by Beth Pellicciotti, LWVWA Civics Education Director

The LWVWA Education Fund provides grants for civics education. League members have developed partnerships with a local public broadcasting station and a school district to produce a Civics Bowl (Spokane), reached out to future voters through a Boys & Girls Club (Clallam), and more.

Myra Howrey, the LWVWA C3 Treasurer, oversees the grant application process and answers League members' questions about the grant guidelines or the application form. Here is an interview with her on grant guidelines, potential funding, and transforming good ideas into grant applications.

How do I get started with the grant application? 

Read over the civic education grant guidelines on page 21 of the LWVWA Education Fund Handbook.

Many different kinds of projects meet the guidelines. For example, your League may want to provide voter education to an underserved or underrepresented community. Perhaps you want to open up your monthly meetings on various topics to reach more of the public and need technical equipment to offer these meetings in a hybrid fashion. You may want to expand your partnership with a local library system to provide them with LWVWA's civics textbooks (The State We’re In: Washington—both elementary school and middle/high school editions).

Who in my local League should be notified about this application?

You will see that grants of up to $2000 are awarded to projects. The best way to start is to read the Civic Education Grant Request Form and check with your Board treasurer and president about the application.  Your local League may have its own Education Fund, and if this is substantial and not earmarked for other projects, you may want to apply to use this local League money.  Your treasurer should be able to guide you.

What if I have questions about the application form?

Contact me, Myra Howrey, at edfundtreasurer@lwvwa.org and I will answer any questions you have about the form or the application process. You do not have to show matching Education Funds for this grant, but some Leagues do. Try to keep the budget simple and the project description straightforward.

What are the requirements if I receive the grant money?

The Final Civic Education Report is simple to complete. It is helpful to read this beforehand to make sure that you collect data and other material that you might want to share with other Leagues after the project completion.

Ed. Note: While it's not a requirement, we love hearing about local Leagues' projects. Please email us so that we can help you get the word out via our newsletters and social media!