PLAY MATTERS

INFORMATION REGARDING GRANT APPLICATIONS

Your grant application must specify how your program and staff will use the funds to develop a program in at least one of the above areas.

PROPOSALS:

In writing your proposal we invite you to be as detailed and creative as you.  You are welcome to contact us with any questions and to ask for assistance in developing your proposal. 

At a minimum, address the following:

1.    Give your project a name.
2.    Describe what you propose to do and who will participate in the activity. Describe your goals for this project.
3.    Who will take primary responsibility for the project and how will time be made available for them to undertake this?
4.    Who has designed the project and proposal and what has been the extent of participation in development of and commitment to this idea?
5.    What additional resources will you need to carry out this project?
6.    Who is your audience?  Who will be served by your work?
7.    How will you document your project? (See below)
8.    How will you determine to what extent your goals have been met?
9.    What is the time frame for the project?  (Indicate proposed beginning and ending dates.)
10.    Attach a proposed budget.  Our maximum grant is $5000.  If you will need resources beyond this amount to successfully carry out this project, please indicate how you will provide for these resources.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Play Matters is concerned with insuring successful outcomes from each project and maximizing the impact of each project.  In order to foster and support our grantees, we ask you to consider the following:

1. Consultant Play Coach:  As a part of your grant, Play Matters can make available to you a skilled Play Coach to work within your program.  If you would be interested in this kind of support, include your ideas about how a  Play Coach could be integrated into  to your project. As you develop your proposal, please feel free to contact us to ask for more information about how Play Coaches have been used.

2. Documentation:  In order to maximize the impact of each project, we ask that as a part of the proposal you consider how to document what you do in a way that others can learn from your experience.  We encourage consideration of a wide range of approaches to documentation.  By documentation we mean some way of communicating to others both the process and outcomes of the grant.  We would like your documentation to contain some permanent record which Play Matters can share with other future grantees.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION:

1.    Strong interest in and commitment to learning more about the value of play.
2.    Sustainability of proposed plan.
3.    Provision of service to traditionally underserved populations.
4.    Cost effectiveness.
5.    Financial stability of the organization.
6.    Broad funding support for the organization.
7.    Documentation plan.
8.    "Ripple potential" - replication, dissemination, scaffolding.
9.    Strong leadership and ability of program to successfully staff and carry out the project.