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2007 Grant Application Guide
Welcome! This page contains all of the information you need to submit an outstanding Grant Application.
This grant process is designed to be fun. After all you’ve done to become a founding Playful City USA, we wanted to give you the opportunity to show your enthusiasm, talent, and creative spirit, and compete for a grant that could make a real difference in your community’s agenda for play!
We are offering 3 $25,000 grants to fully fund a playful project in your community and 5 $5,000 honorary mention awards to assist you in implementing your 2008 Play Day. In addition, for both the $25,000 grants and the $5,000 honorary mentions, you must commit to communicate about the project and its successes and challenges to your sister cities across the nation through the KaBOOM! website. Instructions for this communication will be laid out if you were to be granted an award. So get ready, get set, Be Playful!
The grant application consists of two parts:
A Written Project Summary. This is a simple one page summary of a specific play project you would like to fund and build in your community, including a budget. For the grants, there is no restriction on what the Project is, but it must involve moving your agenda for free, unstructured play forward in 2008.
  1. Download the forms here, fill them out, and email them to playfulcityusa@kaboom.org by November 27, 2007.

    Click here to download Project Form
    Click here to download Budget Template

     
  2. A Creative Video. A fun video that you will create with your community, and upload to this website! The video is separate from the Project Summary; it is meant to simply answer the question, “What makes your community a Playful City USA?”.

The Grant Timeline is as follows:

  • October 12th- Potential Applicants are invited to participate.
  • November 27th- Close of Applications.
  • November 30th- Online voting begins for video submissions.
  • December 21st- End of Voting.
  • January 8th- Final selections by Grant Review Committee.
  • January 31st- Grants awarded at the Founding City Forum.

Part I: The Project Summary

First, write a ONE page summary of a project you would like to get funded. Include a description, needs and impact statement, and attach a detailed budget. Use the downloadable templates as your guide, and email them to playfulcityusa@kaboom.org by November 27th, 2007.

Here are some considerations for your Project Summary:

When proposing a project to be funded it is important to keep in mind the following criteria and weights which the Grant Review Committee will use to judge rate your Project Summary:

  1. Innovative practice (25%). We’re looking for creativity and/or innovation in proposed projects.
  2. Need and Impact (25%). Explain how your project will move forward your community’s agenda for play.
  3. Community Engagement (25%). Demonstrate how this project represents a public/private partnership.
  4. Feasibility based on an award of $25,000 (15%). How realistic is the budget for your project?
  5. Effective means for sharing the project and its successes and challenges with your sister cities across the country. (10%). As a role model in play for your sister cities across the nation, how will you communicate your project with others.

Part II: The Video Entry

Now rally your city and community to create a fun 2-3 minute video that may make us laugh, make us smile, or maybe even make us cry…but will surely make us shout, “Wow! That is a Playful City USA.”

When creating your masterpiece video, it is important to keep in mind the following criteria and weights which the Grant Review Committee will use to rate your video:

  1. How well does it answer the question, “What makes you a Playful City USA?” You’ve given us the data in your application submission, now we want to see your playfulness at every level in your community. And remember, we’re talking free, unstructured play. (40%)
  2. Demonstration of community-wide understanding and support for an agenda on free, unstructured play. We’d like to see and hear from a wide range of people who are the stakeholders in your Playful City: government representatives, community activists, moms and dads, pets, you name it…anyone who stands to benefit from your achievements in play can participate (35%)
  3. Creativity. Use your imagination, think out of the box, but most importantly have fun. The extent to which your entry is wonderfully creative counts! (25%)

Additional Video Guidelines

In addition to the judging criteria above, please pay attention to the following guidelines. All of them can be found in the Official Rules:

  • The video may be NO longer than 3 minutes.
  • In the title slide (the opening of the video) you must include the name of your city and the project you would like to have funded.
  • The video may feature the following but is not limited to:
    • Kids
    • Community Members
    • City Officials
    • Playspaces
    • Community Sights
    • Play-filled Moments (Once again, we are talking about unstructured play.)

Before submitting your application, be sure to read the Official Rules and to review our sample video. This is only a sample; there are a million creative ways to demonstrate that you are a Playful City USA and that you have the support of a large cross section of the population in fulfilling your agenda on play.

  • 12pm on November 27th is the final deadline for submitting applications. At that time, project summaries and budgets must have been received at playfulcityusa@kaboom.org, and your video must be posted to the website.
  • Videos will be posted on-line for a three week period and the nation will vote on who they feel demonstrates most fully that they are a community committed to play. This vote will be weighted at 30% of your total grant application score. Thus, successful public voting is essential for a community to receive this grant because it demonstrates that there is a broader commitment to your community succeeding in the fulfillment of your agenda for play. So it as important that you create a strategy to RALLY your community to vote from November 30th through December 21st!
  • A Grant Review Committee will review and rate the one-page project summaries through December 21st. During the week of January 1st, the Grant Review Committee will meet to review the videos, the voting and the project summaries. The result of this review process will be aggregate scores for each community, by which the winning communities will be selected.
  • Winners will be notified on January 8th and awards will be distributed at the Founding City Forum, January 31st-February 1st.

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