Grants

To Apply

Read the following overview of the grant program to determine if your project is appropriate. Print out the application form, complete and assemble the required support documents. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit electronic documents to the Grants Chair. Be sure they are labeled with your name or initials.  If this is not possible, send five copies of your application packet via postal mail.

Grant Guidelines

• The funding period is 12 months from November 1 of the award year to October 31 of the following year. No extensions are possible.

• Cost sharing (match, in-kind, cooperative funding) is encouraged.

• Institutional indirect, overhead costs and personal compensation (other than honoria) CANNOT be funded. Salary costs CANNOT be funded EXCEPT the cost for substitute teachers to provide classroom coverage during project time.

• Grant funds will be issued to an institution, agency or organization with an established fiscal officer, an individual who will deposit and disperse funds from an audited, non-private account.  The grant’s Fiscal Officer is to be identified in the proposal application. The MAMEA Treasurer will require the contact information for this individual and the account number for grant funds after the award letter has been received.

• The Committee favors proposals that: promote active instruction and learner participation; offer clear learning objectives and means of evaluation; and can report outcomes, best practices or lessons learned from the project. This reporting must reach beyond the Committee; as in the Grantee obligation to share results of their project via either a Masthead article or session at the annual MAMEA Conference (see Grantee Obligations below). This spreads good ideas and allows other MAMEA members to benefit.

• Up to 80% of the total amount of the grant may be available to the grantee at the beginning of the grant period. The remaining balance is issued subject to Board’s acceptance of the final report.

• A mid-year or progress report is due to the Grant Committee Chair upon request for presentation to the Board at the Mid-Year Meeting, usually in March or April.

• The final report is due November 30.  The required final report contents are outlined below.

• Grantee will present a seminar or poster session at an annual MAMEA conference and/or submit an article to the Masthead about the funded activity.

• Original material produced using this grant support should be available in the public domain.

• Grantee will acknowledge MAMEA support in presentations or articles describing the project; the MAMEA logo should be featured on any in conference visual presentations; a MAMEA acknowledgement should be posted on physical installations (exhibits, aquaria) purchased with MAMEA grant funds.

• Proposals should describe plans for ownership and continued use of project products and equipment purchased through the grant. After the grant period, the grantee may continue to produce and distribute project products at cost.

• Project staff should include an advisor from the target user group. The project should also receive input from knowledgeable professional educators and/or scientists other than the applicant). These individuals are identified in the grantee’s proposal.  Their contact information should be provided upon request by any member of the Grants Committee.

Application Requirements

The grant application will consist of:

• Official, completed printed application form with all items completed

• Project description

• Timeline

• Evaluation plan

• Itemized budget

• Future plans

• Two letters of support

• Supporting materials

The application should not exceed three pages (excluding letters and supporting materials). Letters of support and supporting materials must identify the proposal title and application.

Electronic versions of application documents are preferred. If this is not possible, send four copies of the completed application, with supporting materials, to:

Dawn Sherwood, MAMEA Grants Committee Chair
Highland Springs High School
200 S Airport Dr.
Highland Springs, VA 23075
dawnsherwood@att.net

Obligations of the Grantee

Applications must include all requested information in the sequence indicated on the application form. The application (excluding letters and support materials) should not exceed three pages.

Grantee will submit a final report (electronic format preferred) to both the Grants Committee Chair and MAMEA Treasurer following the end of the grant period; the report is due by November 30. The report (no more than five pages, exclusive of news articles and photos) should include the following items:

• Project title

• Project staff’s names and titles

• Description of activities completed and/or copies of materials produced

• Audience numbers and description

• Evaluated impacts and user comments

• Copies of news articles and/or pictures

• Plans for project continuation (if applicable)

• Final fiscal accounting of expenditures. The committee may request receipts, invoices and purchase orders as documentation of the expenses in support of grant activities.

The Grantee will provide a progress report for the MAMEA mid-year Board Meeting and may be asked to contribute updates or photographs for MAMEA communications.

Grantee will present a seminar or poster session at a MAMEA conference (regional or local) and/or submit an article to the Masthead about the funded activity. The Grants Chair will assist in the promotion of Grantee presentations, as appropriate.