The Grants to Schools Program was created in 2018 by the John and Deborah Gillis Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to provide multiple educational opportunities to amplify, strengthen, and empower Hopkins County students so they will be college and career ready in order to be highly competitive in a global society. Click here to download the Grant Overview in a printable PDF.
The Goal: The Foundation’s Grants to Schools Program’s Goal is to fund up to $100,000 annually in three- year grants to eligible schools and districts to support instructional program development, professional development for staff, or other initiatives that align with and support the Foundation’s mission.
Grant applications will be accepted in December of each school year and grant recipients will be announced by the end of February of that same school year. The Foundation will fund the grants from July 1 through June 30 in a three-year cycle based on the initiative’s submitted and accepted budget proposal.
Eligibility to Apply for Grants to Schools: The following Hopkins County, Texas school districts, and the schools within such districts, will be eligible to apply for the grants:
▪ Como-Pickton CISD
▪ Cumby ISD
▪ Miller Grove ISD
▪ North Hopkins ISD
▪ Saltillo ISD
▪ Sulphur Bluff ISD
▪ Sulphur Springs ISD
How to Apply:
An online application must be completed and submitted no later than 5:00 pm on January 8, 2021.
How the Selection Process Works: The Grants to Schools selection process was designed with the intent of eliminating biases and conflicts of interest for all applicants so as to ensure fidelity within the Grant to Schools Program. Each application will be reviewed and individually scored by three qualified evaluators. All evaluators will reside outside of Hopkins County, Texas, and will have experience in the field of education as well as experience with writing, managing, or reading grants. Evaluators will score each application using a scoring rubric internally created by the Foundation. All evaluators will be required to sign a confidentiality contract to ensure that there is no disclosure of (1) information contained in the applications and (2) scores awarded to the applicants.
The evaluators will review the applications and, using the scoring rubrics, award points in each of the following areas:
- Demonstration of the need for funding;
- Description of the project or initiative over the course of three years with SMART goals and intended outcomes;
- Description of the work to be performed;
- Three-year budget aligned to annual goals;
- Strategic action plan aligned to annual goals;
- Monitor and Evaluation (M & E) plan showing annual movement towards the grant’s goals and any needed adjustments;
- Sustainability plan for how the work, or initiative, will continue beyond the life of the grant; and
- Alignment of goals within the grant application to the mission and goals of the John and Deborah Gillis Foundation.
Evaluators will be assigned to read and score no more than four applications each. All scored rubrics will be sent to the Foundation’s Executive Director for review. Once all scores are tallied by the Executive Director, the results will be sent to the Board President for the final determination of grant recipients and grant details. The Foundation reserves the right to modify the amount of the requested grant in order to allow the Foundation to stay within the $100,000 annual funding amount.
Once all details have been finalized, the Foundation will make an official announcement to all applicants of grant winners. All applicants will receive a copy of their score sheets once recipients have been announced.
Maintaining the Grant:
The Executive Director will meet annually with the grant recipient’s identified contact to review recipient’s goals and outcomes each year, the Monitor and Evaluation report and data, and Strategic Plan for the coming year. Additionally, a written report of findings and requested adjustments must be submitted to the Executive Director by June 1st of each funding year for continued funding for years 2 and 3 of the grant.