Frequently Asked Questions

Team Contact:  Each applicant team must consist of three to six members (see Eligibility). One of those team members will need to assume the role of Team Contact. The Team Contact is the LIGHT Awards Program main point of contact and is responsible for stewarding the application and the project. The Team Contact coordinates with the grant recipient entity and is responsible for communication with the LIGHT Awards staff.

Contact School: Some applicants will consist of team members all from the same school. In that case, their school is the Contact School. Some applicants will consist of team members from multiple schools. In that case, the Contact School should be the school of the Team Contact.

Contact Principal: Some applicants will consist of team members all from the same school. In that case, their school principal is the Contact Principal. Some applicants will consist of team members from multiple schools. In that case, the Contact Principal should be the principal of the Team Contact. In the case of multiple schools, a letter of support will be required from the principal at each teacher’s school.

Before submitting your application, you will need to contact the grant recipient, inform them that you are submitting a grant application and find out whether the organization charges any fees to manage a grant. You will need to include those fees in your proposed budget. You will also need to include in your application the best contact for grant processing at the recipient organization.

Also, each recipient organization has different processes for accessing awarded funds. If you receive a LIGHT Award, you will need to work with the organization to learn its process for accessing your funds and documenting your expenditures. It’s recommended that you clarify this process even before applying, in order to make sure the proposed grant recipient organization is the best fit for your team.

Please note that many school districts require you to complete an Intent to Apply to submit a grant. If your district is your grant recipient organization, please make sure to check on this.

Projects ineligible for funding include one-time events, masters programs, board certifications and travel outside of the U.S. The LIGHT Awards does not award grants to solely purchase technology equipment and classroom supplies. Funds for equipment and classroom supplies can be requested as a component of a project but must be justified based on their integration with the proposed project and must not exceed $5,000 for a $20,000 proposal or $8,000 for a $30,000 proposal.

The LIGHT Awards remains committed to recognizing and awarding outstanding educators, even as the nature of professional learning and in-person education has changed because of COVID-19. When planning your LIGHT Awards project, please consider the requirements of your school and your district when making arrangements. If your district or school does not allow or expect to allow in-person professional learning in the near future, please plan accordingly. Even though circumstances are likely to change over the course of the grant period, the LIGHT Awards suggests having a virtual back-up plan for any in-person activity you propose in your Letter of Intent and/or Application.

After you create your account, you can log in and download a list of the questions in .pdf format, so that you and your team can do the necessary research and prepare your answers. The download link is at the top of the application form.

Once you start filling out the application, you can save your partial work and log out at any time. The application is only submitted when you feel it is complete and you click the “submit” button. You can also download a .pdf of the draft application with your completed answers using the “print packet” link at the top of the application.

Note: Although the system automatically saves your work approximately every 20 minutes, we recommend manually saving your work whenever you feel you have completed a significant portion of the application. You can do so by scrolling down to the bottom of the application page and clicking the “save as draft” button.

Team collaboration may be easily accomplished. The team contact can download and share the application questions (.pdf) with team members, and they can prepare and review each others’ responses offline. When answers are ready, the team contact can enter them into the application.

We encourage the team contact to ensure that only one person at a time is using the team’s account. Though the application system will allow simultaneous logins, simultaneous users can easily overwrite or delete each others’ entries.

If you are using an iPad to complete your application, we recommend using the Chrome browser (free download from iTunes) because there are situations in which in the Safari browser malfunctions while accessing the grant application.