Funding Focus

Virginia Literacy Foundation grants target community-based and faith-based volunteer organizations that provide literacy and numeracy services to adults 18 years of age and older and who read at a fifth-grade level or below. Organizations must serve at a minimum 30 students for at least 6 hours of instruction or more.

Activities eligible for funding

1. Literacy instruction and services to adults, including teaching basic literacy, pre-GED, GED, ESOL, and numeracy skills
2. Recruitment and retention
3. Board development and staff development
4. Strategic planning
5. Instructing literacy and numeracy skills to parents in family literacy programs (teaching adults to read to children, for example)
6. Using technology to teach literacy skills (creating online homework assignments and writing emails, or taking distance learning courses such as GED Connection, for example)
7. Community awareness, outreach, and marketing (includes web development)
8. Strengthening or initiating collaborative efforts
9. Increasing program capacity
10. Data collection and management
11. Salaries related to the grant project
12. Tailoring established, scientifically-based research on teaching approaches, curriculum and tutor training techniques to program needs
13. Implementing standardized pre- and post-tests to measure student progress

Activities not eligible for funding

1. Wholesale purchase and distribution of childrens’ books and/or handing out free giveaways. (Your program must provide literacy instruction to parents – handing out books does not fall under this category.)
2. Teaching individuals how to use the computer. (Using the computer as a resource to deliver literacy instruction or learn essential job skills while they are becoming familiar with computers is allowed.)
3. Family literacy activities that involve only children. Parents and adult literacy must remain the focus.
4. Developing new curriculum. Adapting current curriculum that is based on best practices is allowed.
5. Out-of-state travel.
6. Parties or celebratory events.
7. Purchasing accounting or legal services.

The VLF’s focus is on projects* that:

1. are outcomes based and rely on evaluation instruments that reliably pre- and post-test students for progress;
2. strengthen current services or introduction of new services based on community need and internal data analysis, ie., use data and strategic planning to drive program improvement;
3. seek close and integrated collaborations with regional adult education programs, community colleges, and agencies with similar missions;
4. offer family literacy services with
• integrated literacy instruction to parents/caretakers of children,
• meaningful collaborations with current family literacy programs;
• added components to current program offerings that improve parents’ literacy skills and target parents of at-risk children;
5. improve services to clients and/or volunteers using evidence-based practices;
6. use tried and true methods to retain students and volunteers;
7. follow a strategic plan to improve and strengthen the organization’s capacity to serve the community; or
8. use 21st century technology in instruction and/or outreach and marketing.

*The term project may be defined loosely. You may choose to improve specific program components, such as recruitment or fund development activities, or to start new program components. Or you may choose to fund a salaried position for a particular program or project in your organization. If this is the case, then your grant focus should be on the salaried position and how this position advances the project. The activities you describe will then be related to the salaried position, not to the project itself. If you have any questions about activities that are eligible for funding or how to write for a salaried position, please contact Victoire Gerkens Sanborn at 800-237-0178 or vjsanbor@vcu.edu.

When Scoring the Grant, the VLF Grants Committee Looks for:

• grants that focus on strengthening or improving one or two goals indentified by internal and external data.
• realistic measurable goals that are outcomes based and that demonstrate impact in the community.
• frequent and consistent data collection and evaluation.
• pre- and post-tests that use reliable evaluation instruments to measure student progress and achievement.
• evidence of active Board involvement.
• ample professional development opportunities for staff and volunteers.
• Points are lost when:
• the grant proposal seeks to continue the status quo and maintain the organization as is.
• the grant describes the entire organization instead of focusing on program improvement goals, objectives and outcomes.
• grant projects are not supported by the data or ignore the data.
• when data collection and evaluation of student achievement are not adequately addressed.
• an active grant match is not described.
• the Board of Directors (or programs that are guided only by Advisory Boards) fail to monetarily support the program 100%.

Organizations we fund and do not fund:

The VLF funds: community-based literacy organizations, faith-based literacy organizations, library-based literacy programs, community-based ESOL programs, adult literacy instruction in family literacy programs, instruction that uses technology as a tool to deliver literacy instruction (not how to use the software and hardware as an end in itself), GED programs for low literate adults, and ESOL instruction for adults with very low literacy skills.

The VLF does not fund: community colleges, colleges, or universities, events for children, for-profit organizations, start-up organizations, and classes for learning how to use computers.