General Guidelines.

Disclaimer: These are meant to be rules of thumb, to help guide applicants and evaluators on the criteria used to judge and award a Mini-Grant. There are NO absolutes here, the Board of the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education, may, at its sole discretion deny or accept any Mini-Grant, regardless of the statements found on this page. Denial is guaranteed if the Mini-Grant falls outside the Articles of Incorporation, the Bylaws, or governmental rules applicable to non-profit corporations.

Mini-Grants will not be awarded that fund:

1. Live animal projects.

2. Consumables -- food, print cartridges, non-rechargeable batteries. Stated another way: things that have to be replaced.

3. Field trips.

4. Grants for people who have failed to file final reports as required by the acceptance of a previous Mini-Grant.

5. For a recurring activity, previously funded by a Mini-Grant, that is essentially the same project as the previous Mini-Grant award. Stated another way: projects that require continued, regular, periodic funding may be awarded a Mini-Grant as seed money (to get started and evaluate the project), but we will not fund (within the scope of a Mini-Grant) the program after that.

6. Salaries.

7. Retroactive costs (activities already past, materials already purchased, Etc.) .

8. Scholarships.

Mini-Grants require:

1. Grantees must agree to all stipulations as outlined in the application and the acceptance package.

2. For school district employees, approval of a building principal. This endorsement gives additional credence to many of the criteria used to evaluate a Mini-Grant proposal.

3. The Funds are being requested because the project falls outside the scope of other funding mechanisms (as an example we don't fund the replacement of standard core textbooks required by normal curriculum policy which would be funded by the school district).

Other notes:

Multiple grant requests (in the same grant period or fiscal year) from the same individual will be evaluated based on available funds and other grant requests. If you submit multiple requests in the same grant period, please prioritize them.

An underlying tenet of the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education is that we are here to enrich and supplement, not replace, district funding. That is to say, we are not here to pay for stuff the district should cover.

Absolutely no Mini-Grant can be promised by anyone to anyone. The only way you are guaranteed to get an award is to receive it via a deliberative process, culminating in a legal vote of the Board of Directors of the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education. A Mini-Grant may be denied at any point in this process.

If a Mini-Grant is denied, it can be re-submitted in another period as-is or with modification. The applicant may contact the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education and request an informal discussion with the board (I.e. Come talk to the board, it might be that funding mechanisms are available via other means).