The Richard King Mellon Foundation is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) that aims to ensure that children who are enrolled in early childhood education or grades K-12 and who reside in low-income households in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties can achieve a 90% attendance record or greater.
Donor Name: Richard King Mellon Foundation
State: Pennsylvania
County: Westmoreland County (PA) and Allegheny County (PA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/20/2022
Size of the Grant: $400,000
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
The Foundation will consider all submitted proposals that:
- focus on prevention and early intervention strategies
- account for the interrelated school, community, and family factors that affect children and young people’s school attendance
- conduct ongoing data collection and analysis to understand children’s and families’ needs and identify solutions most likely to meet those needs
Successful proposals may also address related objectives such as reducing the number of truancy-related citations filed in courts, reducing absences resulting from the use of exclusionary school discipline practices, or reducing tardiness that causes students regularly to miss certain classes or activities.
The Foundation also strongly encourages collaborative proposals that engage multiple partners in the proposed activities, including sharing missions and goals, co-creating and sharing programs and services, and partnering in systems change.
Types of Support
The Foundation expects to provide two types of support through this RFP.
- Planning and Innovation grants:
- Focus on experimentation and the development of new ideas. Recipients might describe activities such as piloting services or completing a feasibility study. Any evaluation activities should focus on understanding successes, challenges, and future possibilities resulting from the grant
- Will provide up to $250,000 and funded activities should be completed within 12 to 18 months after the grant award.
- Scalability grants:
- Sustain and expand promising, evidence-informed initiatives. Recipients might describe activities, projects, and ideas that have been tested within one population group or in one geographic area with promising success and require an infusion of funds to expand the reach of the program to other population groups or geographic areas
- Will provide up to $400,000 and funded activities should be completed within 18 to 24 months after the grant award.
Eligibility Criteria
For the purposes of this RFP, the Foundation offers additional guidance about proposals from public sector and nonprofit organizations.
- Public sector organizations:
- may serve as the lead agency submitting a proposal for Planning and Innovation grants. Public sector organizations may also participate as collaborating partners on both Planning and Innovation and Scalability grants submitted by nonprofit organizations
- include entities such as school districts, courts, or departments of health or human services
- Nonprofit organizations:
- may serve as the lead agency submitting a proposal for Planning and Innovation grants or for Scalability grants. Nonprofit organizations may also participate as collaborating partners on both Planning and Innovation or Scalability grants.
For more information, visit PreK through 12th Grade Attendance.
