Competitive Grants

The Competitive Grants Team drives new and innovative program development through discretionary federal, state, and foundation grants.  These activities include:

  • Matching district priorities with grant program opportunities
  • Recruiting appropriate CPS central office units and external partners to participate
  • Developing criteria in collaboration with CPS central office units to determine school selection for district grant applications
  • Providing writing assistance that can range from critiquing, editing, and rewriting drafts to writing an entire proposal; developing budgets
  • Ensuring the submission of complete and accurate applications within grant deadlines

Our mission is to maximize discretionary grant revenue in support of CPS district priorities.  Through the development of high-quality grant proposals, the Competitive Grants Unit supports CPS central office departments and area offices in fulfilling their goals.

The central responsibilities of the unit fall within four main areas:

  • Identifying appropriate competitive federal, state, and foundation grant opportunities for CPS central office units and area offices
  • Collaborating with CPS units to develop and submit grant applications
  • Maintaining a database of all CPS grant activity and records for all district-level grant applications
  • Supporting individual schools in their pursuit of grant funds through our Grant Opportunities and Resources for Schools page

 

Recent Grant Awards

The Competitive Grants Department won $84 million in competitive grant funds for CPS in FY2011. Funds came from both federal and state grant competitions, with the majority of funds coming from applications submitted directly to the US Department of Education.

Click here to view a PDF of Recent Grant Awards

 

Competitive Grant Partnership Opportunities

Organizations interested in partnering with CPS or our schools on competitive grant applications, including Department of Education grant opportunities, should contact the Department of Competitive Grants to secure district support for grant applications at (773) 553-2610.  Partnership selection processes are also regularly posted on our Competitive Grant Partnership Opportunities page.