Funding Opportunities, Community Partnerships and Fundraising Ideas for Sustaining School Garden Programs
School gardens need funding for Coordinator positions, garden tools and supplies, and infrastructure improvements. School gardens today are funded in a variety of ways including through school budgets, grant writing, community partnerships, benefactors, and fundraisers of all kinds.
There are many ways to create funds for your school garden program. First, form a Garden Committee of parents, faculty, and community to help you guide and support the school garden (see Getting Started). Brainstorm with the committee and see where interests lie within the group. Use these ideas as an initial guide for creating a strategy for school garden funding. Your goal is sustainability. Looking for funds every year is not sustainable. Ultimately each garden program's needs should be nestled into the budget of your school with additional funds coming from outside for special projects, infrastructure improvements, and special supply needs. Here are a few ideas. Check back regularly for other grant opportunities that will be posted here as they arise.
Grants for the 2013-2014 School Year
Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network Matching Grants Program
The HISGN Matching Grant funds will be announced if and when they are available. A notification will be sent via email to our HISGN roster.
Upcoming Grants
"Sow It Forward" garden grants program
Applications are due by Jan. 12, 2014. Learn more about "Sow It Forward" and submit your application, here: http://goo.gl/I61jR6.
The Maine nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International is accepting applications for its "Sow It Forward" garden grants program. "Sow It Forward" offers $300 to $500 grants of cash, seeds, supplies, educational materials and online garden planning software to groups looking to start a new food garden project or sustain an existing one.
Hawai‘i Environmental Education Alliance Grants
HEEA provides a large selection of grants, listed in order by application deadline and grouped by month due.
For more information click here.
Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation
Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation generously offers a variety of environmental education grant programs to Hawai‘i schools:
• Kōkua Earth Action Program (KEAP) is an environmental service learning initiative that supports students and educators in pursuing their own stewardship projects with mini-grants and recognition.
Applications are being accepted through March 1, 2013 for funding up to $200 per teacher or $1,000 per school.
• Environmental Education Field Trip Assistance Program provides grants to bring students to outdoor sites where they can experience hands-on learning about Hawai’i’s natural environment.
Applications are being accepted through March 1, 2013 for funding up to $200 per teacher or $1,000 per school.
In addition to the above programs, numerous environmental educational resources are available, including:
• Green Grants for Schools
• Green Fundraising Ideas for Schools
• Healthy Snacks & Waste-Free Classroom Celebrations Resource Guide
• Healthy & Waste-Free Lunches Resource Guide
• Waste Audit, Garden, Nutrition, and Marine Debris curriculum and lessons. Visit the resources page of the Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation’s Web site.
Hawai‘i Department of Education Grants Homepage
For more information click here.
Developing Community Partnerships: Ideas From the Maui School Garden Network
Every community is a powerful resource. Typically community organizations and businesses are interested in doing service projects and fundraising for themselves as well as other projects. Your community is a viable source of revenue, volunteers, and solicitation.
There are numerous ways to seek funding through the school, parents, partners, nonprofits, and organizations. Let them work for you to help raise money and in turn free up time for your garden project.
Look at the resources in your community; schools, seniors, businesses and civic organizations, community associations, recreational clubs, hotels, hardware stores, non-profit organizations, Slow Food, restaurants, churches, sustainability organizations, university system and community colleges, county and state agencies, medical centers, gardening groups including botanical gardens, native plant nurseries and green houses.
(1) Schools: maintenance people, food service supervisors, electives, exploratories, parent organizations (don’t forget grandparents), teacher wish lists, art department, garden clubs, community service requirements, adopt a farm, computer clubs for Web site and newsletter assistance.
(2) Seniors: contact senior centers and ask seniors to donate plant starts for fundraisers, make class visits, mentor student projects, and volunteer in the school garden.
(3) Businesses: grants, donations, publicity, marketing - feature your school project in their newsletters. Rotary Club and other civic clubs occasionally adopt a school.
(4) Community Associations: funds may be available for fencing, compost yard, vermiculture bins, aquaponics system, sheds, volunteers working in the garden or sharing expertise in a garden lesson, donations of benches, tools and equipment.
(5) Recreational Clubs: donations, publicity, volunteers, “fund”-runs.
(6) Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs: community service projects.
(7) Hotels: donations of equipment, tools, chef demonstrations, volunteers, connections with tourist industry to put on conferences and workshops including a Youth Iron Chef conference with students assisting hotel chefs in food preparation.
(8) Hardware Stores: discounts on all products, donations of untreated wood for box gardens, organic seed and starts donations (end of shelf-life on seeds and they can be given to the schools for free!), grants related to some hardware stores such as Lowe’s Hardware Toolbox for Education program.
(9) Health Food Stores: Whole Foods provides food for educational workshops that focus on food production and some stores have a “loose change” program that runs for several months to provide donations to school garden programs.
(10) Slow Food Hawai‘i:– contact them and see if they can support any events that your garden may be holding.
(11) Restaurants: some will provide partial funding for a school garden coordinator, some will offer fundraiser evenings from their dinner program, some will provide chef visits and demonstrations to the school itself, some will actual assist in putting in a garden program, some will buy the school garden produce including herbs and some will donate funds to purchase organic seeds or plant starts.
(12) Churches: volunteers, donations of money, tools, equipment, and expertise, as well as advertising of school garden volunteer days and projects.
(13) Sustainability organizations: educational workshops, fundraising, networking with other agencies to promote school garden topics, publicity for school garden projects, media assistance, volunteers.
(14) Colleges: demonstration sites, education and training, curriculum development, internship programs, master gardener and youth gardener training, 4-H club support, Future Farmers of America support, mentoring.
(15) County and State Agencies: water department support for efficient irrigation systems, economic development grant support for implementing school gardens, Hawaii Travel Bureau for grant funds, health department support for connections between school gardens and nutrition education.
(16) Gardening groups and native plant nurseries: plant donations, fieldtrips, hands-on demonstration of gardening techniques, assistance with school garden designs.
Simple Internet Fundraising Tools
Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.
Greenfunder is just recently launched and is similar to Kickstarter but its focus is sustainable organizations/projects. Its commission is a bit less than Kickstarter.
Fundraising Events At Your School
School fundraising does not have to involve high-calorie sweets or disposable stuff you don’t want or need. We all know how desperate our schools are for funds, but how to raise funds in a green and healthy way?
Check out some great ideas in the Green Resource Guide for School Garden Fundraising by Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation.
Hawai‘i Community Foundation: Connecting People who Care with Causes that Matter
The Hawai‘i Community Foundation is a public, statewide, charitable services and grantmaking organization supported by donor contributions for the benefit of Hawai‘i's people. Check out their new Web site.
American Academy of Dermatologists Shade Structure Grant
The American Academy of Dermatology's (Academy) shade structure grant program awards grants to public schools and non-profit organizations for installing permanent shade structures for outdoor locations that are not protected from the sun, such as playgrounds, pools or recreation spaces. Each shade structure grant is valued up to $8,000, which includes the cost for a shade structure and installation. In addition to the grant, the Academy also provides a permanent sign near the shade structure. The AAD receives support for this program from its members. The 2014 Shade Structure Grant Program application will be opening October 1, 2013.
Click here for more information.
