This FAQ provides answers to the most commonly asked questions about the Be Healthy School Grants. If you have questions not covered here, please email us.
The application will ask for demographic information about your school. You will also be asked to link you grant idea to at least one of the National Health or Physical Education Standards. The standards are listed on the application. We also ask that you provide as much detail as possible when describing what you plan to do with the money and how it will impact your students, school and community.
We will not award a school more than $10,000. If your project exceeds that amount, please provide the details of your additional funding. The additional funding must already be secured. We will not consider becoming part of a larger project if you do not already have the other funding secured.
Example: If you are applying for a playground that costs $50,000 and we are your first source of funding, then we cannot consider your request. We will only consider a request for a project larger than $10,000 if you already have funding partners in place.
Example: If you are applying for a playground that costs $50,000 and we are your first source of funding, then we cannot consider your request. We will only consider a request for a project larger than $10,000 if you already have funding partners in place.
No, the funds stay with the school. You are applying for the grant on behalf of the children represented at your current school. Grants are made to schools and not individuals.
We cannot consider projects such as mulch or erosion materials for outdoor spaces. We also cannot consider projects such as fencing for outdoor spaces. We cannot link those back to physical education, even if they are part of an outdoor physical education space. We can consider prep work for outdoor spaces such as tracks or playgrounds if the additional funding has already been secured.
We love projects that benefit the entire community. Examples of those might be walking tracks/trails, or school gardens. If considering a project like a garden, please explain how you will continue to maintain the project once our funding runs out. Please keep in mind the grant area created must be on school property and the primary usage must be for the students of the school.
You may be receiving that message for two reasons. First, another school in your system may already have an account and is using the same tax id number. Second, it is possible your school has an old account that you are not aware of. We can easily search our system to determine the status of your account. All inquire should be sent to Heidi Ramey at hramey@bcbsal.org or 205-220-6881.
If your school already has a grant account in our system, please check the account details before submitting your request. Our system does not update the main account details every time the school applies for a new grant. Please make sure all details are up to date. Example: Address, phone number, email address, principal name, primary account contact, etc. These details can change from year to year.
You cannot apply for athletic equipment to benefit a sports team. Example: You may purchase volleyball equipment to use for a unit on volleyball in your general physical education class. You may not purchase equipment, uniforms, etc. for the school volleyball team.
If you are awarded a Be Healthy School Grant, we will contact your school book keeper to obtain all the information needed to make sure the school is paid the entire grant amount in a timely manner. In most cases payment will happen in August or September. We ask that all the funds be spent by December unless you have communicated the need for an extension to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.
We will request follow up information through the entire grant implementation process and school year. We may request to visit your school at some point during the year to see your grant in practice. We love to see pictures and video of the children enjoying the materials purchased with the grant funds.
For more grant and application questions, please visit our Funding Guidelines and Sample Grant Application links located on the Be Healthy Grant Homepage.