Grants
All grant applicants must be educators/adminstrators/employees of the School District of Waukesha with a district email. Students, parents, parent groups, and district community partners are not eligible to apply for grants through the WEF.
The 2023 Grant Window is now OPEN.
LINK TO GRANT APPLICATION
The 2023 Grant application will close on April 7.
The available funding totals will be announced sometime early this spring. Past year totals have averaged between $35,000 and $40,000, although annual amounts are based on market performance. In 2023, thanks to a generous gift from Generac Power Systems, we will have additional grant funds restricted to STEM related grant requests (including technology requests.) Please watch for more information.
Grant Seeker Resources
Waukesha Education Foundation Grant Program Information
To support the Foundation so that even MORE educators will hear the words "YES! You've been funded!" please visit our donations page or sign up to attend one of our upcoming events! (Please see our event list on our website)
Each year in the early spring, the Waukesha Education Foundation solicits grant applications from teachers, administrators, and staff with proposals for programs for the following school year.
The Foundation awarded its first grants for the 2004-2005 school year. To date, the Foundation has awarded over $600,000 in scholarships & grants to hundreds of programs that have impacted nearly every school in the District!
We encourage all district faculty and staff to consider a proposal! Proposals are reviewed by a sub-committee of the Foundation Board, with input from the district to ensure proposed programs are consistent with District curricula and policies.
Successful proposals will meet the following criteria and objectives:
That they be of a dollar amount that is reasonable to fund given the dollars available to fund grants
That in total, programs impact as many kids in the district as possible
That there be evidence of need for the program
That the proposal is clearly articulated and is feasible within the grant timeframe
That the program show promise of sustainability beyond the period of the grant
That the programs have a clear objective that is aligned with the target areas of funding for the Foundation
That there be clear measures of success for the programs
That to the extent possible, the grants be spread across grade level, school and department within the district, also considering previous recipients of grants in previous years
That the grants are in alignment with District standards and policies and not funding activities that should be covered by ongoing district operating budgets.
Recommendations are made to the full board in May, and grant awards for the following year are then announced. All applicants will receive word after the process is completed. If you have questions, please contact our Grants & Allocations Chair.
What happens if my grant request is declined?
While we would love to "say yes" to every eligible request that we receive each year, we unfortunately are unable to do so. Given that we have limited resources, some requests will not receive funding from WEF. We usually receive requests for triple the amount we have to award. It is a very competitive process.
You will be informed via email in late May if your request was declined. You will then have the opportunity to meet with our Grants Committee Chair to discuss why your application was declined and gain some helpful insights that you can use when writing future grant applications. We want to be able to support your great ideas, and sometimes a few edits or improvements can make a difference in the overall quality of an application. It is also helpful to review the scoring rubric while writing your request so you can make sure you address all of the pieces that are scored.
If your request gets declined, please don't be discouraged from submitting an application in the future! We encourage you to try again. You can choose to apply the following year using the same grant request with some edits/changes made or submit an entirely new request for a different project. If you need a copy of a previous grant request (from the last few years), please call our office.