Apply for one of 12 $250 Grants for Your Quizbowl Team!

[Great Bustard]

Hi Everyone,
I am pleased to announce that the David Madden Fund for World Betterment will be offering 12 $250 grants to quizbowl teams throughout the country. Edit 10/28: Mike Bentley and his friend and Microsoft colleague Alejandro are each providing an additional grant too - these can be used for NHBB registration or for any purpose aside from PACE NSC, again - see my post from 10/28 below for more info) Here's how this is going to work:

Q.: Why are you doing this?
A.: After I was on Jeopardy in 2005, I donated a considerable amount of my winnings to a charitable giving fund. I got the immediate tax break, but did not have to specify how the money was to be donated. These grants are designed to help encourage the growth and development of quizbowl throughout the USA. Any benefit to the National History Bee and Bowl is purely incidental. In fact, I am insisting that this money is NOT TO BE SPENT on any NHBB tournament or travel to or from such.

Q.: Who can apply for this?
A.: Any high school, middle school, or (Edit: 10/20) elementary school team in the USA that can process a donation through an IRS recognized non-profit is eligible for this grant. No distinction will be made between public, private, or parochial schools. The only qualification is that you send the name of a non-profit and their IRS tax number to me at director at historybowl dot com by Friday, October 28 at 8pm Eastern time. For many public schools, this is something like "Random Name High School Educational Foundation" or "Random City Educational Foundation." Coaches and captains - talk to your school's administration to see what might work for your school. I will post all of those schools who apply in the second post of this thread. The only other requirement is that schools have something tangible in mind that they would like to spend the money on, but I do NOT want to know what this is until AFTER you have been notified that you have won. This money is not meant to be put away in a "general fund" indefinitely.

Q.: How will the determination be made?
A.: At Hunter College High School's tournament on October 29, some other attending coach will watch me write all the names of schools that have applied on an index card. These will be folded in half and placed into an opaque trash bag. The bag will be shaken vigorously by someone other than me. A third and blindfolded person will then reach in and withdraw 12 index cards and hand them one by one to the bagshaker who will orally announce the identities of the schools. As you can tell, I intend this to be done in a fair and systematic manner.

Q.: What can we spend the money on?
A.: Whatever your team deems appropriate, as long as it is quizbowl related and does NOT involve the National History Bee and Bowl. This could include a new buzzer system, money to cover travel expenses, tournament registrations, etc. In the interest of full transparency, though, schools that win are required to submit notification of what they intend to spend the money on AFTER they have been notified they have won. Don't tell me before. Those ideas will be posted in the second post of this thread. Again, schools need to have an idea to spend it on something though, and that something cannot be on a "college scholarship for team members" or "a pizza party" or something stupid and irrelevant.

Q.: When will we be notified if we've won?
A.: Winning schools will be notified by email on the evening of October 29. Winning schools will be posted here that same evening.

Q.: When will the grants come through?
A.: I will submit the grants to Fidelity by October 31. They typically take 3-6 days to be approved. The money will then be sent to the IRS non-profit by the end of November. Do not plan on having the money to use for any November tournaments.

Q.: Anything else?
A.: Nope, that's it! Oh, I continue to work ahead with the idea for a national donation site for quiz bowl teams. ETA, sometime next spring or summer. I will keep you all posted. Good luck and I hope to hear from you soon! Remember, I need the name of a foundation/IRS-recognized non-profit that you know can accept a donation on your team's behalf before I can accept your team's application.

Edit: Here is the exact language from Fidelity's guidelines as to which charities can be donated to:
Grants can only be made to IRS-qualified public charities. These are organizations that are described in Section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1), (a)(2) or (a)(3) of the Code and applicable regulations and IRS authority, or are private operating foundations as described in Section 4942(j)(3) of the Code and applicable regulations and IRS authority.

[Great Bustard]

Teams Currently in for Second Chance Drawing to be held in early February - Please do not sign up until Jan. 1
1. Dorman High School, Roebuck, SC
2. New Kent High School, New Kent, VA
3. Lakeside School, Seattle, WA
4. Menifee County High School, Frenchburg, KY
5. Dawkins Middle School, Moore, SC
6. Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC
7. Ben Franklin Middle School, Ridgewood, NJ
8. Greeneville High School, Greeneville, TN
9. Mariner High School, Cape Coral, FL
10. Cabrini High School, Allen Park, MI
11. Clay County Middle School, Manchester, KY
12. Gallatin High School, Gallatin, TN
13. Paulding High School, Paulding, OH
14. Louisa County High School, Mineral, VA
15. Shafer Middle School, Gallatin, TN
16. Saints Peter and Paul Elementary School, California, KY
17. St. Mary Middle School, Paducah, KY
18. Ardsley High School, Ardsley, NY
19. Calloway County High School, Calloway, KY
20. Anchorage Middle School, Anchorage, KY
21. St. Thomas School, Ft. Thomas, KY
22. Fenton High School, Bensenville, IL
23. St. Aloysius School, Pewee Valley, KY
24. St. James Catholic Regional School, Elizabethtown, KY
25. St. Joseph School, Crescent Springs, KY
26. Holy Name School, Henderson, KY
27. St. Albert the Great School, Louisville, KY
28. Harry S. Truman High School, Taylor, MI
29. Villa Madonna Academy, Villa Hills, KY
30. DuPont Manual High School, Louisville, KY
31. Barbourville Middle School, Barbourville, KY
32. Nandua High School, Nandua, VA
33. Hazard High School, Hazard, KY
34. Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, GA
35. Crosby Middle School, Louisville, KY
36. Campbell County Middle School, Alexandria, KY
37. Victor Central School, Victor, NY
38. West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA
39. Westhill High School, Stamford, CT
40. Bluegrass Middle School, Elizabethtown, KY
41. Monticello High School, Charlottesville, VA
42. C.D. Hylton High School, Woodbridge, VA
43. Manheim Township High School, Lancaster, PA
44. Gallatin County High School, Warsaw, KY
45. Lutheran High School of St. Charles County, St. Peters, MO
46. Glasgow High School, Glasgow, KY
47. Skyview High School, Billings, MT
48. Hunter College High School, New York, NY
49. Metcalfe County Middle School, Edmonton, KY
50. Morton Middle School, Lexington, KY
51. Valley High School, Valley, AL
52. Monsignor Donovan High School, Toms River, NJ
53. High Technology High School, Lincroft, NJ
54. Everett High School, Everett, MA
55. St. Albans High School, St. Albans, WV
56. Preston High School, New York, NY
57. Kings Park High School, Kings Park, NY
58. Wellston High School, Wellston, OH
59. Olmsted Falls High School, Olmsted Falls, OH
60. Powell County Middle School, Stanton, KY
61. Ware County High School, Waycross, GA
62. Rock Bridge High School, Columbia, MO
63. St. Martinville High School, St. Martinville, LA
64. College View Middle School, Owensboro, KY
65. Chattahoochee High School, Johns Creek, GA
66. Douglas S. Freeman High School, Henrico, VA
67. Delaware Valley High School, Milford, PA

[janinesimard]

Everett High School is interested in grant ID # 046001386

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Rock Bridge should have registered for this.

[sherrie8168]

St. Martinville Senior High School
St. Martinville, LA 70582
ID # 726001274

THANKS !!!

User was reminded to enable a signature --Mgmt.

[Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill]

Maaan, if only I had thought of telling someone at KP to spread the word about this. There are at least three schools on LI I can think of which would really benefit from this.

[Great Bustard]

I am delighted to announce that Mike Bentley and his Microsoft colleague Alejandro have also each stepped forward to provide an additional $125 which is being matched by Microsoft for a total of two additional grants. Thus 14 schools will be selected tomorrow. The only caveat is that Mike's and Alejandro's grants cannot be used by teams for PACE NSC (but they can be used for NHBB registration). We'll match up who gets granted from which source once we do the drawing and find out where the winners' interests lie.

[Great Bustard]

Grants are now closed. We'll pick the winners at lunch tomorrow (er, today, as usual, sigh...) at Hunter. This is enlightening:

Grant Applicants By State
1. Kentucky 28
2. Virginia 8
3. New York 6
4. New Jersey 4
4. Ohio 4
4. Tennessee 4
7. Georgia 3
7. South Carolina 3
7. West Virginia 3
10. Illinois 2
10. Michigan 2
10. Missouri 2
13. Alabama 1
13. Connecticut 1
13. Delaware 1
13. Florida 1
13. Louisiana 1
13. Massachusetts 1
13. Maryland 1
13. Montana 1
13. North Carolina 1
13. Pennsylvania 1
13. Washington (state) 1

Couple Observations:
1. 80 teams have earned the right not to complain about the cost of quiz bowl tournaments.
2. 80 teams decided it was a good investment to spend about 10 minutes finding out their school's non-profit number and writing me an email for a better than 1 in 6 chance of $250. That works out (conservatively) to $42 per team, or extrapolated over an hour, $252 an hour. Will all the other quiz bowl coaches and players who make $252 an hour please email me so I can invite you to contribute to the next round of donations?
3. Say what you will about KAAC and the complicated relationship between Kentucky quick recall and pyramidal quiz bowl. There is no other reason for the above numbers beyond the existence of KAAC. Period. Would that all states have an organization like that that serves its students that well. Give me 6-7 years and New Jersey and New Mexico will. Give me 20 years and the entire USA will. Give me my lifetime and the world will.
4. Good luck to all schools who entered! I will post the winners here when I return in the snow from Hunter (Brueghel, anyone?).

[mithokie]

Dave,

Thanks for doing this. I wish we could have applied, but all grant applications in our district have to be approved by our school board before we can apply (silly bureaucratic rule, but it is the rule nonetheless) and the short lead time did not give us the opportunity to apply due the timing of school board meetings in relation to the announcement. If you decide to do this again, some additional lead time would be helpful in dealing with the red tape on our end. Thanks again for all you are doing to improve quizbowl.

[deviziak]

Delaware Valley High School, Milford, PA would like to be included. Thanks!

[kemcclain]

Have I missed the postings of the schools winning the grants? I assume they will be posted on this page. What a generous gift to many!

Thanks. K. McClain- MI

[Great Bustard]

Hi Everyone,
How fitting that on the day when Ridgewood competed in its first mACF format, the village of Ridgewood was also out of power (sorry, couldn't resist). It finally came back on half an hour ago, so now I am pleased to announce the winners of the 14 grants of $250 for quizbowl teams throughout the USA. The draw was conducted during the lunch break by Mike Zinsmeister of Seton Hall Prep. Jon Pinyan of Bergen Academies certified the list of winners.

Here are the lucky 14:
1. J.R. Tucker High School, Richmond, VA
2. George Washington Middle School, Ridgewood, NJ
3. Johnston City High School, Johnston City, IL
4. Bridgeport High School, Bridgeport, WV
5. Daviess County Middle School, Owensboro, KY
6. Rucker-Stewart Middle School, Gallatin, TN
7. West Branch High School, Beloit, OH
8. Nitro High School, Nitro, WV
9. L.E. Gable Middle School, Roebuck, SC
10. Shelby County Middle School, Shelbyville, KY
11. Charter School of Wilmington, Wilmington, DE
12. North Babylon High School, North Babylon, NY
13. Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville, MD
14. Adair County High School, Columbia, KY

Now the good news for everyone: There will be a second chance drawing later this year, and for those schools who need a little bit more lead time to process a grant application, I will make sure that about a month's advance notice is given. The second chance drawing will not be open to those who won this time, but for everyone who applied, you do not need to contact me to register again. I will be in touch with the winning teams shortly. Congratulations to those who won, and thanks to all those who applied!

[Great Bustard]

Quick note - I will keep the list of teams current with those who contacted me after the deadline and will remove the schools who won. However, please don't email me regarding applying for the second chance drawing until details are announced in early 2012.

[kdeguire]

David,
Sonoraville High School would like to register for the Second Chance drawing. Do I send you the application directly or attach it to the post?

Thanks,

[Great Bustard]

Hi Kelli,
I'll add your school, but please, no additional requests from any school until January. Also, I've decided that at some level, the next round of grants will have a matching component. That is, winning schools will need to raise some money (probably, like, $300-$400) and then they'll get a matching grant for that much once they can show me credible proof they've taken some initiative to raise money. Winning schools will also need to sign a pledge saying they will establish an alumni page on Facebook that can be used to prod alumni for donations. Again, very simple steps that are likely to work wonders.

[Great Bustard]

Just an update:
As promised, here are what the winning schools intend on spending their grants on. I'll start processing the grants on Monday once I'm done with the NJ-GA-NJ-TX-NM-TX-NJ-NY-NJ-MA-NJ travel schedule, which I'm doing in the span of 8 days right now.
1. J.R. Tucker High School, Richmond, VA - A tournament entrance fee in December; using the rest towards the purchase of a new buzzer system
2. George Washington Middle School, Ridgewood, NJ - First ever buzzer system
3. Johnston City High School, Johnston City, IL - Tournament entry fees and travel costs, and new study materials for our team
4. Bridgeport High School, Bridgeport, WV - Buying an extra set of buzzers so that the middle school which feeds into my quiz bowl team can have a set of working buzzers
5. Daviess County Middle School, Owensboro, KY - Traveling to the state competition
6. Rucker-Stewart Middle School, Gallatin, TN - Toward a new buzzer system
7. West Branch High School, Beloit, OH - A new buzzer system
8. Nitro High School, Nitro, WV - For entrance into tournaments and to help us run our own tournament if it is needed for that
9. L.E. Gable Middle School, Roebuck, SC - To purchase a new buzzer system and some practice materials for our team
10. Shelby County Middle School, Shelbyville, KY - We will use the winnings to begin our resource library
11. Charter School of Wilmington, Wilmington, DE - Either travel for or hotel for HSNCT
12. North Babylon High School, North Babylon, NY - Quizbowl entry fees
13. Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville, MD - New buzzer system
14. Adair County High School, Columbia, KY - Entries in Governor's Cup