Tips for Finding Outdoor Classroom Grants
What does an outdoor classroom cost? Administrators are rightfully focused on budget and finding resources to bring an outdoor learning concept to reality.
Finding and applying for grants is one way to help fund your outdoor classroom. We’ve come across countless state and federal grants earmarked for outdoor classrooms, environmental education, and/or outdoor learning focused projects, ranging from $1,000 up to $250,000.
Many corporations also offer generous grants. Examples include the Bosch Community Fund Grant, Lowe’s Companies Hometowns Initiative Grant, and The Home Depot Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant, but those don’t even scratch the surface.
We could attempt to list all the grant options that we find, but we’d never come close to listing them all, nor would we be able to ensure they’re always up to date. We understand that finding available outdoor classroom grants can be intimidating, so we’d like to offer some simple yet effective suggestions to help you find eligible grants for your project.
Tip 1: Set up Google alerts.
Instead of spending countless hours searching and clicking, let Google do the work for you. Google Alerts are free and simple to set up, and if done correctly, information on available grants will be delivered right to your inbox. Here’s how (photo below for reference):
Visit google.com/alerts and either create or sign into your Google account.
In the Alerts box, type in your search term that you'd like to use. In our example pictured below, we use "outdoor classroom grant." Putting your search phrases inside of quotation marks tells Google to search for the whole phrase. If you want to find grants specific to your state, using Colorado as an example, you could use the following: “outdoor classroom grant” AND “Colorado”. Be sure to put AND in all caps in between the phrase and word in quotation. Even better, try it combined with a year to eliminate grants with deadlines that have passed: “outdoor classroom grant” AND “Colorado” AND “2024”.
When you’re first setting up alerts, we encourage you to experiment with several different phrases and combinations of phrases. You can tailor and even delete some as Google returns results and you figure out what works best.
Choose how often you want to receive alerts related to your search terms.
Options include "as it happens," "at most once a day" or "at most once a week."Choose your option under sources to tell Google where you want your alerts to come from.
Set your language.
Set your region in which alerts should come from.
Under "how many" choose "only the best results" or "all results."
Deliver to: designate which email you'd like these alerts to go to.
Setting up Google alerts will add some clutter to your inbox, but it will also help you stay on top of new grants and funding opportunities as they become available. We encourage you to get creative with your search terms. Don’t forget that you can adjust and even delete some alerts as Google returns results and you figure out what works best. Here are a few more search terms to get you started:
"outdoor education grant"
“outdoor learning grant"
"outdoor recreation grant"
"outdoor school grant"
“environmental education grant”
Tip 2: Use LinkedIn to your advantage.
LinkedIn is a great business networking tool, and it also has a powerful search function that can direct you to grant opportunities – and sometimes specific people and organizations that announce grants to their networks. Here’s how to effectively search LinkedIn (another photo below for reference):
Log into the social platform and look for the search box in the top left corner.
Type in your search term, hit Enter.
Directly below the search term, you’ll see several options right below the search box. Click Posts to eliminate irrelevant results.
In that same section, you’ll see Sort by next to Posts. From there, you can choose Top Match or Latest.
Next to Sort by, you’ll see Date Posted. When you click on Date Posted, you’ll get the following options: Past 24 Hours, Past Week, Past Month. In the photo example, we didn’t use the Sort by or Date Posted filters, and you can see that it pulled in a result from 1 year ago.
We’d like to point out that a result from 1 year ago may not be a lead for your needs today, but it can make you aware of a grant source that could still exist.
Try searching for these phrases in LinkedIn too. You’ll be surprised what you find:
"outdoor education grant"
"outdoor learning grant"
"outdoor recreation grant"
"outdoor classroom grant"
“environmental education grant
You don’t have to start with hundreds of thousands of dollars in your outdoor classroom fund. Most schools we work with handle their projects in phases. Many start with a conceptual plan and use that to help with outdoor classroom fundraising.
If you’re not sure how to get started, we’re happy to talk to you about your needs and walk you through the options. Learn more about how we work. And while you’re searching LinkedIn, please give us a follow.
We’re here when you’re ready. Let’s get started today.