Blanche Martin Mini Grant

To be eligible for funding, an applicant must:

• Be a qualified Early Childhood through Grade 12 educator
• Be currently teaching in Boone or Winnebago Counties

The mini-grants may be used to fund special classroom activities, purchase educational materials, attend workshops, or implement any other project that enhances or improves the quality of education.  The project should:

1. Improve and enhance a classroom’s academic program,
2. Encourage creativity in students,
3. Involve a broad range of students,
4. Have the potential for being replicated, and
5. Be implemented in the same academic year in which the grant is awarded.

To apply for the mini-grants, educators must complete an online application. Applications open November 30, 2020, and are available through CFNIL’s Web Portal. All applications must be submitted by February 8, 2020 by 8 a.m. (Deadline extended from January 4) Grant recipients will be notified in February 2021.

Grant recipients will be required to submit a final report within four months of grant approval. Past grant recipients will be excluded from future grant consideration if the final report has not been submitted for prior funding. Grant recipients will also be asked to prepare a brief presentation about their project to be presented at a Zeta Chapter meeting to be held in late spring 2021. 

Questions regarding program guidelines and criteria should be directed to Meghan Hembrough, Co-Chairman, Personal Growth and Services Committee, Delta Kappa Gamma Society, Zeta Chapter.

Questions regarding the online application should be directed to James Patterson, Grants Officer, Community Foundation of Northern Illinois at 779-210-8206.