Frequently Asked Questions

For our purposes a “program” is a network of schools of which your school is a member. i.e. New Visions for Public Schools, Expeditionary Learning Schools, etc. If your school is not part of one of the listed programs, select the “All Other Schools” option.

Fund for Teachers and their collaborating partners do not sell or distribute email addresses.

Teachers who are employed by yearlong institutions may use their funds during any of the periodic school breaks.

Team grant funds are equally distributed between all members.

For examples of awards previously given by the Fund, visit: fundforteachers.org. Read our newsletter, use the Fellow Project Search, and visit our social media sites.

Five.

No, applicants may only submit one application per grant year. Identical applications will not be considered; proposals must be written by the person(s) participating in the fellowship.

No. You need to have at least 3 years teaching experience as a classroom teacher. You may be in your 3rd year at the time you apply

For sample project descriptions visit: http://fft.fundforteachers.org/app/webroot/files/guidelines/documents/Sample-Project-Descriptions.pdf.

18,000 characters includes spaces and punctuation and is the equivalent of approximately four typed pages. You will not be able to advance to the itemized budget page if you exceed 18,000 characters.

Using a word processor makes it easier to complete the proposal by allowing you to keep track of the character count and can help prevent the loss of data. It also makes it easier to proofread and share your proposal for feedback.

Yes, but please avoid copying from tour guides, brochures or websites. Cite your sources.

The online application does not have to be completed in one sitting. You may save your work and return later. The “clock” will reset after every save; the system will time-out after thirty (30) minutes. Save often.

School community includes colleagues, administration, student body, parents and local businesses.

Each eligible application is reviewed by a Selection Committee comprised of educators, Fellows and corporate and civic volunteers and ranked using the Scoring Rubric.

A blind selection means we remove the coversheet and all identifying verbiage from the proposal prior to the review and selection process. The committee bases their review and scoring solely on the merit of the proposed project.

Maintaining the ideal that the teachers knows best what project is most beneficial to them, there is no preference given to international vs. domestic travel, teams vs. individuals, prepackaged programs vs. self-designed itineraries or one locale vs. another. Priority is not given to applications that request less than the maximum grant allowance.

Applicants will be notified of the selection committee results on April 5, 2017.

Yes, all applicants receive notification of the selection committee results.

By far, the most frequent reasons that proposals are not selected are:

  •  FFT does not have enough funds to accept every request.
  •  The proposal did not include sufficient detail, or adequately respond to each application question.
  •  The applicant didn't follow application guidelines.

At this time, Fund for Teachers does not provide application feedback. We encourage you to reapply using the application resources to guide you in the revision process. Scores are confidential.