Kid Kindness Grants

Rules and Guidelines: 

1. All applicants must be students between the ages of 5-18. Applications may be submitted by individuals or groups. Groups can include a group of friends, a school club, a classroom, a scout troop, a sports team, etc. Any group is acceptable as long as all members of the group are between the ages of 5-18.
2. All applications must be submitted no later than 11:59p.m. on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
3. Individuals may apply for up to $250. Small groups (2-4 kids) may apply for up to $500. And large groups (5+ kids) may apply for up to $800. 
4. All funds granted must be used for projects carried out by the students named on the application. The intent of these grants is for young people to be involved in developing and carrying out their own ideas dedicated to solving problems in their community by spreading kindness.
5. The application should be completed in the child's words. If parents/adults would like to add to the child's explanation they can do so, but you must clearly indicate which parts were completed by whom. 
6. Awards will be granted based on the following:
7. Quality of the application: Is it detailed? Was the application completed in full? Does it demonstrate that a lot of thought was put into the project? Is it completed by the child who is applying and not just by the parent? (See #5 above)
8. Impact: Will those receiving the kindness have the feeling that another person really made an effort to connect and show that they care? NOTE: We do not fund projects in which kids simply seek to donate money to a good cause. We support projects in which children are actively involved in directly spreading kindness to other people in their community. (Note: We do not fund projects that spread kindness to animals. While a worthy cause, that is not the focus of our organization).
9. Creativity: Is kindness being spread in a creative and unique way?
10. Safety: Does the project do everything possible to minimize the spread of COVID-19 while spreading kindness in a meaningful way? 
11. NOTE: The winning applications will not necessarily be large scale, "grand" projects. We are always thrilled to fund simple projects that highlight a child's desire to spread kindness on a small scale.
12. All applicants must have an adult supervising their project. The adult will be responsible for ensuring that the project is completed and that the funds are used solely for the intended purpose. Adults will be responsible for keeping receipts to show proper use of funds. If the application is submitted by more than one student, then the check will be made out to the supervising adult.
13. Applications cannot be submitted as part of a required assignment. The project is supposed to be something that the the applicant is motivated to do. Of course we know most (if not all) kids have encouragement to apply from an adult in their life. But, we expect the children applying to be the driving force behind completing the application and carrying out the project. And yet, we recognize the educational value of thinking about real world problems and how to solve them through kindness. As such we have provided materials below for educators to use in classrooms to discuss these valuable concepts. If educators use these resources in the classroom, we ask that only students who are extremely motivated and excited to apply for a grant do so. We ask that no more than 3 students per classroom submit an application.
14. Please only apply for the amount of funding actually required to complete the project. DO NOT apply for the full amount just because you can. We will not fund projects that don't provide a detailed "budget" of what the funds will be used for. We ask that students apply for funds in a fiscally responsible manner so that we can fund as many projects as possible.
15. All recipients of Kid Kindness Grants will have to provide a "Project Completion Report" (written, video, slide show, etc.) to Kindness Grows Here, Inc. within 6 months of being awarded the funds (and within 1 month of completing the project) that details things such as, a) What it was like to complete the project, b) what the impact was, c) how people responded.
16. Kindness Grows Here, Inc. will in no way be responsible for the carrying out of or gaining permission for any of the projects funded through this program. Kindness Grows Here, Inc. is simply providing funds and bears no responsibility or liability for activities or events carried out with the funds provided. Submitting an application is agreement to this waiver of liability. All winners will have to sign an official "Waiver of Liability" before funds are disbursed.
    

Dear Educators,

Kindness Grows Here is dedicated to making your job easier! We know that as influential adults in the lives of so many children that you are instrumental in making our Kid Kindness Grants Program a success.

As such, we have created materials that you can use in the classroom (and at home) to get kids thinking about making change in their community through kindness. We hope these materials will be a meaningful resource that will make lesson-planning easier, provide some meaningful and important class discussion, and also result in well thought out applications for our grants.

The Kid Kindness Grants program seeks to empower youth by funding any child's intentional and creative idea for community kindness. You are our partners in achieving this goal.

However, please keep in mind that this application CANNOT be completed as part of a required assignment. The goal of this grant program is to support kids who have a strong desire to make a difference in their community through kindness. If children are required to complete the application for school, we have no way of knowing if their motivation is genuine. So, please utilize these resources to get kids thinking about these important concepts. But please only have the students who are truly excited about their ideas submit an application directly to Kindness Grows Here. No more than 3 students per classroom can submit an application. 

If you have any feedback for us about how we can make these resources more meaningful or effective, please reach out at: info@KindnessGrowsHere.com

Thank you for all you do!

~The Board of Directors of Kindness Grows Here 

NOTE: While these resources were created with educators in mind, they would be a great way for any supervising adult to help a child think in depth about how they would like to spread kindness in their community. Anyone is welcome to utilize these resources.

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Work Collaboratively with Your Team:

For Students who would like to work on their application together as a group, and/or get feedback from their supervising adult, we have created this "Google Doc" to enable students to work collaboratively on the text of their application. Please note: This document IS NOT THE APPLICATION! Students will have to copy and paste text from their Google Doc into the actual application.

(Please note these recommended grades are suggestions. You can use whichever materials work best for your students.) 

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