2022 TEACH Grants Program – Marion Co.

Marion Community Foundation is again offering its Teaching, Educating And Classroom Help (TEACH) Grants program for Marion County (Ohio) classroom teachers. The application is available online through March 9, 2022, at Noon.

Following two successful years, the TEACH Grants program will again offer awards to local teachers to make area classrooms interesting, stimulating, and impactful for students. The purpose of the TEACH Grants is to provide funding to teachers, or small teams of classroom teachers, to foster and develop programs, projects, events, or lessons for kindergarten through 12th grade.

On the Foundation’s website, teachers can find the application under the “Grants” tab, on the “Apply for a Grant” page. Any public or private school teacher who instructs children kindergarten through high school in Marion County is eligible to apply. Grants are intended to fund innovative or creative programs, projects, events, or lessons in the classroom not supported by regular school budgets.

“Classroom teachers have great ideas and creative solutions to meet their students’ needs,” said Dean Jacob, President and CEO of Marion Community Foundation. “The TEACH Grant program can help teachers launch innovative and motivational ideas that may go unfunded because of a school’s tight budget.”

Since 2020, the program has awarded 15 grants for programs as diverse as the purchase of multicultural literature to online learning equipment to a drum set. TEACH Grants are made possible in Marion County by funding from the Pillar Credit Union Teachers Fund, the River Valley Teachers Fund, and the Ray & Charlotte Baldauf Fund.

“The Board of Pillar Credit Union was instrumental in starting the TEACH Grants Program by providing the financial support,” said Jacob. “Other donors created additional funds, such as the River Valley Teachers Fund, to support specific schools. This is our way to affirm the value of our local educators and their creative ideas.”

According to Jacob, the TEACH Grants program typically makes awards of up to $1,000 but can be as much as $2,500. The decisions on how much and to whom to award grants will be made by a volunteer committee of Marion Community Foundation and its Board of Directors.

The application for the 2022 TEACH Grants program is available on Marion Community Foundation’s website at www.marioncommunityfoundation.org and applications are due by March 9 at Noon. Selection committees will review the applications in April and announce recipients in May. Updates will be available on the Foundation’s social media channels—Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Additional information is available by contacting Julie Prettyman, Marion Community Foundation’s Director of Programs, at 740-387-9704 or julieprettyman@marioncommunityfoundation.org. Marion Community Foundation is located at 504 S. State Street. Its offices are open weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m.