Each electric cooperative is an independent, member-owned organization that supports its local community through a variety of education programs including but not limited to the Bright Ideas education grant program. Because there are 26 electric cooperatives throughout North Carolina, there are some differences in how each cooperative administers its program (including varying grant amounts). Please contact your sponsoring cooperative for more information.
Click here to find your sponsoring electric cooperative.

Grant winners will be notified during the months of November and December.

In most cases, a panel of judges reviews applications and ranks them based on creativity and benefit to students. Because the evaluation process is competitive, partial funding may be awarded to allow more students to benefit from this program. Please contact your sponsoring cooperative for more details on its specific judging process as they do vary.
Click here to find your sponsoring electric cooperative.

This problem is caused by having double quotes in the copied text. Word processing programs like MS Word contain “smart quotes,” which do not format correctly when cut and pasted into the application. This will cause the quotes to appear as foreign characters/symbols. Although this only shows up when the report is printed, the applications are printed during the judging process. It is important that the text is not distorted so the judges can read the applications clearly.

The decision to fund grants for private schools is up to the sponsoring cooperative’s discretion. Contact your local electric cooperative to find out if private schools in your area are eligible to receive funding through the Bright Ideas program.

There may be one of two problems causing your application to not print correctly.

1. You cannot print the application page by page. Printing page by page will cause any words that are wrapped, or are wider than the display box to not show up. After you save your budget, a page will appear that will give you option buttons for “printing” and “submitting” your application. This print button will display the application in a report format.
2. In order for the report to print as displayed, you must use the print button located on the gray toolbar directly above the Bright Ideas logo. If you accidentally use the print function on the browser toolbar, or choose File then Print, you will get a printed page of gray boxes.

Yes. After you begin an application, all data entered on the page will be saved when you click the “Continue” button. Be sure to finish the page you are working on and press “Continue” before you leave the computer or log off. The next time you log in, you can continue where you left off.

Should a winning teacher leave a school, the supplies and/or equipment purchased with a Bright Ideas grant are property of the school. Since Bright Ideas grants are awarded based on need and number of students benefitted, items bought with grant funding must be left at the school from which the grant originated.