or nonprofit parent group associated with a public K-12 school is eligible to apply. Grant requests must be between $2,000 and $5,000 per school. Lowe’s will donate $5 million to schools and school parent/teacher groups at more than one thousand different schools during the school year.
Environmental Studies
www.mountaineersfoundation.org
The Mountaineers Foundation provides support to organizations and agencies working to preserve the natural beauty and ecological integrity of the Pacific Northwest. The foundation provides support for modest short-term projects. Eligible projects include studies that will yield new data aimed at protecting Northwest wilderness and wildlife; biological, economic, legal, or policy studies; direct educational programs and materials related to environmental preservation; lectures, conferences, and seminars; written or audiovisual awareness materials; curriculum or other instructional materials; publication of conference proceedings; journal articles; seed or pilot studies that can be continued with funding from other sources; and selected capital improvement projects (e.g., restoration; assistance in purchasing equipment/materials). The maximum grant amount is normally $5,000.
Economic Development
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking applications for grants that will be awarded to organizations to help rural businesses create jobs and spur economic development. USDA is making $5.6 million available through the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI), a program that generates economic activity in rural areas.
Japanese Performing Arts
The Japan Foundation is now accepting proposals for touring and collaboration grants through the Performing Arts Japan program (PAJ).PAJ support is designed for nonprofit organizations in the United States and Canada working to introduce Japanese performing arts to local audiences. The main goals of the program are to increase access to the Japanese performing arts in the United States and Canada, especially outside major metropolitan areas; to foster an understanding of the Japanese performing arts by providing educational programs for audiences in each touring location apart from public performances; and to support collaborative projects between Japanese and American/Canadian performing artists. The program offers two categories of grants: Touring and Collaboration grants. PAJ Touring grants help present Japanese performing arts at multiple locations in the U.S. and Canada, with an emphasis on locations outside major metropolitan areas. PAJ Collaboration grants help Japanese and American/Canadian artists develop new work that will further an appreciation of Japanese culture when presented to American/Canadian audiences.
Playground
With support from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, KaBOOM! is awarding mini-grants to communities that wish to make their playgrounds cleaner, safer, and more inviting. Let’s Play Maintenance grants are designed to reward communities that have worked on the upkeep of their play spaces since their playground was built. Communities must demonstrate that they have maintained their play space and have led an improvement project in the last sixty days. Selected communities will receive $750 to further enhance or improve their play space. Gift cards also can be used to refill the playground’s wood fiber playground surfacing.
Wildlife Habitat Protection and Restoration
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, a nonprofit organization created by Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks, supports wildlife research, habitat protection, animal rescue, and conservation education in the United States and around the world. The fund has no set minimum or maximum grant amount. In the past, the fund has awarded project grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 for a one-year term.