NEF Large Grant Program

NEF's Large Grant Program funds projects of $3,500 to $15,000 a year to fund broader, more ambitious projects. These large grants will support one-year or two-year projects, school-wide projects or system-wide projects that are innovative, collaborative, and promise broad and lasting impact for Needham schoolchildren.

What we mean by… INNOVATION
A large-grant project should represent a meaningful expansion, adaptation or improvement of current practice or curricula in the Needham schools. It may include an idea or technique that is entirely new in the literature or it may involve replicating an idea that has been successfully piloted elsewhere. While we encourage experimentation, NEF requires that large grants demonstrate an approach or technique that is supported by research.

What we mean by… COLLABORATION
The project should be a joint effort promoting a partnership between schools, departments, classes, teachers and/or disciplines. Any combination of parents, students, faculty, administrators and community groups may team to plan and implement a project, but there must be at least one principal and one teacher involved. And the Superintendent must endorse the project.

What we mean by… BROAD AND LASTING IMPACT
Our large grants will underwrite school-wide or systemic innovation that stands to enhance the education of a significant number of students. NEF will fund initiatives that augment and support system-wide goals, but will eschew the funding of state and federal mandates or other programs more properly financed by public funds. We invite past grant recipients to propose ways to expand and continue previously-funded projects that have demonstrated strong results and merit replication across the school system. NEF favors projects that promise to produce lasting benefits for the students involved and initiate systemic improvement for the school(s) involved.

TO APPLY

Large Grant applications
Word Document format (48 kb)
Adobe Acrobat format (137 kb)

Read about recent and past Large Grants that NEF has awarded.