June 2017
By Diane Strzelecki
Diane Katz, principal at St. Paul Lutheran School in Aurora, Illinois, remembers the day she printed out the Dunham Fund grant application. “It was daunting—nearly a half-inch thick,” she says. She walked into the church office, where volunteer and PTL President Louise De Wig noted the stack of paper in Katz’s hand and asked her about it.
“I gave Louise a few details about the grant and what we wanted to accomplish with it,” Katz remembers. “Her eyes lit up and she expressed her longtime interest in grant writing, noting that she also knew a professional grant writer who could help. I asked her if she wanted to tackle this one, and she agreed immediately.”
Six months and a lot of prayer later, St. Paul submitted the application by the June 2016 deadline. In October 2016, they learned they had been awarded a $192,000 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) development grant. It was the first grant the school had ever been awarded; it was the first grant application they ever submitted.
The Dunham Fund is a foundation established by Aurora resident and philanthropist John C. Dunham to encourage the development of innovative, collaborative educational and community development programs to affect positive change in the Aurora area. The fund supports programs and capital projects that respond to community needs in areas such as education, community development, healthcare and the arts.
Katz and her staff are passionate about positive change. They understand their students are faced with a changing world, one that requires a solid educational foundation for future STEM careers. Moreover, they wanted to continue St. Paul’s 150-year tradition of providing quality Christian education in the Aurora community.
“We wanted to become a STEM-integrated Christian school, but we needed the equipment and technology to do so,” Katz says. The grant project includes the installation of a science lab and associated equipment, new SMART Boards for every classroom, a computer lab, the purchase of 120 Chromebooks, and classroom docking stations.
Once St. Paul made the first cut in the grant selection process, Katz, De Wig, and Chairman of the Congregation Ann West presented their application to the Dunham Fund Board in person.
Concerned that the school’s infrastructure wouldn’t support the technology upgrade, the board proposed a matching $25,000 grant for infrastructure upgrades. Once the STEM development grant was announced, St. Paul school and church families responded enthusiastically to raise their share.
Sue Green, LCMS Northern Illinois District Mission Advocate, notes that St. Paul’s success speaks to their passion for and commitment to improving educational opportunities for students and the community. “The grant writing process is not for sissies,” she says. “There are ongoing grant opportunities for faith-based organizations to live out their mission, but they need to show how the church or school will impact the community.”
Indeed, Katz notes that was one of the biggest challenges of their own application. “We had to spell out how we would use this grant to impact people outside of St. Paul, so we drew on our existing partnerships with Aurora Township and Freeman Elementary School,” she says.
Their plan: St. Paul will add STEM-integrated activities for township summer camps and develop a weekly Science Club for Freeman students and students in the township’s after-school program. Their Smart Board upgrade allowed St. Paul to donate three repurposed Smart Boards to the Aurora Pregnancy Information Center. And their new computer lab will have far-reaching benefits for their preschool, which is open to the entire community.
Buoyed by their grant success, Katz applied for and won a $700 NEED grant for STEM kits to be used in the classroom. That grant stipulated that the school hold a community STEM Night, which it did in March 2017. More than 250 people from St. Paul and the community attended, including the mayor of Aurora, and Dunham Fund board members who formally presented St. Paul with the grant check that night.
Katz doesn’t consider herself an expert in grant writing, but she does have a few words of advice. “Don’t think that just because you’re a Christian organization, a public grant or fund won’t offer you money,” she says. “And find somebody in the congregation or church who can help you!”
District Churches/Schools Needing Grant Help
The LCMS Northern Illinois District periodically holds free classes in basic grant writing for district churches and schools. Professional grant writers with experience in Christian ministry present grant resources for faith-based organizations and the “Do’s and Don’ts” of grant writing. Presenters also offer their services to attendees to look over their grant applications.
For more information about these classes, please contact Sue Green at sue.green@nidlcms.org or 708-223-3116.