On Friday afternoon I met with Katie Jewitt, a  teacher at St. Cecelia Interparochial School.  She gave some pointers regarding grant writing in general.  She and another theacher, Renee Klee,  wrote and received a grant for 5,000 from Tampa Bay Estuary.

Katie told me about some good places to apply for grant money from, as some places are easier to get money from than others. She mentioned two which she considered "easy;" Tampa bay Water Organization and Swift Mud. Katie also  showed me several sites on the internet. Grants.gov is a good place to start. She also mentioned that even though Mt.Zion isn't a school; it could qualify for educational grants since it serves and "educates" the community.  Some pointers: grants can be picky, so read the fine print and do exactly what they ask. ie: if they say "submit in 12pt., don't submit in 14pt. When you are listing your dollar amount you must list in-kind funds which should be at least 1/2 of what you are asking for. For example, if you are asking for 500.00 worth of plants to be donated, put down in-kind funds of at least 250.00. That doesn't mean you really have to have that 250.00 in your hands to match at the moment you are writing the grant, but eventually it should become concrete.  You will need to get "letters of support." When you get letters of support, the organizations/agencies you contact don't have to give financial support; they just need to say they support your project.  For example if we write a grant for Mt. Zion; say to create a gardening space, we can get letters of support from the City of St. Pete. to say they support the project because the city advocates "green areas" so by designing an implementing a "green area" at Mt. Zion the city's wishes are being adhered to and followed.