Opportunity Grants
Investing in Great Ideas
Opportunity Grants encourage and develop great teachers by supporting their professional development and helping make their ideas reality. Help to fund high priority projects and innovative approaches, which bring deeper meaning to curriculum and improve the educational experiences of students. Grants are funded through a combination of support from corporate partners and individuals in our community.
August 14, 2023 - At the DCSD BOD meeting last week, Superintendent Kane shared a video highlighting the DCSD literacy program Read-topia. The school featured is Mammoth Heights, which received over $7000 in funding from the Foundation last year through Opportunity Grants.
“We ♥ our Students, Teachers and Schools!”
“Thank you so much for selecting Franktown Elementary to receive your generous donation to enable us to purchase our robots, accessories and online resources. The students are learning so much and having a blast!
Here is a video of the kids learning to navigate and launch with the Dash robots. They also did six weeks of coding with virtual robots online prior to the application with the "live" robots! Some students are also working on building grippers that attach to the robots as well to move objects. So cool!”
~ Diana Markel, Franktown Elementary, Interventionist/Literacy Specialist/Section 504 Coordinator/GT Facilitator
Imagine, Invent, Innovate
Application
Information
Any Douglas County school is eligible to apply. Schools, sites or programs may receive funding for up to three different projects in one school year.
Community
To help educators and schools support essential needs of their students. Grant awards will be allocated on a need-based criteria. The selection committee will seek to support projects that fulfill a critical need, demonstrate long-term impact, and are funding dependent. Additionally, preference will be given to projects that serve a high-needs student population. This can be a lower-income school, a low-income subset of students within a school, etc.
Innovation and Leadership
Supporting projects and initiatives that generate excitement, create game-changing learning experiences for kids, and help create leadership skills in our kids. This can include innovative new curriculum, project-based learning unit, cutting edge technology, etc. Grant awards will be allocated on a merit-based criteria. The selection committee will seek to support projects that are bold, and offer a unique or original educational approach.
s.t.e.a.m.
Helping students develop advanced technological, digital literacy, and art skills through enabled projects. STEAM is an "approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking." (Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM) Grant awards will be allocated to support projects that introduce science, technology, engineering, arts, and math education beyond the current opportunities offered at the school. These projects do not need to be highly innovative (if your project is innovative apply in the Innovative & Leadership category), nor should they request funding for classroom essentials (which fall into the Community category). Instead, this category is to support new S.T.E.A.M. to your school or program. Grant selection will prioritize requests that demonstrate a strong need for new technology within the school.
