Abstract
With music education’s continued unstable role within the school system, music educators are actively seeking external funding to support and augment their programs. However, there are many challenges involved with grant writing including understanding where to find potential funders, writing the proposal, developing a budget, and including an evaluation. This article outlines the basic guidelines for writing grants and pursuing funding to support music education initiatives with descriptions of granting agencies, composing the proposal, the submission and notification process, and suggestions for collaborating with classroom teachers and university faculty to pursue grants.
At the parent orientation this year, the principal explained how Kindergartners would have the opportunity to engage in enrichment classes. “How often will they participate in music?” I eagerly asked. She replied, “well, music will take place as an optional, 30-minute class, once a week. With an increased focus on STEM in Kindergarten, we just do not have the time or resources to focus on music instruction.”
This is not a new story—music education has historically taken a backseat to core academic subjects. Experiencing music once a week is far more common today than the National Association for Music Education’s recommendation of a minimum of three times a week (Nuttall, 2014; Richerme, 2011).
In 2013, President Obama’s budget called for (and was awarded) a 5% increase in funding for arts and culture, demonstrating an interest from government agencies in supporting the arts. However, the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) represents only 0.012% (or $146 million dollars) of federal spending in comparison with the National Institutes of Health which was awarded a budget of $30.7 billion dollars (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, 2013; U.S. Government, n.d.). Even with presidential support, the role of the arts in our society continues to be one of relative instability and lesser value than other areas of research and education.
In the school described in the opening vignette, music education was relegated to an after school, optional activity for kindergartners due to a lack of time and limited funds to support music instruction during the day. The music teacher and visual arts teacher jointly provided instruction for kindergarten students during after class instruction and were supported through a small, 3-year grant ($1,500/year) for supplies and instructional time. In a report by the U.S. Department of Education titled, Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, the data indicate that nearly 49% of music specialists integrated their instruction with other arts subjects, demonstrating this type of collaboration as a relatively common approach (Parsad, Spiegelman, & Coopersmith, 2012). Furthermore, the funds provided by a local state arts agency supported the music teacher and visual arts teacher in developing an after-school arts enrichment class rather than eliminating the early childhood music program altogether.
In speaking with veteran and novice music teachers alike, a common interest exists in collaborating, writing, and seeking grants to support music education initiatives (Randall, 2009). It is an appealing prospect to have external funding to support music teaching and research. Being awarded a grant often has two benefits: first, you have funding to support the ideas you want to pursue within your classroom, but second, being awarded a grant brings with it a sense of prestige, accomplishment, and validation to the work you are already doing. This article outlines some basic steps in finding grants for music education, writing an effective proposal, and collaborating with colleagues and program officers when applying for funding.
Step 1: Understanding Grants
The reality for many individuals who want to write grants is that they are on their own as a grant writer (Dillehay & Skinner, 2012). It is a frustration echoed from the music classroom into higher education—even though we are often expected to pursue grants, we are not often taught how to write a strong grant proposal. Additionally, much of the coursework studied in the path toward K–12 music certification or graduate education rarely focuses on the process of seeking funders, writing a proposal, or outlining a budget.
Grant writing and seeking is not an easy field to delve within. In fact, grant writing as a profession is a relatively new field. It is only for the past two decades that grant writing has been recognized as a separate profession (Blitch, 2012). Along with this expansion came professional organizations, networking opportunities, and individuals who sought to identify themselves as grant writers with a code of ethics and professional membership (Janssen & Pearl, 2009). Grant writing is also a field that brings a unique language. Acronyms used by granting agencies (e.g., PI, RFP, LOI) are often undefined and can leave anyone hesitant to even apply for a grant. These basic terms are used synonymously among various funders and funding agencies and are defined in Table 1.
Common Acronyms in Grant Writing.
Granting agencies generally fall under three broad categories: government grants, private foundations, and corporate grants. Each of these funding agencies have guidelines, timelines, and deadlines all unique to their own missions. Grant seeking and awarding is a reciprocal process—the funder wants to support your ideas, while continuing to support their own mission. Government grants tend to fund large-scale projects, have very specific eligibility, and stringent reporting guidelines. Foundations tend to be more flexible and supportive of music education for music’s sake, rather than trying to find ways to align music experiences with other subjects. Corporate grants, such as those from PepsiCo or Toyota, often give awards to programs, schools, or community organizations that align with their own mission (and further their own publicity).
Step 2: Finding Grants for Music Education
Even with shared enthusiasm about the potential of receiving a grant, one of the first questions often asked is the following: Where do you find grants for music? Searching for “grants in music education” or “music grants” yields a plethora of results that do not necessarily give specific information on awards or requests for proposals (RFPs). A good place to start is by searching “grant writing” on the NAfME Web site. There, you will find several links to potential funders for music education programs including the Grammy Foundation and the American Music Education Foundation. Additionally, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (2014) compiled a comprehensive list of private foundations, government agencies, corporate funders, and grant-writing resources for music teachers. Frequently checking large grant search engines or databases such as Grants.gov, the Foundation Center, and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies is also important for finding new RFPs; however, many of the terms and guidelines may still be unfamiliar or you may simply be overwhelmed with the daunting task of writing a grant proposal.
Funding for music education programs is often highlighted through large government agencies such as the NEA. Even with one of the smallest, allocated budgets in the government, the NEA continues to solicit applications from not-for-profits, researchers, and classroom teachers, to support arts education. However, these large-scale grants are often highly competitive and collaborative. Spending hours searching for potential funders can be tiresome, and once a potential granting agency is determined, the specific RFP needs to be read and understood to ensure that your project ideas are a possible match for the funder.
To further illustrate the process of searching for grants, consider the following example. The NEA Web site, arts.gov, categorizes grants under two different categories: Grants for Organizations and Grants for Individuals. Under the category of Grants for Organizations, the NEA has one of their largest funding opportunities: Art Works. Within this category, organizations interested in pursuing a grant need to further select a discipline under which to apply for funding. For music teachers, although the discipline of music would seem the appropriate choice, the NEA actually categorizes school-based programs and initiatives under the discipline of Arts Education. Arts education is viewed as a large umbrella under which music teachers and public schools can apply for funding to support student learning through music. It is incredibly important to take the time to explore different funding agencies and identify how they categorize different awards and applications.
With the NEA being one of the largest, national funders for music education programs, consider beginning your grant-writing experience with smaller, accessible agencies. Local funding agencies exist within every state and community and each state is mandated to have a division of cultural affairs. The director is responsible for seeking and managing grants at the federal and state levels and can be a great resource for supporting the grant process. Sometimes, these smaller agencies are also often funded by the NEA. For example, the Office of Arts and Culture in Seattle, which was awarded numerous grants from the NEA over the past several years, may use funds to collaborate on music education initiatives within the Seattle school district. Similarly, the Fender Music Foundation in California is a not-for-profit that provides small grants and music instruments to schools within their community. Many of these local foundations further the mission of a family that has dedicated their foundation to the philanthropic support of music. Contacts at your local state or city-wide arts agency will have information on grants specifically for music programs. Additionally, local funders are more likely to provide awards to teachers and schools since they understand the specific needs of your community and are invested in supporting local programs.
Each funding agency has specific goals and missions they will try to promote through their awarded grants. For example, if a family foundation shows an interest in supporting after-school, music performances for middle school students, your project ideas should strongly align with those goals. Similarly, some foundations will only support projects situated within a specific demographic area (i.e., the Pacific Northwest), or to a school that holds a particular status (i.e., 75% of students receive free lunch). All of this information can typically be found on each granting agency’s Web site under headings such as “grant guidelines,” “eligibility,” or “how to apply.”
Step 3: Organizing the Information
As you search for potential funders, begin to narrow down your list to at least five agencies (government, foundation, corporate, national, or local) that show support for music education programs. Try to include smaller foundations and local agencies that already have ties to your community. Organize the information that you gather into a table that includes the name of the funding agency and Web site, the name of the program requesting proposals and contact information for a program manager associated with the program, the funding cycle and deadlines, the amount available for the award, and any other information about awards or funding limitations. See Table 2 for a suggested format for organizing the information you are collecting.
Sample Funder Information Chart.
After narrowing the list, look at the funding history from a granting agency. This will give you an example of the music education programs that have been awarded in the past and the amount that has typically been requested. You will want to try to request something within those same parameters. For example, if a local foundation gives four awards in a year to support music education and technology, and each grant was below $20,000, you will probably not want to try to request $50,000 in your application, even if that is the total, allowable amount for a grant. Similarly, the focus of these previously awarded projects provides an idea of the foundations’ interests and level of support. If you see that the primary focus and outcomes are connecting music to another academic area of learning, then that will be an important component to illustrate within your proposal.
Organizing the information as you gather it is an important step in the grant-seeking process. You will find that there may be many similarities across RFPs, giving you several options for submitting a proposal. Contrastingly, you will find that some funders (particularly private foundations) can be very specific in what they expect. These approaches can vary in how they want the proposal written, the writing tone, the components of the proposal, and the projects they are willing to fund. Putting this information together in a way that is meaningful and accessible will make it easier for you to reference again once a grant is awarded or rejected.
Step 4: Composing the Proposal
Once you have selected a potential funder and grant for which you want to apply the heart of your application begins—the proposal. Every funder will have specific guidelines for the proposal including (a) the personnel who will be involved with the grant and the need for funding, (b) the goals of your project, (c) the budget, (d) the timeline, and (e) the evaluation of your grant. While each funder may have their own individual requirements, every grant proposal typically includes these five components.
The main section of the proposal presents the personnel who will implement and manage the award, the purpose, and need for the grant. These sections illustrate the background of your school or music program and the need for funding a new or existing project. Consider answering the following questions: Who will be involved with the grant? What do we want to accomplish? and How will funding be used? These questions will help shape the overall focus of your proposal and demonstrate the need for the award. Try to keep a persuasive but concise tone in your writing—remember you are competing with others for a similar grant. Make your voice unique.
Some of the key terms to include in your narrative are to highlight the history of an existing music program, the need for a grant (to support a program or start a new one), the purpose of the new initiative, and the outcomes of the project that will be implemented. Organizing the proposal with subheadings or bullets will also help illustrate your views and make your points clear to potential reviewers.
The budget is perhaps the most exciting component of writing a grant. Envisioning what funds you might receive and documenting how you will allocate those funds makes your budget clear and concise. In many ways, the budget is as important as the narrative. The most important part of writing the budget is that you are making sure that all the funds you are asking for are relevant and important to the grant. You do not want a reviewer, program officer, or panel questioning requested funds or hesitant that you will use funds inappropriately.
There are typically two components of the budget outline: the direct costs and the indirect costs. Think of it this way—the direct costs are everything that the grant money will be paying for directly, while the indirect costs are extra expenses that may be incurred during the implementation of the project. A majority of grants only allow for direct costs (i.e., materials, resources, supplies). Some government agencies will also require matching funds from the organization or individual applying for the grant. These funds can come from various sources including cash, salary time, donations, or funds from other institutions supporting your project. Typically, the match is structured as a 1:1 ratio. If you are requesting $1,000 for a project, you need to demonstrate that you have $1,000 already allocated for this project. Additionally, some funders will require that the matching funds cannot be used from other awards.
Even if a funder does not require a match, demonstrating additional support for your project will strengthen your proposal. For example, if you are seeking to expand an instrumental music program for upper-elementary students, include any existing funds from the school, fund-raising efforts from students, and any use of space, faculty, or resources from community centers or local colleges. Matching funds are important because they demonstrate sustainability of a project even after awarded funds are complete. Figure 1 provides a sample budget and outlines how direct costs (requested and matched funds) would be applied toward teacher salaries, instruments, and professional artist visits for an after-school percussion studies program at a middle school. In this example, the match comes from professional development funds made available through the district (for the music teacher and assistant teacher), and through a research grant from the consulting faculty member’s university.
Sample budget.
Many times, a percentage of the indirect costs are already negotiated by the school or university and is applied as overhead for administration or maintenance fees. Working closely with an administrator will ensure that the numbers involved with writing the budget are accurate and reflect the budget for the department or program. Importantly, make sure you have support from your administrators prior to applying for funds. Every school may already have an allotted budget in place for music programs and activities and it is important to consider how any additional funds may be appropriated if they are awarded.
The more exact you can be with the budget, the better. If you need money for music instruments, try to search for exact costs online and include those within the budget (see Figure 1). In your proposal, justify your requests with a short narrative explaining where you will purchase the instruments and how they will be used by students, where they will be stored, and how the instruments will influence your music program after funding concludes. Furthermore, while you may be allowed expense for supplies or travel, be reasonable. A potential reviewer will question if you request $2,000 in office supplies or labels.
The final sections of the proposal include a timeline for implementing and managing the award and the evaluation of the grant. The timeline demonstrates how you will implement the grant by presenting key areas of outcomes. For example, if a grant is being requested to provide professional development for music teachers in a district, some of the questions you may consider answering are the following: How will the teachers be invited to participate in the professional development? What will comprise the components of the workshop? How often will teachers meet?
Additionally, the evaluation demonstrates how you will measure the success of the grant by gathering data throughout the process. Some key questions that help shape the evaluation are the following: What are your main outcomes for this project? Will you need funds after this academic year? What types of evidence (formative and summative) will you gather to demonstrate that the grant was successful in meeting its goals? It is also helpful to think of the end at the beginning. When you are writing the goals for the project at the beginning of your proposal, revisit these ideas during the evaluation. Create a bulleted list of your original goals and ideas for how you will assess your success. For example, if you are seeking a grant to support building or securing a performance space, what are some ways you can demonstrate that the funds were used appropriately and effectively? Some ideas may include videotaping performances (with permission), focus group interviews with students on the experience of a new performance space, or gathering feedback from audience members. That data would then be collected and included in your final report. Make sure that just as you would assess learning standards during a music lesson, you demonstrate how you will show your project goals have been met through the granting process.
Grant writing is a collaborative process and potential funders will also look for how you may engage faculty within the school, individuals throughout the community, and the students in your music classroom. If this is your first time writing a grant, try to partner with a colleague who has experience in grant writing and can help you facilitate the process, or invite other teachers or administrators to assist you and give feedback on your ideas. If you are cowriting a grant with a colleague in another discipline, organize the grant proposal by outlining the key goals in both areas of study. To further illustrate the importance of collaboration, consider the education grants available through the Chicago Community Trust. The first outcome sought by the funder explains that potential grant proposals should provide evidence of implementation of the Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts or Mathematics. This does not mean that music educators cannot apply for the grants, rather that grants from this funder, for this application, should demonstrate collaboration, and a commitment to supporting student learning across subject areas.
Step 5: Submission and Notification
It is important to recognize that you may revise and revisit your proposal several times before it is complete, so plan ahead for any deadlines. Funders either offer cycles for submissions (i.e., deadlines four times a year), or rolling deadlines where grants are reviewed as they are received. Government agencies usually recommend that you allow at least 1 week for the online submission process. For example, the NEA strongly suggests that all applications are submitted no later than 10 days prior to the deadline to account for any technical difficulties or irregularities with the application (NEA, 2014). A simple search through the grants.gov Web site will demonstrate the detailed, and time-consuming submission process. Additionally, funding agencies will often alert you to an upcoming deadline or RFP if you have submitted your e-mail address through their Web site when requesting more information.
Typically, there is one individual who is responsible for managing the RFP, the deadlines, and organizing the proposals prior to their review. Before you submit your proposal, reach out to the program officer affiliated with the grant. The program officers are there to help—to answer questions, support you in the process, and give feedback after the review process is done. A simple e-mail or phone call is often welcome.
Finally, the majority of grants are subjected to a rigorous peer-review process by specialists in each field (Smith & Tremore, 2008). The exceptions are grants submitted to smaller, local, family foundations. Here, the reviewers may be the program officers who will not necessarily have expertise in music teaching and learning. In those instances, be cognizant to define any music terms, ideas, or concepts that are central to your proposal, but may not be readily understood by a general population. For example, if students will be using Finale to compose music inspired by historical events, include a description of what Finale is and how it is typically used in music classrooms.
After all of the hard work, revisions, writing, and collaborating, there are three ways in which you may be informed from a funder—yes, no, and needs more information. If yes, one of the first steps should be to organize a planning meeting with the entire project team to review the purpose, the budget, timeline, and evaluation. Reach out to the program officer and thank them for the award and document any specific reporting guidelines that will be required once the project is completed. You should also note anything that may have changed in your funding request from the time of submission to notification. For example, the numbers of students may have increased or there could be additional staff that need to be accounted for since funding was awarded.
If you are contacted with needs more information, a funder may simply be asking for clarification in one or more areas of the application. Be specific when responding to any and all questions addressed in a request for revisions. This will ensure an expedited review and an accurate analysis of your proposal.
Finally, and obviously disheartening, is the potential that you receive a no and your proposal may be rejected. Consider how many times you may have applied for a job, auditioned for a gig, or submitted a paper for publication. Rarely do we achieve what we sought out to accomplish on the first try. The most important advice here is to not give up. Instead, follow these four steps to continue the grant seeking process:
Reach out to the program officer and thank them for the feedback.
Ask if you can be provided with any detailed information or examples on how to revise the proposal, data that were missing, or why the project may not have been a good fit.
Seek out other RFPs within the funding agency that may be a stronger fit for music education initiatives, or find other granting agencies where you could potentially submit this same proposal with minor revisions.
Apply again.
Future Directions for Music Funding
Grant writing is a tedious, overwhelming, frustrating, and rewarding process. For music educators, our positions are often twofold: not only are we looking for ways to support our music programs but we are constantly justifying the need for music in the schools, even without writing our position in a grant proposal. As you continue through the process of finding potential funders, writing proposals, and reaching out to program officers, consider the following three points to shape your ideas:
Be collaborative—Try to partner with another school, university, or community center. You may want to begin by collaborating with a general education teacher and find ways to integrate music into the academic curriculum. How about trying to turn STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) into STEAM?
Be specific—Outline every cost that would be needed in the budget and every outcome in the timeline. This includes supplies for you, for students, and any other transportation or materials that are needed for the project to be successful. Try to include what will happen every few months, not just at the end of the year.
Be passionate—Your grant proposal is an extension of you and your ideas. It is your story, telling the need for funding, and demonstrating your passion for teaching. Do not hesitate to give specific examples that demonstrate your strength, innovation, and passion as a music teacher.
As the field of music education continues to evolve and our classrooms continue to develop strong, competent, well-rounded musicians, the hope is that we will continue to advocate for the need for music education, both in our work as teachers and researchers. Grant writing is an intersection between these fields. The projects we implement in our classrooms can be documented and promoted through research, and sustained through grants from various funding agencies.
In scenarios such as the opening vignette, finding avenues to support music programs through external funding may support our profession both within the schools and throughout our community. In 2015, President Obama documented the need for the arts by signing the Every Student Succeeds Act where music is reaffirmed as a core subject (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The value of music education is upheld not only by those of us who are music educators. One of my colleagues (who is not a music teacher) recalled how she wrote a grant through the Illinois Arts Council to increase the amount of time her children would have access to music and visual arts throughout the school day. The collaborative efforts put forth by the school administration, the music and art teacher, and herself (as a parent), resulted in multiple awards for sustaining the music and visual arts program within that school setting.
If you are an expert grant writer, reach out to a novice and encourage your colleague to compose ideas together. If this is your first time writing a grant, use it as an opportunity to showcase the innovative, exciting, and unique music teaching and learning happening within your school. Even without grants, as music educators, we will always continue to support our students’ creating and performing music across our communities, but, a little extra money always helps.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.