Due to the necessity to fund highly-effective community organizing projects (not just marketing / branding / sponsorship projects) as well as have more local associations participate, we cannot guarantee that your local association’s level of funding or types of activities from previous years will be approved. All events must have at least a 35% organizing cost in order to be approved.

• PRIDE grant applications submitted for events after they have occurred cannot be accepted.
• 30 working days are required for all PRIDE approvals, and promotional items ordered from njeapridestore.com often take at least three weeks for delivery.
• Please inspect all promotional items as soon as they are delivered.
• In case of errors, do not wait to open promotional item packages until it is too late to ship replacement items.

Stand-alone marketing, branding, and sponsorship activities have no purposeful asks or activities for parents to engage in.  These are passive events for parents.  There is very little going on at these events to build deep, meaningful relationships between parents and members.  For example:

• An event where the association is funding dinner.  Parents arrive, sign in, pick up a promo item, eat, and leave.  This would not qualify, because it is only marketing and branding.  No deep connection is established – the association just bought the parents dinner.
• An event where an association has a PRIDE table set up.  Parents come up to the table, sign in, pick up a promo item, and continue on their way.  This would not qualify, because it is only marketing and branding.  No deep connection is established – the association just gave the parents a promo item (i.e. a water bottle or bag, etc.).
• An event where the association sponsors pony rides for children.  Parents approach the line to wait with their child and watch as their child is assisted on to a pony.  The child rides the pony for approximately one minute and is helped down.  The parents and their child leave the pony ride area and continue on their way.

In order to qualify as a Pride grant, events need a more purposeful component (an ask or activity) for parents to partake in.  For example:

• Parents arrive to an association sponsored event.  They sign in, and go to a craft supply table with their children.  They work with their children to build a craft and have a refreshment.  They leave – but the experience was not passive.  Parents were active in building a craft with their children.  This helps to forge a deeper connection between members and parents – provided that it is clear to parents that the local association funded the craft activity.
• Also consider coffee klatches and any event where parents have an active role (i.e. family fitness night, math and reading nights, etc.).  Parents need to be active in the event for it  to be considered as community organizing based.  These types of events may require more effort on the association’s part, but the payback is much greater.

Overall, the best events are those where parents converse with our members on what they want to see in their schools, and our members team up to work with the parents to make things happen.  We cannot organize parents around our issues, but we can look for places where our issues and parents’ issues intersect and build coalitions that are grounded in action around those things.

Before sending your completed PRIDE grant applications to your UniServ field representative, please ensure that:

• Your total requested PRIDE funding does not exceed your yearly PRIDE budget. Once you sign in to the PRIDE portal, the budget information will be populated automatically.
• Your local president has approved this proposal.
• You indicate that you will use a sign-in sheet at all your PRIDE events in order to collect as much contact information from participants as possible.
• You are required to send in all your sign-in sheets for each event with your reimbursement paperwork.
• Your local association is being recognized for funding the event; not NJEA or the school district, and your full association name (NO ABBREVIATIONS) is being prominently displayed on all materials.
• At all events offering refreshments, a table-top sign is placed that reads to the effect of, “Refreshments sponsored by the Anytown Education Association: your children’s teachers and Educational Support Professionals.”
• Any introductory speakers at events will thank your local association by name for its generous sponsorship.
• You considered distributing an association flier at your event.
• “Other” costs are detailed in the portal.
• Ensure that your events that are held in school district facilities are BOE approved.
• Proposal app includes a B—School Budget proposal if your district is conducting an April school budget election.
• You did not request items not funded by PRIDE, above.
• Promotional item selected is from www.njeapridestore.com.
• Only one promo item per activity.
• Meal expenses do not exceed allowable amounts, above.
• You indicate that your PRIDE banner will hang at all your PRIDE events.
• Consider writing press releases for your activities and submit them to local media outlets (newspapers, TV, etc.) in a timely manner.
• Your local association’s PRIDE budget
• In order to assure that there is enough PRIDE funding to go around, local associations are given a funding limit each year based upon the number of NJEA members in their local associations.

It is important to note that in approving proposals, the PRIDE program administrators are looking for a comprehensive, year-long PRIDE program that contains varied activities that engage multiple segments of the community. In other words, a local association should not be submitting one or two PRIDE projects that consume their entire PRIDE budget.

The chart that determines your local’s PRIDE funding limit is below.

• 1—25 $100
• 26—50 $90
• 51—75 $80
• 76—100 $75
• 101—125 $65
• 126—150 $60
• 151—200 $55
• 201—300 $50
• 301—500 $45
• 501—800 $40
• 801—1000 $35
• 1001—2000 $30
• 2001—3000 $25
• 3001 + $20