February 1, 2008
MEMO TO:
N.E.I.S.D. Educators
SUBJECT: Request for
Project/Program Proposals for 2007-2008
Foundation
Funding
Read the following instructions
very carefully. Your grant request may
not be considered if you fail to follow them.
The North East Educational
Foundation (“NEEF”) is a non-profit organization created to develop and expand
educational opportunities for students of the North East Independent School
District. One of its principal goals is to identify and fund worthy
projects and programs whose costs exceed the limitations of the District’s
regular, tax- supported budget.
The
Foundation will fund district-wide projects, single campus projects, and single
classroom projects. Priority will be given to grade-level or subject-wide
campus projects over individual classroom projects. Interest in NEEF’s grant program has grown
significantly over the years. Given the
very large number of submissions and the substantial amount of time needed to
collect, organize, select, and distribute all qualifying grant requests to the
Projects Committee, the Foundation has modified the grant request submission
process. The changes are intended to
permit the grant requests to be electronically collected, summarized and then
distributed to the Projects Committee members for their review. Failure to comply with the Foundation’s
guidelines will result in the grant request being designated as “non-qualifying”;
the Projects Committee will not consider
“non-qualifying grant requests”.
The Foundation does not fund:
(1) personnel stipends/salaries and staff development costs
(2) capital outlay items (fixtures, furnishings, &
equipment) such as computer hardware, cameras, and bookshelves
(3) travel costs and lodging
(4) food, candy, drinks or any promotional items (stickers,
pencils, pads, erasers, etc.)
ALL
grant proposals that include any of these items will be considered as
“non-qualifying” and will not be considered by the Projects Committee. NO EXCEPTIONS.
To be considered, ALL projects must enhance and support the instructional program.
Both the CIC and principal
must approve campus projects, and both the DEIC and the Associate
Superintendent of Instruction must approve district-wide projects. Failure
to provide a single printed copy of the grant request containing all required
signatures will cause the submittal to be considered as a “non-qualifying grant
request”, and will not be considered by the Projects Committee.
Also be aware that the Foundation has elected to
limit the number of grant requests that will be accepted from a given campus to
three (3). (Please note that the term “campus” is
(currently) not meant to be narrowly defined; for example, NEEF presently
considers Lee High School, NESA and ISA as individual campuses for the purpose
of reviewing grant proposals even though they share the same site and
buildings.) Since the District now has
over 60 campuses, even this limitation could result in well over 300 grant
proposals. A large portion of previous
grant requests – from across the District - did not meet the Foundation’s
clearly published guidelines. Additional
restrictions may be necessary in the future, depending on the quality and quantity
of the proposals received by the Foundation.
Funding will be awarded on
an annual basis. Subsequent funding will require re-application with
emphasis on the prior year’s results as well as consideration of other current
requests..
To submit a proposal, fill
out the 2008 NEEF Proposal electronic form and
cost spreadsheet – in
Word and Excel format. These will be
considered as the “official version” of your submittal; changes to the hard
copy submittal will not be considered. Do
not modify the document formatting – particularly the Excel spreadsheet! Be sure that the Excel spreadsheet you
submit only has a single tab labeled, “Cost Summary.” Submit your proposal and cost spreadsheet by
email to:
Be sure that you print out several clean
copies, and collect all required signatures before submitting ONE copy to the
Foundation office at Central Office. Do not submit any pamphlets, brochures,
price lists, photos, or other extraneous materials with either the electronic
submittal or the properly signed hard copy of your electronic submittal, or
your project proposal will be considered as a “non-qualifying grant request”,
and will not be considered by the Projects Committee. Keep at least one extra copy of the properly
signed hard copy “just in case.”
Fax submittals are no longer
accepted! Hard copy submittals with
missing signatures, or “inappropriate” signatures, will be considered as
“non-qualifying grant requests”, and such grant requests will not be considered
by the Projects Committee. You MUST
properly fill out the form in order for your project to be considered for
funding.
The deadline
for the electronic grant request submission is midnight Friday, March 14, 2008 and the printed and signed copy
submission must be received at the NEEF office before 5:00 PM Friday, March 14, 2008.
Late submittals – for either deadline - will be considered as
“non-qualifying grant requests”, and will not be considered by the Projects
Committee. Do not give your printed
and signed submittal to a NEEF Board member as a substitute for the 5:00 PM
delivery to the NEEF office. That will
not count as proper submittal; it must be received at the NEEF office on or
before the deadline. Likewise, any
printed and signed copies that are still in the PONY system, but are not
received by the deadline, will not be considered. This rule is intended to provide a “level
playing field”, since NEEF Board members probably won’t be present at every
campus that day, and we cannot determine when packets are placed in PONY.
Don’t
wait until the last minute to prepare your submittal! We won’t be able to help you with last-minute
problems with the electronic submittal process, and generally won’t be
available on weekends to help. Generally
speaking, we will only provide email support, and since we’re all volunteers,
it may take us several days to research your problem, develop an answer, and
send a reply. Be patient, and submit
your request as early as possible!
Extensions
of the deadlines will not be considered unless a major district-wide
catastrophic event – covering several days – should occur. (The October 1998 flood is an example of an
event that could trigger a deadline extension.)
Localized, limited loss of power won’t qualify. Don’t take a chance – submit early.
If you have questions,
please email info@northeastfoundation.org.
These forms will also be
available on our web site http://www.northeastfoundation.org