Resources: STEM Clubs for Schools

STEM clubs introduction

An introduction and summary to the STEM club resources available on this site.

Introduction to fundraising

This section provides a background to fundraising to help understand some of its nuances and why it is important to do particular things.

Where to find money

There are many sources of funding for STEM Clubs, it's just a case of knowing where to look.

Selected funders and their grants

There are too many funding organisations out there to list, but we will look at some of the larger funders that support biology, chemistry and physics. In particular, funders with programmes that are available to schools are given, along with their most appropriate grant scheme.

Funders database

This is not an exhaustive list! If you know of a grant that would be suitable for STEM Clubs and is not given on the list below, please contact us.

How to write to funding bodies

Each different organisation will have its own specific mission and associated aims that they wish to achieve. Funding bodies will always look to support projects that align with their mission. Often, they will give examples of things that they will not fund.

How to write to businesses

You might be surprised by how many businesses are interested in providing support to schools, financial or otherwise. They may be large corporations or small local businesses; both have something to gain by giving money or help.

Evaluation and impact

Evaluation is the process of looking at the work that you have done and identifying its strengths and weaknesses - what worked well and what could be improved. Additionally, evaluation is looking at the impact of what you did - the effects that your activity had (or continues to have) after the activity itself stopped. Both funding bodies and businesses will be keener to support you if you can demonstrate that you activity will have long-term impact.

What is matched funding

Matched funding is an excellent way of getting support from multiple organisations. These could be just businesses, just funding bodies or a mixture of the two. Quite simply, you ask one or more organisation(s) to pledge an amount of money on the basis that one or more other organisation(s) will also give financial support.

Example activities

When looking for support it's vital that you have a good idea that you can ‘sell’ to the organisations that you approach. This document gives some examples of other activities that have been supported by funding bodies, as well as examples of activities and ideas that are always good to consider when planning a new project.

Glossary of terms

The world of funding is one that contains lots of everyday words with specialised meanings in the funding context. This glossary tries to give an overview of some of the most commonly used words.