This week, Michele McNeil reported on the strong demand for the second round of the Investing in Innovation program, known as the i3 grant. According to the latest statistics, which you can find at ed.data.gov, there are 587 applicants with projects tallying nearly $3 billion, vying for $150 million in awards. Most of the applicants have been here before. Three hundred of them competed in the first round of funding, which totaled $650 million to 49 winners out of 1,698 applicants. The competition is pretty intense.
The grant’s matching requirement adds to the intensity. Last year, the grant required a 20 percent match from winning applicants. Given that some these projects ran into the millions of dollars, this required some sophisticated networking— all the more if the applicant was in a population dense area where applicants far outnumbered funders. This year, applicants do not have to run-down a 20-percent private-sector match, but obtain matching funds (or in-kind donations) equal to at least 5, 10 or 15 percent of their grant award, depending on the type of grant. The thresholds are more reasonable, but the process still difficult.
To relieve some of the pressure, 12 national foundations committed $500 million to supporting the effort. That included the building of the Foundation Registry. In my opinion, this one of the coolest innovations of the Innovations grants.
Think of the registry as a Match.com for school districts and funders. It makes relationships (and crazy weekends — no judgments here) easier to find. At first, such an online model was awkward — I mean, who wants to go on a blind-date with someone they met “on-line”? But once the process proved fruitful, the stigma went away… and how. Consider the booming growth of dating sites over the last 10 years. It’s been insane (and why didn’t I invest in that?!). Fifteen years ago, Match.com was an idea that everyone mocked. It now boasts over 1.4 million members paying at least $30 per month just for the opportunity to meet someone. The demand was clearly there, and I think we all knew it even if we mocked it. So, too, with education funding.
The Foundation Registry is onto something big. School districts need funding. They do not have the means or will to shop their programs and ideas to each philanthropy and foundation. On the flip side, few foundations have the sophistication or will to weed out innovative and effective programs across thousands of schools districts. The need for the registry for the i3 grant and beyond is incredibly obvious, maybe even more so than Match.com was 15 years ago. As with Match.com, some districts and funders were initially skeptical about the registry, but there is good reason to believe that resistance will melt over time.
I see this as the emergence of a new way to fund the good ideas of districts that may otherwise have been lost in the shuffle. If your district is an i3 applicant, you would be crazy not to submit your application into the system for this funding cycle. If your district is not an applicant, make sure to keep your eye on the registry and get ready to join when it moves from a limited i3 stage to something more ambitious.
Photo Credit: bizbarcelona
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