Teacher/School Grant Applications

  • The Downingtown Community Education Foundation (Foundation) was founded to identify, promote, and support innovative educational initiatives for the students in the Downingtown Area School District (DASD) and to expand and enrich public education.  As of January 2021 over $165,000 has been awarded to teachers with innovative ideas to support learning in DASD. We want yours to be the next! If you would like additional insights and assistance in completing your grant application, please contact Jeff Singleton (jeffrey.singleton@comcast.net)

    ELIGIBLE PROPOSALS: Programs, projects, services and/or other activities that emphasize new approaches to teaching. Competitive projects will be imaginative and innovative. (Ineligible requests include standard school supplies and equipment, field trips, other standard curriculum items, or replication/duplication of prior grants.  DCEF grants will not fund salaries of teachers, administrators, or personnel)

    ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: Teachers, administrators and other school personnel of DASD.

    EVALUATION & SELECTION CRITERIA: Applicants will be reviewed on a competitive basis and scored based on the answers to the application's questions.

    In addition to our Innovation Grants, there are two additional grant opportunities:

    The James Lee and Annanette Harper Family Foundation has gifted DCEF with $10,000 to be awarded for grants for projects in the area of Arts, Culture and Humanities. Using form, sound, color, language and movement, artists help us interpret the past, understand the present and envision a better future. We are looking for grant requests from teachers that help students, particularly the invisible students, feel empowered over their own lives - forming creative, independent, productive citizens of the world. We encourage teachers from different disciplines to collaborate to submit projects.

    Jeff Singleton, long time DASD educator and recently retired, with his wife Priscilla has gifted DCEF with $10,000 and established the Emily Singleton Fund in memory of his daughter. Emily was best known around the District for her music and theater gifts but she was a tireless organizer for international relief efforts as well.  She was cofounder of "Generation for Africa", a DASD student organization devoted to ending the conscription of child soldiers in Africa. We are looking for grant applications that focus on Service Learning - Local and Global.

     

    Please complete the DCEF Grant Application  The Grants Committee will respond once they have received the completed application.

    Upcoming deadlines for 2021-22 grants are Oct 29, 2021 and April 29, 2022

Teacher Venture Grant Recipients

Year School Project Grant Amount
2020-21 MC6 Increasing Food Security $1,550
2020-21 BC Growing with Grit - Outdoor Classroom $2,978
2020-21 PV Mobile Book club $5,000
2019-20 DHS-West & East; DMS & LMS Free Reading in World Languages Classrooms $880
2019-20 DHS - West Virtual Reality @Your Library $5,652
2019-20 DMS Data Collection with iPads $2,373
2019-20 Marsh Creek 6th Grade Center School Garden Compost Bin $212
2019-20 West Bradford/DHS-West Artist in Residence Collaborative Sculpture $4,495
2019-20 Bradford Heights Social & Emotional Learning $1,300
2019-20 DHS-West Coral Reef Tank $4,700
2019-20 DMS Artists chairs for Social Change $1,540
2017-18 Marsh Creek 6th Grade Center expand the community raised bed garden $1,000
2017-18 DHS-East, West , STEM NASA Student Launch Initiative - outreach rocket programs for younger students $1,000
2016-17 all 10 elementary schools Finch & Hummingbird robot kits to support new I Design initiative in elementary curriculum $14,000
2016-17 East Ward community playground - tech component $5,000
2016-17 Bradford Heights Hydroponic Growing System $1,300
2016-17 Brandywine Wallace Increasing Engagement & Learning with OSMO $1,048
2016-17 Shamona Creek Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Activities & Programs $1,000
2016-17 DHS-East, West , STEM Chris Herron Project - motivational speaker for HS students & community regarding healthy lifestyle choices $2,500
2015-16 Bradford Heights Home visit program for incoming Kdgs $2,200
2015-16 Beaver Creek Alternative desks/workstations for 1st & 5th graders - pilot program $4,900
2015-16 Uwchlan Hills Circuit kits to supplement 2nd grade electricity unit $1,800
2015-16 DHS-East Foam Core composite structure equipment(cutter) to supplement Aerospace Engineering course $5,600
2015-16 Pickering Valley tech tubes for science $2,700
2015-16 Shamona Creek Kdg audio amplification system - pilot program $1,600