Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) exist to improve the educational experience for students.
But they also exist to improve the entire school community, including the school’s teachers and staff.
One fantastic way to support your school’s staff and teachers is to provide funding for projects, equipment and supplies that fall outside the normal school funding process.
The most effective way to offer this extra funding is by establishing a PTO mini grant program for teachers and staff.
We’re going to get into all of the what, why and how’s of mini grant programs that all school parent groups should have in this post, so let’s get to it!
What are PTO Mini Grants?
PTO mini grants are a funding source for school teachers and staff that are provided by the school’s PTO.
A PTO program offering mini grants for teachers is very similar to a regular grant program, with the amount of available money for grants being smaller.
Why are PTO Mini Grants Beneficial for Teachers?
Teachers and staff have such great ideas and sometimes they need some money to bring those ideas to life.
For PTOs, mini grants offer teachers and staff the change to get money for things on their educational wishlist that they might not be able to get money for otherwise.
The idea behind the mini grants is to provide a quick and easy way for teacher and staff programs to be funded.
PTOs typically make decisions faster than other nonprofit organizations, so the runway for idea to reality is shorter.
Why are PTO Mini Grant Programs Beneficial for PTO/PTAs?
PTO volunteers don’t work as hard as they do to not see the money do good for their school community.
PTOs can’t anticipate every need at a school, so the mini grant program offers a chance to fund programs and projects that the PTO might not otherwise know about.
Teacher mini grants are great for funding for one time projects or spontaneous needs that crop up.
Quite often, teachers will come across new programs and items that would really be helpful to the students during the year.
If you don’t have an extra pot of money set aside to pay for these new opportunities, you’ll be left with two choices: decline the request or scramble for the money.
Neither are good options, so an alternative is to plan for these unexpected requests with a mini grant program.
One last reason to set up a PTO mini grant program is that it can help avoid PTO members feeling like the PTO is being used as the school’s piggy bank.
Offering mini grants gives school parent group members some say and control in how PTO funds are used.
Setting Up a PTO Mini Grant
The process of setting up the teacher mini grant fund isn’t hard.
It’s as simple as adding a mini grant line item to your PTO budget each year.
If you’d like to institute a mini grant program mid school year, then a motion to do so may be made during a PTO general membership meeting.
Here are some other aspects of the teacher mini grant program to define:
Decide on the Mini Grant Application Window
One of the first things to decide when setting up a PTO mini grant program is what the application window will be.
Make sure all staff know about the deadlines so no one feels left out and there’s equal opportunity to participate.
Keep things fair by not accepting late application submissions.
Having a set application deadline also avoids the situation of first come, first serve.
Without a defined application deadline, requests will come flooding in throughout the year.
Maybe the best proposal comes in after all of the grant money has been allocated.
Then you’re left without a way to fund something your PTO really wants to fund!
Avoid this situation by setting a deadline or two (one in the fall and one in the spring).
Be sure to choose submission deadlines that don’t come at really busy times for teachers, like during state testing or right before Winter or Spring break.
Teachers are stretched thin during those times and you’ll have lower participation, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve with the mini grant program.
Set Limits
Make it clear how much money is in the mini grant pot up for grabs and consider setting a limit on the total dollar amount requested for each application.
This way, you won’t have sky high grant requests that you have no way of funding.
This just leads to disappointment and frustration from everyone.
So clear up any possible confusion by stating the available amount of money at the onset.
After that, you can set limits for the individual grant requests to fund as many mini grant proposals as possible.
If the mini grant program budget is $1,000, maybe you want to limit the size of grant funding to $250 each so you can fund four grants?
Talk about this with your executive board and do what’s best for your PTO.
Develop a Mini Grant Application
You’ll also want to develop a set of grant request guidelines outlining the information you’ll need to make a when considering the mini grants.
Most teachers have experience with writing grant proposals, so there shouldn’t be an issue with needing to overly explain the application process.
The application gives you a way to compare applications apple to apples.
Unless you specify what information you want, you may not get it from the grant submission and you may not have the right information to make a decision.
So be clear about what you need.
PTO Mini Grant Criteria
When I revamped our school’s mini grant process, I instituted a quick application process.
Teachers are busy, so the application wasn’t long.
There were just a few requirements compared to a multi page application the previous mini grant committee chair used (that the teachers loathed).
I wanted to be able to quickly share the applications with the mini grant committee members, so I required the applications to be submitted electronically.
Next, the application asked for the following information:
1. How much money is being requested?
2. How will the money be used?
3. How many students will be impacted?
4. Overall cost estimates.
5. Is this a one-time cost or a repeating cost?
And that was it!
Short, sweet and to the point.
Because the mini grants are not for a ton of money, your aim should be to make the funds easily accessible.
If you make the process too onerous, with many hoops to jump through, the teachers won’t bother.
That was the mistake one PTO made and the group was literally begging teachers to apply.
But the application was too involved and the teachers stopped applying for the mini grants.
Instead, they applied for larger grants and bypassed the PTO’s mini grant program altogether.
This meant the mini grant money wasn’t doing anything to benefit the school community.
Grant Terms and Conditions
Be sure to create a set of rules and expectations for the mini grants.
What Happens to Grant-funded Items?
Are equipment and supplies purchased with mini grant funds the property of the teacher or school?
What happens to the property if the teacher leaves the school?
It’s probably best to include this agreement in your email or letter letting the grant recipient know that their request will be funded so there’s no questions down the road.
Who pays for maintenance or recurring charges?
Make clear who is responsible for maintaining or servicing grant funded purchases (like a water bottle filler that needs to be serviced periodically).
Also communicate whether the PTO is willing to pay subscription fees (for software, for example) or not.
If your PTO is willing to (depending on the specific details of the subscription), you’ll need to account for it in your PTO’s annual budget accordingly.
Time Limits for Using Grant Funding
Also, you’ll want to set a limit for the time the teach has to use the grant.
I made sure the teachers knew they needed to purchase the items immediately and submit a receipt for reimbursement.
You may want to consider purchasing the item directly for the teacher, especially if you are a tax-exempt organization.
Your grant dollars will be stretched even further if you’re not paying tax.
Teachers sometimes get a sales tax exemption from some stores, but not all.
Teachers also may not have the money to pre-pay for the items, so they’ll appreciate your help so they don’t need to front the money themselves.
Form a PTO Mini Grant Committee
Each grant application should be reviewed by the PTO Grant Committee, a group of 3-5 PTO volunteers.
The committee can be a standing one, as designated in your Bylaws and Standing Rules, or you can form it each term.
By default, the PTO President serves as the head of all committees, and a mini grant committee is no exception.
Informing Teachers and Staff About Mini Grant Decisions
The last task of the mini grant committee is to inform all applicants in writing whether or not their grant application will be funded.
This is my personal favorite task of the entire mini grant process because it is so much fun to let a teacher know their grant has been accepted.
There was one teacher in particular who was a happy crier, and it was so fun to let her know the PTO was funding her grant.
She gave the best hugs and the happy tears were lovely to see.
For mini grants your PTO is unable to fund, ask the teacher or staff member if they’d like their application to be considered during the next submission period.
This eliminates busywork or resending duplicate information.
The teacher will be just as happy to receive funding in a few months versus not at all.
Over to you!
And that’s how simple it is to set up a mini grant program for your PTO!
PTO mini grant programs have funded amazing things for schools.
The STEM program at my children’s high school was first started with a PTSA grant!
What wonderful things will your PTO mini grant money do?
Recommended Resources
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