A grant is an award, usually financial, given by a company, foundation, or government to a district to fund your ideas and projects to provide public services.

The grant lifecycle refers to the full process of a grant - from opportunity to planning, to implementation, to close out of a grant. The lifecycle of a grant has three major stages: pre-award, award, and post-award. The recipient of the grant and grantor both have very unique tasks within each stage of the process.

To determine if Denton ISD is eligible for a grant, read the requirements and provisions of the grant which you are interested in applying for.

A Denton ISD Intent to Apply form must be approved by the Denton ISD Grants Department before submitting an application to a funding agency. Access the form here.

There is no one best source. To be successful, look to all sources for funding, such as government, individual, corporate, and foundation sources.

For a list of helpful resources to assist you with finding a grant to support your needs, please visit our Resources page.

In some cases, when authorized by TEA, subgrantees may be permitted to make certain program-related expenditures before the grant beginning date (i.e., pre-award).

For instance, the beginning date of a program might be September 1. During the summer, however, a conference is being held that would be of substantial benefit to program participants. TEA authorizes pre-award costs for the grant to allow program participants to attend the
conference. The subgrantee can request payment for expenditures even though they were incurred before the grant beginning date.

Review the program guidelines for the grant to determine whether pre-award costs are permitted and to learn the period during which they are allowable.

The post-award phone is the final and longest phase of the grant cycle, as it involves the implementation of the grant program, along with reporting, audits and closeout processes. 

Direct costs are those costs (salaries, fringe benefits, contracted services, travel, etc.) that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other educational activity, or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy.

Facility and Administrative (F&A) costs, formally called indirect costs, are those that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project, instructional activity, or any other school activity. These costs are allocated to the direct activities through the use of the indirect cost rate. Examples of indirect costs are operation and maintenance costs, depreciation expenses, utilities, and various administrative costs.

A competitive grant requires schools to submit applications or proposals to obtain funding. Awards of funds are based on the merits of the proposal and the compliance of the proposal with the grant criteria.

In a competitive grant the organization or agency often releases a request for proposal (RFP) or a request for applications (RFA). Eligible schools typically have 30 to 90 days to complete an application and submit it for funding. Applications are reviewed by a team of experts and scored. The top-scoring applications receive funding.

A non-competitive grant, often called a "formula" or "entitlement" grant, is money allocated on the basis of the type of student population. Districts are still required to apply for this funding and show the requisite need in order to receive funds. They are notified of their allocations for various programs on an annual basis. Examples of non-competitive grants are Title 1 and IDEA-B Formula.

Supplement means to add to, expand, or increase. Supplant means to take the place of or replace with something else. When the supplant not supplant provision applies, the language will be included in the authorizing program statute, an amendment to the statute, or in the Program Guidelines that are published as part of the Request for Application

When the Supplement Not Supplant Provision applies to a grant program, funds for the program must be used to supplement, not supplant, federal, state, or local funds being used for similar activities.

Any program activity required by state law, SBOE rules, or local policies may not be paid with these grant funds. Other funds, such as state or local funds, may not be diverted or decreased for other uses merely because of the availability of these grant funds. Grantees must maintain documentation which clearly demonstrates the supplemental nature of grant activities.