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Are you ready for a grant?

I can help

I specialize in grants for charter schools. I can help you find the funding you need to help your students thrive.

I work with school leaders and teachers who want to support their students with new programs and resources. I can help you find funding for new or established charter schools and the nonprofits that support them.

Anyone can write a grant. I'm different because I understand the unique funding and leadership challenges of charter schools. I strive to become a valuable resource to you for finding, writing, and managing grants for your school.

How can I help you? Contact me or visit my Services page to learn more.

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News

Weld RE-4 Board of Education approves American Legacy Academy charter school application

June 21, 2022

Congratulations to American Legacy Academy!

The new charter school was approved to open in 2023. The school will operate two campuses when at full capacity: one in Severance and one in Windsor, Colorado.

I'm happy to report that I was on the team (with Academica Colorado) that submitted the successful charter school application to Weld RE-4.

About Peggy Downs

I am a grant writer and author who is deeply connected to the charter school movement. My consulting, training, and writing help individuals create and lead the schools they envision. My mission is to help 100 charter school leaders write successful grants in the next five years.

My background includes working in the charter school world since 1999, when I join a group of parents who were establishing the first K-12 charter school in Boulder County, Colorado. Over the next ten years, I taught at a variety of charter schools in Colorado while writing nationally recognized Core Knowledge units and presenting these units at four national conferences and several local events. After earning my master’s degree in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Charter School Leadership in 2009, I became the founding director of a charter school in Riverdale, Utah. I also served on the Board for the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools during this time. On returning to Colorado after five years in Utah, I became the director of a K-12 charter school in Aurora and led that school for three years. I served on the Board of Directors for another charter school in Centennial, Colorado during this time. Eventually, I retired from school administration and established my current business, Granting Your Vision, to support charter schools with grants and training.

Through Granting Your Vision, I’ve been able to connect with other consultants that serve charter schools, resulting in our co-authored book, Beyond Academics. I’ve worked with other consultants to develop charter school applications, grants, and training presentations. I developed the series, Grant Writing for School Leaders, and published Create Success with Classroom Grants and Grants Planning for Schools. More than 2500 copies of my books have been sold or downloaded, and several have held positions in the Top 10 on various Amazon Best Seller lists. I have participated in peer reviews of nearly 20 federal and state grants (CSP grants), and I’ve written more than 50 foundation grants for charter schools. I have given training presentations at the National Charter School Conference, where my session was rated in the Top 20, as well as at the Independent Charter School Symposium and Colorado Charter School Conference.

I have the unique honor of being involved in founding five different charter schools in two states, as a parent, teacher, director, board member, and consultant.

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