The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky (The Fund) is helping educators, administrators and other leaders understand and create a culture of innovation across the Commonwealth. Their efforts include training, consulting and other supports; however, the main component of this initiative is the Innovation Fund.

The Innovation Fund will support grants to teachers, school leaders, and administrators to encourage the investigation, testing and scaling of innovative practices and will include three tiers of support:

  • Research grants: The smallest in size, these grants will support research and investigation of innovative tools and practices that the grantee may want to move into a pilot stage.
  • Pilot grants: Small to mid-size grants, these would allow the grantee to test innovative tools and practices.
  • Scaling grants: The largest and most infrequent grant awards, these grants will support the scaling of innovative tools and/or practices.

All requests for funding must be submitted via an application, with supporting documentation. A review committee, made up of Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) leadership, staff and board members from The Fund, and other key experts, will review applications.

Every grantee will be required to submit a report on their project, which The Fund will maintain for review by others interested in similar work. All individual grant reports will be compiled into an annual summary report to the funders.

Process:

1. Download the complete RFP.

2. Before you complete an RFP, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

3. Applicants must submit all required documentation (see RFP) to innovationfund@thefundky.org by June 30.

The review committee will review each proposal and determine which grants will be awarded. Proposal review will be done based on a rubric developed by The Fund, in conjunction with key review committee members.