Nike's Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program awards $1 million annually to teachers in travel grants for minority students. Applicants must be middle school or high school teachers in schools where more than half of the students receive free school lunches.
Applicants propose a field trip, which must meet a specific student need and innovate a solution to the problem. For example, high school juniors and seniors may visit a small business development center, a college or university or a natural resources office to learn about the ecosystem and endangered animals. The grants pay for transportation.
Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA) travel grants for minority students support youth social, cultural and educational travel. The SYTA foundation awards Road Scholarships and National Youth Day Out Grants.
Road Scholarships are for individual students who cannot afford to go on field trips with their school, team or civic organization. The National Youth Day Out program is for middle school classes. It pays for a middle school class to go on a local field trip for one day. Twelve Youth Day Out grants are awarded each year. The Road Scholarship averages $600, but $1,000 is possible. Applications are accepted in August, November and March.
Since 2007, Target Corp. has awarded $9.76 million in field trip grants to 1.2 million students. These grants may be used to supplement arts, math, science and social studies curriculums. Each Target store awards three $700 field trip grants annually to K-12 educators to offset field trip expenses. Target creates banners and posters of the field trip destination for each grant recipient, as well as artistic email messages or letters, to publicize the field trip.