GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
School garden grants are plentiful and usually due in winter or early spring. Check these websites for updated information and deadlines.
- NEW! Grant opportunity from RI Dept. Ed for schools up to $100,000 – Learning Inside Out Outdoor Classroom Initiative: Outdoor education is a powerful tool that all schools can use to deliver for their students. That’s why the RI Department of Education launched this initiative in December of 2022. The focus is to create, enhance, and support equitable access to natural resources for all students, while promoting environmental literacy and community connection. See the application for more details!
- Annie’s: Grants for Gardens – Annie’s believes that showing future generations how sustainable food is grown changes their lives. By connecting kids to gardens, it helps them to start thinking more holistically about their food, their communities, and the planet. The Grants for Gardens application is open to any K-12 public, private, or charter school in the United States planning or expanding an edible school garden. At least 75 students must be/ plan to be involved with the garden to apply for this $3000 grant.
- Kids Gardening Grants – Check their website for grant opportunities including the Youth Garden Grant, Budding Botanist and Gro More Good Grassroots Grant.
- Seed Money: Garden Grants & CrowdFunding – SeedMoney offers a fundraising platform through an annual 30-day crowdfunding challenge running from November 15th to December 15th along with small incentive grants. The opportunity is open to all types of public food garden projects regardless of their location. Check their website for submission deadlines.
- Walmart Foundation: Local Community Grants – The Local Community Grant is open to all K-12 public or private schools, charter schools, and colleges or university in the United States with a proposed project that benefits the community at large. This program will offer up to $5000 to support your project.
- Safer Brand: School Garden Grant – Safer Brand believes that school gardens have an amazing impact on students, such as bringing classmates closer together and uniting everyone in a common goal of better health. To provide a chance for a healthier future, Safer Brand will award a grant valued at $500 to any school in the United States.
- New England Grassroots Environmental Fund: Seed Grants – Intended to support community groups who are engaged in the environmental movement, the Seed Grants application is open to all groups planning or evolving their local school garden located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. There is a rolling deadline to apply for this $1000 grant.
- Whole Foods Foundation: Garden Grant Program – Created in partnership with FoodCorps, the Garden Grant Program provides support to a new or existing edible garden at either a K-12 school, non-profit working in partnership with a K-12 school, or a non-profit organization. Apply for a $3000 school garden grant or a salad bar for your school cafeteria! Check out the foundation’s website for the applications.
- Fiskars: Project Orange Thumb Garden Grant – Project Orange Thumb Garden Grant provides community groups with the tools they need to foster a positive learning environment. Open to all non-profit organizations across North America, 50 groups will be awarded $500 and tools to help communities reach their goals for collaboration, neighborhood beautification, and healthy, sustainable food sources. Check the program’s website for next spring’s application.
- National Education Association Foundation Grant – Student Achievement Grants are for projects that help students learn how to think critically and solve problems in order to improve student learning. Learning & Leadership Grants are for professional development opportunities for individuals or groups. Grants are available to current members of NEA who are educators in public schools or public institutions of higher education. Preference is given to proposals that incorporate STEM and/or global learning into projects, which can include farm to school activities. Two levels of funding are available: $2,000 and $5,000. Visit the foundation’s website the applications.
Grant notification services are also helpful:
- Grant Gopher: Limited free resources or pay monthly for full access.
Other Fundraiser Ideas
- Flower Power Bulb Fundraiser: Earn 50% profit with this online fall fundraiser. We like that you make 50% profits on the bulbs you sell, that it’s online so you can sell bulbs to your out-of-state friends and relatives, and that it’s relevant to gardening.
- Come up with fundraising ideas that fit the character and identity of your school. For example, at trilingual school in Rhode Island, we compiled recipes from families that use produce grown in the garden to make a cookbook in three languages that was sold as a garden fundraiser.
- Ask families to sponsor a piece of the garden by making a donation. Make sure to have a wide range of items and suggested contributions so everyone can participate. A $5 donation could buy seeds, $25 could buy a blueberry bush, etc. It can be more fun than just asking for money.