1. The first step in the Agenda Placement process is for the Head of School to schedule a phone call with the Foundation's Executive Director. No proposal can be considered from schools that have not reserved a place on an upcoming Agenda. You may initiate an agenda placement request by calling the office or by clicking here.

2. After this phone call, if your school is placed on an Agenda, you will receive an Agenda Placement Confirmation Letter with further instruction.

3. Set up a 2-3 hour meeting between the Head of School and our Executive Director to be held in our Brooklyn office. (See the Requirements Checklist tab for information on what to submit prior to this meeting).

4. Our Foundation Office will make arrangements for Executive Director to visit and tour your school.

5. Deadlines for submission of final materials (see Requirements Checklist tab) are:
April 1 (for the June Agenda)
September 15 (for the November Agenda)

Please send hard copies of these preliminary application materials to our office (26 Court St Suite 2200, Brooklyn, NY 11242) due one week prior to the Head of School meeting with John Gulla:

~ Online Application – You will have to complete the data entry online first. Once you’ve entered all of the data into the form do NOT click "Submit". Please print each individual page of your completed online application form and make sure to save it by clicking "Save for later." You will return to this form again following the Head of School Meeting.
~ A college placement list for the last 3 years – Please format with the following columns in portrait orientation: Colleges, years 1-2-3 and a column totaling the number of students that attended each college. (click here for an example)
~ A 2-year Comparative Operating Budget – Please limit to one page which should include the current year’s operating budget, the last school year’s operating budget and the last school year’s actual budget results.

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Please use the following checklist in preparation for the final submission of the complete proposal package due after the Head of School meeting and by the appropriate deadline which is September 15 (for the November Agenda) and
April 1 (for the June Agenda).

Online Application – Please bear in mind that the first draft of the Online Application will be due as a printed copy one week prior to the meeting between the Head of School and Executive Director. You should NOT submit this first draft of the application electronically. After the Head of School meeting at our Brooklyn office, please make any necessary changes within the online application (as might have been discussed during the Head of School meeting with the Executive Director). **Please email lukaminsky@eeford.org to let us know when you are ready to "hit submit" on your final, reviewed and checked Online Application and we’ll provide you with a “submission code" that will complete the process.

Please combine the following 5 items (and ONLY this these items, no cover letter, table of contents, etc.) into a single PDF in portrait orientation and upload here:

1) Proposal Text – Must not exceed 3 double-spaced pages, 12-point font, one-inch margins on all sides, in which to present your proposal. Please keep to these limitations. The text should include:

• A brief history of the school – please limit to one paragraph
• Needs of the school for which the grant is requested
• The amount requested
• The proposed match and how the school plans to raise the match

NOTE: Please keep in mind that the proposal should focus on the 9th-12th grade division of the school

2) Grant Budget – Please limit to one page and describe how the school plans to use the grant and the match to meet the proposal needs. We would like to see a general budget that outlines, at least in broad categories, how the funds would be spent.

3) Comparative School Operating Budget – Please limit to one page and include the current year’s operating budget, the last school year’s operating budget and the last school year’s actual budget results. (This is the same item that we ask you to send with the preliminary application materials prior to the Head of School meeting.)

4) Statement of Activity and the Statement of Financial Condition from the school’s audit. Please do NOT include the full audit. This section should consist of approximately 2-4 pages.

5) School Profile – the document sent to colleges with student applications.

Please send the following supplementary materials as hard copies in the mail to the EE Ford Brooklyn office, items should be postmarked by the appropriate deadline which is September 15 (for the November Agenda) and April 1 (for the June Agenda):

1) Internal Revenue Code Forms 501(c)(3) and 509a – **For first time applicants only, if you have submitted a proposal to EE Ford in the past, you do not need to include these forms.

2) Audit – Please send us a hard copy of the audit for the most recent full school year.

3) School Brochures and Promotional Materials – You are welcome to send copies of school brochures and promotional materials. If you do so, please limit these to one copy of each item and only materials that have not already been sent to the Foundation.

1. The first step in the Agenda Placement process is for the Head of School to schedule a phone call with the Foundation's Executive Director. No proposal can be considered from schools that have not first reserved a place on an upcoming Agenda. You may initiate an agenda placement request by calling the office or by clicking here.

2. If your school is placed on an Educational Leadership Grant Agenda, you will receive further instruction via email. You should only begin your preliminary Leadership Grant proposal once you have received this email. Deadline for submission of the preliminary proposal is October 1.

3. If your proposal is selected to move on to the finalist round, we will notify you by approximately December 15.

4. Deadlines for submission of final materials is March 1

Preliminary Educational Leadership Grant Proposal
Deadline: October 1

The EE Ford Foundation embarked on this Educational Leadership Grant program because we wanted to encourage bold, new, more ambitious ideas as we address some of the challenges we see in the world of independent schools. We are interested in promoting original proposals that hold the promise of catalyzing change. We want to inspire creative problem-solving and incubate new thinking.

For Educational Leadership Grants, the Foundation is most interested in schools that have demonstrated capacity for "generative thinking."

In general, we seek proposals that are innovative and replicable. We believe all requests, if funded, should have a ripple effect where the benefits of the successful pursuit of an idea will not be limited to a single school.

The Board invites schools to submit a request for funds that meets the requirements of the program as envisioned above. The standard request and grant has been $250,000 with a minimum match of 1:1. Some schools in past years have pursued projects that required matches of 1:2 or more. The Foundation expects schools to secure matching funds at a level that is appropriate to the program proposed and represents a reasonable challenge to complete in a time frame that extends two years from the date of notification of a successful proposal. The Foundation's funds are intended for research and program operational expenses, and may not be placed in endowments, though some or all of the school's matching funds may be directed to endowment to provide continuing support for the program funded by the Foundation's grant.

Once your school is placed on a Educational Leadership Grant Agenda, you will need to submit a 3-page, double-spaced document in which you describe your proposal, by October 1. While a detailed budget is not required of preliminary proposals, a reader should get some idea of how the EE Ford $250,000 and the matching funds would be spent if the proposal is successful.

You will be informed by December 15 if your proposal makes it to the finalist round.

**THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS ARE FOR FINALIST APPLICANTS ONLY**

Finalist Educational Leadership Grant Application and Proposal Package Checklist
Deadline: March 1

Online Application – **Please email office@eeford.org to let us know when you are ready to submit your final Online Application and we’ll provide you with a “submission code."

Please combine the following items into one PDF in Portrait Orientation and upload here:

Proposal Text – You may have up to 5 pages, double spaced, 12-point font, one-inch margins on all sides, in which to present your proposal. Please keep to these limitations. The text should include:

• A brief history of the school – please limit to one paragraph
• Needs of the school for which the grant is requested
• The amount requested
• The proposed match and how the school plans to raise the match

NOTE: Please keep in mind that the proposal should focus on the 9th-12th grade division of the school

Grant Budget – Please limit to one page and describe how the school plans to use the grant and the match to meet the proposal needs. We would like to see a general budget that outlines, at least in broad categories, how the funds would be spent.

Comparative School Operating Budget – Please limit to one page which should include the current year’s operating budget, the last school year’s operating budget and the last school year’s actual budget results.

Statement of Activity and the Statement of Financial Condition from the school’s audit.

School Profile – this is typically the document sent to colleges with student applications.

Please send the following items as hard copies

Internal Revenue Code Forms 501(c)(3) and 509a – **For first time applicants only, if you have submitted a proposal to EE Ford in the past, you do not need to include these documents.

Audit – Please send us a hard copy of the audit for the most recent full school year.

School Brochures and Promotional Materials – You are welcome to send copies of school brochures and promotional materials. If you do so, please limit these to one copy of each item and only materials that have not already been sent to the Foundation.

Click Here To view the Online Application and Grant proposal & Supplementary Materials Form

1. The first step in the Agenda Placement process is for the Executive Director of your Association to schedule a phone call with the EE Ford Foundation's Executive Director. No proposal can be considered from schools that have not reserved a place on an upcoming Agenda. You may initiate an agenda placement request by calling the office or by clicking here.

2. After this phone call, if your association is placed on an Agenda, you will receive an Agenda Placement Confirmation Letter with further instruction. Only once you have received that letter should you begin the online application

3. Set up a 2-3 hour meeting between your Executive Director and our Executive Director to be held in our Brooklyn office

4. Please submit the following to our office via mail at least one week prior to this meeting:

~ Coversheet (Download Form)
~ Supplementary Materials (Download Form)
~ A 2-year Comparative Operating Budget – Please limit to one page which should include the current year’s operating budget, the last year’s operating budget and the last year’s actual budget results.

5. Deadlines for submission of final materials are:
April 1 (for the June Agenda)
September 15 (for the November Agenda)

Please mail the following materials as hard copies at least one week prior to the meeting between the Association Executive Director and John Gulla:

~ Coversheet (Download Form)
~ Supplementary Materials (Download Form)
~ A 2-year Comparative Operating Budget – Please limit to one page which should include the current year’s operating budget, the last year’s operating budget and the last year’s actual budget results.

Please use the following checklist in preparation for the submission of the complete proposal package by the appropriate deadline, which is
September 15 (for the November Agenda) and April 1 (for the June Agenda).

Please combine the following Grant Proposal and Supplementary Materials into a single PDF in Portrait Orientation and upload here:

• Cover Sheet - The Proposal must begin with the Association Coversheet provided by the Foundation. When completed, this Cover Sheet becomes the first page of the proposal.
• Proposal Text – Must not exceed 4 double-spaced pages, 12-point font, one-inch margins on all sides, in which to present your proposal. Please keep to these limitations. The text should include the following:
  
  • A brief history of the association
  • Needs of the association for which the grant is requested. The amount requested
  • The proposed match and how the association plans to raise the match.
  • How the association plans to use the grant to meet these needs. We like to see a general budget that outlines, at least in broad categories, how the funds would be spent

• Financial Section - The Financial Section of the proposal (no more than 3 single-sided, 8.5 x 11-inch pages) should include the following: a) The association's operating budget for the year of application. b) The Statement of Activities taken from the audit of the year immediately preceding application. c) The Statement of Financial Position taken from the audit of the year immediately preceding application.

Please send the following items to the Foundation office as hard copies:

• IRS form 501(c)(3). All applicants must supply documentation of this IRS status. Any substitution of another tax-exempt status must first be verified with the Executive Director of the Foundation.

• One complete copy of the AUDIT of the year completed immediately preceding application.

• Relevant brochures, promotional materials, etc.

• Supplementary Information for Associations Form