Glossary
Teacher grant glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms you'll hit while looking for classroom funding.
- 501(c)(3)
- The IRS designation for a tax-exempt nonprofit. Some grants require the applicant to be a 501(c)(3), which is why a PTA/PTO or fiscal sponsor sometimes has to apply instead of you.
- Crowdfunding (vs. a grant)
- Raising money from many small donors, usually through a platform like DonorsChoose. Unlike a grant, there's no competition or funder review — success depends on your network. On DonorsChoose the materials are bought and shipped to your school; you never receive cash.
- Educator Expense Deduction
- A federal tax deduction that lets eligible K-12 educators write off a set amount of unreimbursed classroom spending directly on their return. See the taxes FAQ for the current figure and rules.
- Fiscal sponsor
- An established nonprofit that receives grant funds on behalf of a group that lacks its own tax-exempt status. Useful when a funder requires 501(c)(3) status and your school can't or won't be the applicant.
- FTE (full-time equivalent)
- A measure of how much of a full-time load you work. Some programs (like DonorsChoose) require at least 0.75 FTE — three-quarters of full time — to be eligible.
- Matching funds
- Money the applicant must contribute to unlock a grant, often a percentage of the award. Matching requirements are one of the things that can trigger district or board approval.
- NCES number
- A unique ID assigned to every U.S. school by the National Center for Education Statistics. Some programs (like Walmart Spark Good) use it to verify that an applicant is a real school.
- NOFO
- Notice of Funding Opportunity — the official announcement of a grant program, its rules, and its deadline, most common with government funding.
- REAP (Rural Education Achievement Program)
- Federal funding aimed at small and rural districts. It reaches teachers through district decisions, not individual applications — but it's flexible money worth asking your district about if you're rural.
- Rolling deadline
- A program that accepts applications continuously rather than during a fixed window (DonorsChoose, the Awesome Foundation, and Toshiba's smaller 6–12 grants work this way).
- Title I
- Federal funding for schools with high percentages of students from low-income families. A school's Title I status is an eligibility gate for some grants (for example, the Laura Bush Foundation).
Grant paperwork loves jargon. Here’s the plain-English version of the words you’ll actually run into.
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