Grants & Funding
School's Out Washington administers grants that allow programs to increase access, improve program quality, and start or expand services. Through Feed Your Brain and the Refugee School Impact Project, we provide resources to programs and communities while emphasizing the importance of increasing program staff's knowledge and competencies.
We also offer resources and guidance to expanded learning programs seeking other sources of funding.
King County Best Starts for Kids
King County Best Starts for Kids (BSK) is an initiative to build on the strength and resilience of King County kids, families, and communities so that more babies are born healthy, more children thrive, and more young people grow into happy, healthy adults.
Feed Your Brain Grants
Feed Your Brain provides funding and training to schools, community-based organizations, and tribes running summer literacy programs, while also connecting them to federal funding for nutritious summer meals.
We've supported more than 175 summer literacy programs benefiting approximately 20,000 children since 2001.
Refugee School Impact Project
The Refugee School Impact Project is a federal grant administered by School's Out that provides funding and support to school districts serving refugee populations in Washington.
RSI fosters partnerships between community organizations and school districts to better serve refugee students.
Other Funding Opportunities
- OSPI manages the 21st Century Community Learning Center Program in Washington state. This is the only federal funding stream for afterschool programs. Applications are open in the spring. Check the OSPI website for more details.
- Tools for finding funding from other organizations, such as corporations and foundations. School’s Out Washington tracks these opportunities for afterschool, youth development and summer programming.
- Fundraising resources (PDF link) to help you search for other funding opportunities.
- Federal Funding Brief (PDF link) on what federal agencies fund afterschool and youth development programs.
How to Write Better Grant Applications
- School’s Out Washington offers grant writing & funding workshops. Check our workshop schedule to see if any are coming up, or sign up for our newsletter and workshop alerts to be notified next time the workshop is offered.
- We recommend Mary Hall's Getting Funded, a great resource for learning the art of grant writing.
- Need Help with the Outcomes and Evaluation Section of your grant proposal? The Harvard Family Research Project developed this Afterschool Evaluation 101 Online Toolkit.
Data Sources
Good statistical data is at the heart of any good grant application. Here are some sources of general data relevant to the afterschool and Youth Development field.
- The Afterschool Alliance offers an online library of current research to make the case for Afterschool and Youth Development Programming.
- OSPI Washington State Report Card provides demographic, socio-economic, and academic data by School District.
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation Kid’s Count Data Center allows you to view and compare national, statewide, and city data on a variety of topics focused on the well-being of children.
Contact us
Please contact Danielle Baer for more information or to tell us about a grant.