Grant Application
Deadline: January 23, 2025 at 5:00PM Central

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Teachers are most effective, and improve in their practice, when they are problem solvers and innovators, who take risks, learn, reflect, and collaborate. Teachers who pursue Fund for Teachers’ transformational learning experiences catalyze these problem-solving experiences for themselves and students, ultimately changing schools and communities. Fellowship proposals that prioritize teachers seeking solutions to their own, genuine problems of practice will be best aligned to our grant goals. In addition, proposals that have the potential to center students as changemakers for problems in their communities are highly encouraged to apply.

Goals of a Fund for Teachers fellowship are for educators to:

• serve as problem solvers and innovators who create solutions to real problems of practice;
• reflect on their experience as a learner and transfer the most powerful aspects of their experience to student learning;
• integrate their experiences as Fund for Teachers Fellows into their teaching to create more globally minded students who are empowered to take action;
• and grow as leaders and change makers.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:

• A full-time preK-12th grade teacher who spends at least 50% of your time directly providing instruction to students;
• Applicants must have plans to return to a classroom or teaching environment the year following their fellowship and demonstrate the ability to incorporate what they learn into their teaching; and
• Have at least three years’ experience as a preK-12th grade teacher at the end of the school year.
  • Student and substitute teaching do not count towards the three-year requirement.
  • If the applicant has three years’ experience by the time of their fellowship, Fund for Teachers considers them eligible.
• Previous recipients must wait for five years before reapplying.

Teaching staff that do not provide instruction to students for at least 50% of their full-time position are not eligible. One-on-one instructional time does not count toward the 50% time requirement described above. Administrators, such as principals, may not apply, nor may they act as the partner applicant. Please contact Fund for Teachers if you have specific questions about your eligibility.

Open to US teachers who live and work in the continental United States and Hawaii.

Individuals may apply for up to $5,000 and teams may apply for up to $10,000 (while team members may be from different schools, districts or states, all members must meet the eligibility criteria). Upon award, Fellows will receive 90 percent of their grant, the remaining 10 percent to be disbursed upon completion of post-fellowship requirements.

We know your time is valuable, so we discourage using it to submit proposals that do not fall within funding guidelines. In this spirit, we aim to be transparent about what our grant making does not support.

We do not make grants to support student travel, the completion of post baccalaureate degrees, university/college credit hours, courses for graduate credit, licensing, or licensure, onsite (or campus) professional development at your school or by the district, compensation for substitutes, stipends and requests that only include classroom supplies, such as books, technology, or other materials. Grants cannot be used to pay for any portion of National Board Certification. All project eligibility is at the discretion of Fund for Teachers.

Eligible teachers may submit one application per grant cycle. Fund for Teachers is interested in your ideas, only. Any indication of borrowed text will disqualify your application. Additionally, previously awarded proposals may not be resubmitted for consideration.

Fellowships should begin after the last day of school in the spring and be completed by the first day of school in the fall, with all fellowship related expenditures made by September 10, 2025.

For optimal application performance: Avoid using tablets or mobile devices such as an iPad or Amazon Fire. Also, please make sure that your pop-up blocker is off, to avoid missing important notifications.