Insight Grants

2016 PEP Grant Application Period Now Open

The application period for the Carol M. White Physical Education Program grants, or PEP grants, opened today. Applications are due 5/20/2016. You can access the application package and instructions via grants.gov here. Click on the Funding Opportunity Number (ED-GRANTS-032116-001) to go to the grant summary page. Then click on the “Package” tab to download the grants.gov package and the RFP. You can also access the RFP directly by clicking here. Good luck!

-Rosalie

2016 Carol M. White PEP grants due 5/20/2016!

Although the docket indicated Monday, the Federal Register Notice for the 2016 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant competition was published very early this morning. The Notice shows the application will be available/application period will open Monday, 3/21/2016. The deadline for all applications is 4:30 pm Washington DC time on 5/20/2016.

Grants.gov submission is required. If you’d like to apply and your organization does not already have an active grants.gov account with an approved AOR Role, go to grants.gov to establish (or reactivate) an account as soon as possible beginning on Monday. (The system is down this weekend for maintenance.) Grants.gov account establishment requires your organization to have an active sam.gov account first. If this is your organization’s first time establishing a grants.gov account, and/or if your organization’s sam.gov account is expired, you will need a high-level administrator to work on the sam.gov account. Note that the US Department of Education (ED) has done a really nice of job of including detailed information about grants.gov this year in the PEP grant Federal Register Notice. Use that resource as well as the information available on the grants.gov and sam.gov sites and their respective helpdesks. Establishment of these accounts can take a few minutes or a more than a month depending on your organization’s situation. Begin work preparing your accounts ASAP to ensure they are ready well in advance of when you need to submit the grant. Extensions are not granted for organizations that miss the deadline because their accounts are not ready to submit in time.

Good luck!

-Rosalie

Carol M. White PEP grant competition opens Monday, 3/21/2016!

The Federal Register Notice that will officially open the 2016 PEP grant competition will  be posted MONDAY, 3/21/2016. This is very likely to be the final PEP grant competition ever, so this is particularly exciting.

 

The grant deadline will be 60 days from the Notice publication date and will be listed in the final publication on Monday.

The full RFP may be available Monday, or it may take a few days. The release is not always immediate. Grants.gov submission is required, and the grants.gov application package will be available for download by Tuesday.

A few quick notes:

  • Recommended award range is now $200,000 – $800,000 per year, with average size expected to be $500,000 per year.
  • Total amount available for new awards is $23 Million.
  • Awards are still for 1, 2, or 3 years. Forward funding will apply as anticipated. This means funds for all years of each awardee’s grant will come out of this year’s $23 Million since this is the last year of funding.
  • Anticipated number of awards is 15—this could go up or down some depending on the size of the requests of the applicants chosen for awards.
  • There are three opportunities for bonus points via Competitive Preference Priorities. The first involves partnerships. The other two are related to student achievement.
  • There is an Invitational Priority (not required and not attached to any additional points) for discussion of Evidence of Promise–research showing program elements are proven to work.

If you’d like assistance, please contact us today. Good luck to all applying!

2016 Carol M. White PEP grants coming soon!

The Carol M. White Physical Education Program–also know as the PEP grant–will be holding what is almost certain to be its last competition this spring. This is because the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which goes into effect in 2017, did not include PEP as an authorized program. Congress did, however, appropriate $47 Million to PEP for 2016, and PEP is still authorized for this year. Insight was able to confirm with US ED PEP Program Manager Carlette KyserPegram a little over a month ago that US ED does plan to hold a PEP grant competition in 2016.

For months now the US Department of Education’s Forecast of Funding Opportunities has indicated PEP may open on or around 3/15/2016 with applications due on or around 5/13/2016. While those dates could change at any time, and we won’t know for certain when the application period will be until the actual RFP is released, this information suggests the application period could open as soon as this coming Tuesday. Therefore, organizations interested in applying should begin preparing immediately, if they aren’t already doing so.

PEP is always very competitive, with just 5-18% of applicants nationwide receiving awards depending on the competition year. Here are a few reasons why PEP is expected to be even more competitive than usual in 2016:

  • Due to PEP not being included as an authorized program under ESSA, 2016 will almost certainly be the last time ever that PEP will be funded. Many districts will be looking to apply this year since it will be their last chance.
  • Since PEP cannot receive funding after 2016, US ED was considering applying a forward funding approach to this year’s awards. If that happens, that would mean that the applicants selected through the competition would have all of their grant years funded out of the 2016 appropriation, rather than just the first year which is the usual approach. This means each award would cost the 2016 PEP appropriation the full project period cost rather than the just the first year cost. Ultimately, this would mean fewer total awards could be made.
  • Fewer funds are available in total than in previous years because the Congressional appropriation was lower than in most PEP years at $47 Million total compared to the $70-80 Million total for most of the program’s past years.
  • The last PEP competition was held 3 years ago in 2013. The last set of new awards were made 2 years ago in 2014, but only high-scoring but non-winning applicants from the 2013 were eligible for consideration. Many districts have literally waited years for a chance to apply, and some of them have been preparing for most of that time.

Preparation will be critical to applications being highly competitive!

If you’re not too familiar with PEP, here are the basics:

PEP exists to support physical activity and nutrition education programs that help K-12 students meet or exceed state PE standards.

As of the most recently concluded competition, PEP grants could be 1, 2, or 3 years in length with award sizes of up to $750,000 per year. Matching is required at 10% of the total project cost in Year 1, and 25% of the total project cost per year in Years 2 and 3. Matching may be inkind and/or cash. PEP grants must adhere to a supplement not supplant rule.

 

Will your district be applying for PEP this year? Don’t miss out! For 16 years, PEP has been the biggest and best-fit funding source for PE, physical activity, and nutrition programming for schools and community-based organizations serving school-age kids. While the competition will be tough, this year’s competition is your “last chance” opportunity to obtain a PEP grant. So start preparing now to submit a stellar application.

If you’re interested in grant writing or editing-only assistance, please contact us. Insight has a strong track record with PEP. The Insight Team includes several writers who have each won many PEP grants over the years. I myself have written 24 and edited an additional 46 winning PEP grants (70 total) for districts around the country.

Good luck!

-Rosalie Mangino-Crandall

January 2015 PEP Grant Program Update and Additonal Grant Opportunities

The 2015 federal budget was finalized in mid-December. The US Department of Education’s (ED) Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP grant program) was allocated $47 Million. In communications we recently had with the PEP Program Manager, Carlette KyserPegram, we learned that the amount appropriated by Congress for 2015 was NOT enough to make new PEP grants in 2015. So ED will not be holding a PEP competition in 2015 and does not expect to make any new PEP grant awards in 2015. Continuation awards for existing PEP grant winners are scheduled to be funded for 2015. It is far too soon to say what this means for PEP in 2016 and the future, but for this year, those who planned on applying for PEP will not be able to do so.

Although this is disappointing news, we would encourage potential applicants to consider other programs.

General Mills and the American Dietetic Association partner to offer the foundation-funded Champions for Healthy Kids grants which are specifically for nutrition and physical activity programs. These are smaller grants of $20,000 each. The application period has already opened, and applications are due 1/23/2015. You need to have a registered dietitian on board prior to application (that person will actually be the official applicant on behalf of your organization), although how the RD participates in your project is completely up to you, and he/she can be paid with grant funds for his/her role if needed. General Mills likes to see a wide reach, so if you go for that one, think about what you could do with $20,000 that includes at least one physical activity piece and one nutrition piece (with an RD serving at least as an advisor if not playing a more direct role) that would reach all of your kids and maybe even others. This grant focuses on ages 2-20, but you can have a secondary reach to families if you want to, as long as ages 2-18 are the primary audience. Champions grants are sometimes given to school-based programs operating during and around the school day but are most often given to programs operating at other times—programs that require support because they are clearly outside of the typical school budget.

AstraZeneca’s Connections for Cardiovascular Health is a foundation-funded grant program. AZ will accept applications February 2-26, 2015. This year, grants will range from $150,000-$180,000 for one year. One exciting element of the AZ grant is that, at least to this point, there hasn’t been an age range restriction. So you could focus solely on your kids, parents and community members, both, the elderly, or another population all together. Similar to General Mills Champions grants, though, AstraZeneca tends to be less of a fit for most PE class- and school-day-focused projects and more of a fit for out-of-school time and community-focused projects.

If you have out-of-school time aims and/or aims that touch parents, staff, and/or community members, General Mills or AstraZeneca grants may be options for you this year. Both grants are highly competitive, so definitely think of creative project activities you might propose to be as competitive as possible if you want to apply.

As additional news and opportunities surface throughout the year, we’ll be posting about them. As always, if you’d like to talk with us about a potential project or application and would like to inquire about our grant writing, editing, or evaluation services, please contact us.

 

2015 U.S. Department of Education Funding Forecast Updated (December 30, 2014)

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has updated its Forecast of Funding Opportunities under the Department of Education Discretionary Grant Programs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 several times since the beginning of November. The last update occurred 12/30/2014, although communications with grant Program Managers have shown that not all information has been updated yet. Be sure to visit the link to the Forecast to get the full details, but also contact the Program Managers to confirm all information prior to acting. The Forecast is an evolving document, and the federal budget was just settled in mid-December, so there hasn’t been time for it to be fully reflected on the Forecast yet.

We’ve broken down some key takeaways from some of the grant programs we specialize in here:

  • Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) – We’ve hear back from ED and there will not be a new PEP competition in 2015 despite indications to the contrary on the current Forecast. For more information and alternative grant opportunities to consider see are 2015 PEP grant update post.
  • Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Programs – This program will fund “down the slate” in 2015. 2014 applicants should pay attention to updates on the program and be sure the email they used for their project is still in use and frequently checked. Awards will be made on or before 9/30/2015.
  • School Climate Transformation Grant – This program will fund “down the slate” in 2015. 2014 applicants should pay attention to updates on the program and be sure the email they used for their project is still in use and frequently checked.
  • Project Prevent Grant Program – This program will fund “down the slate” in 2015. 2014 applicants should pay attention to updates on the program and be sure the email they used for their project is still in use and frequently checked.
  • Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools TA Grant Program – This program estimates 5 awards in the amount of $500,000 based on the Forecast.
  • Full-Service Community Schools – This program’s information was previously updated with 10 awards with an estimated average size of $500,000 expected. Per our communication with the Program Manager, while down-the-slate funding is not yet indicated on the Forecast for this program, ED has not yet determined whether new awards will be made down the slate or if a new competition will be held in 2015.

Although there are no estimated dates for the programs mentioned it is helpful to see what programs ED expects to make awards for in 2015. As updates happen, we’ll be updating our blog as well as InsightGrants on twitter.

2015 PEP Grant Applicants

Updated January 2015: In communications we recently had with the PEP Program Manager, Carlette KyserPegram, we learned that the amount appropriated by Congress for 2015 was NOT enough to make new PEP grants in 2015. See more details here.

We are now in one of the busiest times of the year for educators and administrators. With the summer break coming to a close and the school year kicking into full swing, everyone has a full plate. For schools and organizations interested in applying for a PEP grant, it is important to keep the possibility of a 2015 competition on your radar. With the continued competitiveness of this important federal grant program, schools need to really prepare early in order to put themselves in a good position to submit a competitive application.  For a few tips on important actions you can take to get a jump start on grant applications check out this list we put together with our partners at Polar USA.

If you are interested in hiring Insight to work with your school in developing and writing a PEP grant application, please contact us. We have several schools already on board for this year and will be taking on a limited number of  additional applicants on a first come first serve basis. We are optimistic that there will be a 2015 competition, and with 2014 funding going “down the slate” to high-scoring but non-winning 2013 applicants, it is expected that a large number of applicants would be submitting in the event of a new competition 2015–making this year’s competition even more competitive.

We’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to assist many clients in securing PEP funding. We’ve seen firsthand the incredibly positive personal fitness and nutrition education achievements this program has had on students around the country. Our CEO Rosalie Mangino-Crandall has written 24 winning PEP grants and edited another 46 winning PEP grants (70 total!).

For more information on our PEP Grant services check out the PEP Grant section of our site, or contact us. You can email info@insightgrants.com or fill out our contact form online here. We would be happy to discuss your ideas, where you currently are, our fees for developing and writing your application, and the best way to proceed.

We hope everyone has a safe and successful start to the school year!

2014 PEP Grant Evaluation Clients

The Insight Team has extensive experience in evaluating PEP Grants and is currently applying to open RFPs to evaluate funded 2014 PEP Grant projects. If you are looking for an evaluator, please feel free to email RFP information to info@insightgrants.com.

To date, we’ve evaluated 29 PEP grants since 2008, including 14 completed PEP evaluations and 15 PEP evaluations for projects currently in progress.

For more information on our grant evaluation services, visit our PEP Grant Evaluation Section.

 

 

 

2014 PEP Grant Winners Announced by U.S. Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education has announced the award of  67 grants totaling nearly $33 million to Local Education Agencies and community-based organizations through the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP). You can see the entire U.S. Department of Education 2014 PEP Press Release here. Congratulations to all those awarded, and great job to all who worked hard in putting together a proposal! We’d also like to individually congratulate the four winners who are Insight clients (Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF) Public Charter Schools (CA), LeRoy Central School (NY), Shepherd Public Schools (MT), and Shamokin Area School District (PA).

FY 2014 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) Grant Recipients

Alaska

Alaska Gateway School District

$469,262

Alabama

Gadsden City Board of Education

$368,908

Walker County Board of Education

$729,753

Arkansas

Mansfield School District 76

$160,000

Arizona

San Carlos Unified School District

$578,221

California

California Health Collaborative

$644,351

Youth Policy Institute

$750,000

Mission View Public Charter School

$256,764

Kids Moving, Inc.

$602,760

Alta Vista Public Charter Inc.

$427,942

Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF)Public Charter Schools

$845,138

Colorado

School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver

$508,006

Connecticut

Capitol Region Education Council

$350,452

Florida

The School Board of Broward County, FL

$950,949

Caridad Center, Inc.

$600,146

Idaho

Moscow School District No.281

$452,654

Illinois

Matteson School District 162

$242,470

Woodstock Community Unit School District 200

$550,190

East St. Louis School District 189

$635,985

Indiana

Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation

$384,563

Kansas

Boys and Girls Clubs of Topeka

$272,480

Kentucky

Fleming County Schools

$343,709

Danville Independent School District

$379,796

Menifee County School District

$260,261

Ashland Independent School District

$214,843

Louisiana

Madison-Tallulah Education Center

$573,202

Massachusetts

Somerville Public Schools

$613,554

Brockton Public Schools

$645,264

Maine

Healthy Community Coalition

$727,772

Michigan

Kent Intermediate School District

$429,404

Lansing School District

$715,726

Minnesota

Waubun-Ogema-White Earth Community Schools

$172,052

Hendricks Public School

$420,408

Mississippi

Simpson County School District

$496,618

Montana

Shepherd Public Schools

$351,802

Hays Lodge ole School District 50

$390,684

North Dakota

Divide County #1 School District

$690,869

Nebraska

Educational Service Unit #1

$494,356

Educational Service Unit #6

$760,419

New Mexico

The Grant Experts, dba:  Capacity Builders, Inc.

$718,465

New York

Holley Central School District

$441,840

LeRoy Central School

$445,037

St. Christophers Incorporated

$577,861

Clyde-Savannah Central School District

$358,468

I Challenge Myself, Inc.

$219,622

Olean City School District

$409,217

Lewiston-Porter Central School District

$701,703

Ohio

Lake County General Health District

$746,436

Oklahoma

Putnam City School District 1-001, Oklahoma County

$734,222

Schools for Healthy Lifestyles, Inc.

$934,767

Keys Public Schools

$607,828

Checotah Public Schools

$450,716

Pennsylvania

Keystone Central School District

$280,570

Archway Charter School of Chester, Inc.

$750,010

The School District of the City of Erie, PA

$582,627

Shamokin Area School District

$537,167

South Dakota

DIAL/MCEC

$429,680

Tennessee

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley

$509,412

Texas

Harlandale Independent School District

$750,000

Utah

Salt Lake City School District

$529,811

Wisconsin

Unity School District

$375,151

West Allis-West Milwaukee School District

$857,413

Lake Geneva Jt#1 Elementary School District

$281,641

Pittsville School District

$442,525

Riverdale School District

$391,699

Highland School District

$359,816

Mukwonago Area School District

$446,041

We’ve already begun signing up and working with applicants interested in applying in 2015. Although there is no guarantee of a 2015 PEP competition, we do anticipate one. With the competition becoming more and more competitive each year, it helps to get some pieces of your project in order far in advance, and an early start makes this more achievable. If you are interested in working with us for your PEP Grant project, contact us.

2014 PEP Grant Awards Are Coming Soon!

Yesterday we started hearing about schools being notified by members of Congress that they had won 2014 Carol M. White PEP grants! If you applied for a PEP grant in 2013 and scored highly but did not win, it’s possible you may be selected for a 2014 award since the US Department of Education (ED/US ED) is funding down the slate this year rather than holding a new PEP grant competition. This means new applications are not being accepted in 2014, BUT new awards will still be made. The pool of eligible applicants in 2014 includes all 2013 PEP grant applicants who did not win an award in 2014. Applications are not re-scored, however, and awards are made based on reviewer scores, so those who scored well in 2013 will be in the best positions for 2014 awards.

If you have been selected for an award in 2014, you may or may not hear the news first from your House Rep and/or Senator. Not all members choose to contact their constituents. Either way, if you’ve won an award this year, ED will email and/or mail your organization an official Grant Award Notification (GAN) document in the near future.

The full list of 2014 PEP grant winners should be out very soon now that Congressional notifications have begun. We’ll post it here when it’s available. Good luck to all 2013 applicants in the running for 2014!

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