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Clean Air for Kids Program Frequently Asked Questions Q – What is the purpose of the Clean Air for Kids Program? Q – How do schools or day-care facilities apply for the grants? Q – Who can apply for funding, and does it have to be the entire school? Q – Why would parents and employers pledge or donate funding for these projects? Shouldn’t it be funding from the school board or taxes? Q – What types of uses are allowed for funds granted by the CAFKP? Q – Are there any items the CAFKP will not consider for funding? Q – What are the types of requirements included in the application packet? Q – Does children’s family income level impact the grant of funding? Q – Can the school students, staff or parents solicit funds from other foundations and donors to help speed up the funding process? Q - Where does the CAFKP get the funds they use to grant to applicants? Q – Are the donations to CAFKP tax deductible? Q – What percentage of the funds raised are used for internal costs, staff and fund-raising efforts? Q – How do you choose the board members? What if someone wants to volunteer their time? Q – Who makes up the current board for CAFKP? Q – What is the purpose of the Clean Air for Kids Program? A – The Clean Air for Kids Program (CAFKP) was established by its founders Stan Brannan and David Raehpour for the sole purpose of helping schools and daycares find the necessary funding to clean up indoor air quality in public and private school classrooms and day-care centers. The primary goal of the foundation is to reduce the levels of airborne allergen triggers commonly found in the air in classrooms and daycares by providing funding for the implementation of technologies proven to reduce the levels of airborne particulates, toxins, odors and other allery and Asthma triggers. Well documented trials and medical studies have proven a strong corrolation between the level of harmful triggers and airborne toxins and common health problems including allergies, Asthma and common childhood repeat upper and lower respiratory infections. These airborne particulates have also been proven to be transporters of contagious illnesses like colds, flu, whooping cough, H1N1, Bird Flu, pneumonia and gastroenteritis by providing an airborne transport of moisture droplets between contaminated people in the room and those who become contaminated by inhaling these virus or bacterial laden moisture droplets. These microscopic moisture droplets are created by breathing, talking, coughing and sneezing in a crowed classroom. These partilces are hitching a ride on larger dust particles floating in the air in the room. This is called particle droplet transmission in medical studies on contagious illnesses. Typical well-proven benefits of aggressive in-room air filtration include reducing the levels of airborne particulates, reductions of absenteeism for students and teachers, reduced spread of contagious illness, lower health costs, lower on school energy requirements or the improved learning which shows up as higher test scores on standardized achievement tests. In addition to providing the funding to pay for the purchase and installation of needed technology, the CAFK Program also provides for up to five years of service costs for cleaning the units and changing the disposable filters. Back to Top Q – How do schools or day-care facilities apply for the grants? A – The easiest way is to download the PDF application materials from the www.cafkf.org website. The application is designed to be as easy as possible, so that basic information can be gathered, the cost of the needed solutions can be calculated and the application and required information can be easily submitted. Applications can be submitted by email, mail or fax. Eventually the website will be upgraded to allow schools and daycares to apply for funding by submitting the information over this website. Back to Top Q – Who can apply for funding, and does it have to be the entire school? A – Anyone can fill out the application materials, a student, parent, teacher, administrator, school board member or volunteer. As long as the needed items are submitted, including the administrative approval form, the application can be accepted. You don’t have to ask for funding for the entire school, you can submit a request for just one room, or classroom, or a group of classrooms. The largest submission is for one school facility at one address. If there are 10 elementary schools in a school district, then all 10 must fill out their own applications. The main reason for this is the application requires a specific facility budget proposal, the income levels of the different schools in a single district vary widely from school to school and the goals of the CAFKP was to help those children who were least able to get funding from their own parents or their employers. Private, for profit day-care centers will be less likely to receive funding than a government sponsored, church sponsored or YMCA sponsored day-care facility. The initial focus of CAFKP will be to help children age 16 and under, but we recognize highschool aged young adults are dealing with much higher rates of asthma and allergies than ever before. Back to Top Q – Why would local parents and employers pledge or donate funding for these projects? Shouldn’t it be funding from the school board or taxes? A – Most school budgets are stretched thin already, and all new and old classrooms could have improved indoor air quality by installing filter technolocy. The high levels of allergens and particulates commonly found in the indoor air do not come from the building, they come into the classroom on the hair, clothes, shoes and skin of students and teachers everyday, and they include billions of skin cells that are shed by the children and teachers everyday in the room. The financial savings of cleaner healthier air offers a substantial Return on Investment or ROI. The payback comes in many forms and benefits many people including the health-care costs savings for families, teachers, school districts, insurance companies and Medicaid or CHIP insurance programs. Government studies have proven that saving just one ear infection in a child can save $400-500 for the parent's employer, and it may keep the employee from taking 2 days of personal leave to care for a sick child. The payback to the schools comes in the teachers’ healthcare costs, substitute teacher costs and reduce liability for health problems and bad PR from airborne particulates, sick building syndrome and mold. Waiting or the schools to budget for this will take years or decades. The damage done to growing children’s lungs and respiratory systems deserves faster solutions. The impact on daily health, alertness and ability to concentrate can make a huge improvement in a child’s ability to learn and make good grades. The side-effects of all the allergy drugs can hide some symptoms, but can also create drowsiness, attention problems and even angry, defiant behavior that is a downward spiral if student achievement, self esteem and confidence. Back to Top Q – What types of uses are allowed for funds granted by the CAFKP? A – The CAFKP has approved a variety of products and solutions that have been proven to reduce airborne allergens in the classroom or children’s facility. The CAFKP will issue grants to fund classroom air filtration systems, walk-off doorway dust mats and high-efficiency or HEPA vacuums with good particulate filtration. The CAFKP will also work to find funding for case studies of the benefits achieved from actual school-wide implementation of such devices to reduce particulates. Other companies with new proven technology can submit requests to have their products approved for possible funding from CAFKP if their products prove to be beneficial and cost effective in reducing airborne particulates in classrooms. CAFKP will consider paying for filter costs for changing out filters in air filtration systems. Back to Top Q – Are there any items the CAFKP will not consider for funding? A – Yes, the CAFKP will not fund any environment testing, mold removal, building renovation, construction or repairs. CAFKP will not fund any medicine, legal fees or products that add ions or ozone to the room. CAFKP will not provide funding for HVAC upgrades or the addition of high efficiency filtration systems on existing HVAC systems. The proven number of air changes per hour requires a technology that can provide more than 12 air changes per hour in the room. Most HVAC system provide less than 4 or 5 and typically only work during the heating or cooling function. The CAFKF funds cannot be used to pay for utilities costs to operate air filtration systems or high-efficiency filtration vacuums. Back to Top Q – What are the types of requirements included in the application packet? A- The application includes pre-printed forms, interactive website forms and instructions to complete the application. The website has automated tools to allow the application to get a cost proposal that calculates the amount of funds needed, and other required steps for the application to be accepted. The website also contains other useful educational materials, videos, presentations, sample applications, case studies, local contacts, other sources of funding and materials to help the applicants complete the necessary steps. The basic 5 steps needed for an application include the following items. Step 1 - Fill out the one page application giving contact information, facility address, county, affiliation with a school district or religious organization, number of students or children, number of rooms and other basic information. This application has the school website URL and some basic information about average income level of the students at the school or facility. This form will be posted on the website. Step 2 - Submit 2 to 5 letters, or short computer videos from students, teachers, principals, school nurses, parents or school board members that answer three basic questions. This can be done easily with a web-camera and a PC, or letters can be hand-written, type and signed and scanned for electronic submission. These will be posted with the application on the website and available to be viewed by the public.
Step 3 - They must submit a one page form from the school administrator that states if the funds are granted, the school will allow the installation and operation of the requested items. It also includes a general release of liability for CAFKP. This form is not posted on the CAFKP website. Step 4 - They must submit a detailed one-page excel spreadsheet budget for the items they plan to purchase. This is an automated spreadsheet available on the website that calculates the proposed costs. This may require the facility to get an estimate on the electrical installation costs to add ceiling fan wiring to the rooms. Many facilities will cover the electrical installation costs out of their own facility budgets, using existing facility maintenance staff. The total dollars requested are posted, the amount of funds raised locally are posted and percent of the total project funds requested is posted on the CAFKP website with their application. Step 5 - They are required to submit a one page report on the local fund-raising activities and efforts they went through to try to get the funding from the parents and their employers, and any fundraising efforts they did to raise the funds through a week-end car-wash or similar activity. Some fund-raising ideas are posted on the CAFKP website. This one page report is posted to help other schools see what fund-raising ideas worked and what didn’t? Step 6 Optional – Recipients of funds are requested to submit a short post-project report that can include a written report, pictures, letters or video testimonials from students, children, teachers, parents or administrators on how the implementation impacted their facility, health issues and anything else they deem appropriate. The goal of this report is to show donors, and future applicants what the impact of cleaning up air quality can really mean to the health and performance of children in these indoor environments. This is basically a Thank You Note to the donors who funded their project. Once the application is received, it is checked over and missing information will be requested by email. If all materials are acceptable, the application is time-stamped as being complete and posted on the CAFKP website. A volunteer technical board will work with the applicants to review their applications and make sure they are planning for the appropriate installation or implementation, have covered all necessary installation and electrical requirements and evaluated any unique problems with the proposed project. Back to Top A – The available funds are dispersed on a first-come basis to those schools whose application has been posted the longest. So it is important for schools to get their applications completed as soon as possible. Some funds from donors will be restricted to be used for a specified school, classroom, school system, county or state. Because of these donor directives for use of funds some schools may receive funding sooner if money is available from donors and designated in a way that provided funding to a restricted location for example. This means getting your application in sooner will give an applicant, school or classroom an advantage by getting in line sooner, in case funds designated for a state, city or county become available to fund their application. CAFKF will honor the “use of funds” specified by the donor. If an applicant has raised additional local funds since completing their application, CAFKP requires a signed letter stating that the funds being granted are still needed to complete the project. If the applicant can complete the project with less funding, because of additional local donations, they are required to reduce the amount of funds requested so more funds will be available for other applications. Back to Top Q – Does children’s family income level impact the grant of funding? A – Yes some consideration can be made by the CAFKP board if funds are limited. They may choose to give funds to schools in lower income, needy areas ahead of schools in higher income areas, where parents and employees should carry more of the burden to fund the schools’ needs. For-profit commercial child-care facilities are less likely to receive funding than those operated by non-profit, government, civic groups or religious affiliated operators. People who care for children in their home, for a fee, or less likely to receive funding. Back to Top Q – Can the school students, staff or parents solicit funds from other foundations and donors to help speed up the funding process? A – Yes, absolutely. The availability of information on the CAFKP website www.cafkf.org and the school’s application can be used to actively do your own fund-raising from area donors, health foundations and other private foundations. If these donors are moved by your local and personal requests, you can actually find more funds on your own to fund your project. This can dramatically speed up the implementation of the project and is highly recommended. There are sample letters and requests for funding on the CAFKP website you can use. The best fundraising is local fundraising, and we will help you in anyway to speed up the funding of your project. We hope the success stories you find on the CAFKP website are instrumental in helping your raise more, or even all, of the funds you need locally. Back to Top Q - Where does the CAFKP get the funds they use to grant to applicants? A – The Clean Air For Kids Program makes appeals to major corporations nationwide, and other large foundations to ask for funds. These funds can be donated with no restrictions, or can have substantial restrictions from the donor for the use of funds. For example they may specify a state, school district, county or religious affiliation for the dispersion of the funds they commit. They can make a one-time donation, a larger pledge with periodic amounts being made available, or they can make a large commitment that is drawn down when the funds are designated for specific applications. We also hope to get funding from state, local and federal government agencies with an interest in supporting the mission Clean Air for Kids Program's Mission. In some cases these funds may be directed to the school districts for uses that clean up indoor air quality. Part of the CAFKP mission is to help government funding agencies, state legislatures and local funding entities to understand the substantial immediate pay-back and benefits that can be achieved by cleaning up air quality in schools and day-care operations. The CAFKP will provide, for free, a set of framed proclamations to a facility who requests it, listing the basic information about the completed project and what donors funds helped pay for the project. This may include some company logos from corporate sponsors, when part of the funding wa received from these corporate sponsors. There is no mandatory requirement to request or display such a plaque, but it is an appropriate way to give recognition to the donors and sponsors of the project. Examples of these are available on the website. These wall placques are attractive and tasteful. Some corporate sponsors may also have their logos on material handed out to families to explan the air purifier technology. Back to Top Q – Are the donations to CAFKP tax deductible? A – The CAFKP asks donor to give a specific amount of money directly to a designated school. School do qualify as a non-profit charitable recipient for tax purposes and has required information about the school will be supplied to the donor foundation or corporation prior to requesting funds be sent. Back to Top Q – What percentage of the funds raised are used for internal costs, staff and fund-raising efforts? A – Donors will be giving 100% of the donation directly to a qualified school. No donoer funds will be used for operating the CAFK Program, for fundraising or other unrelated expenses. The funds given to the school will be the exact amount needed to purchase the technology, install it properly and maintain the technology for a period that is typically 5 years. The goal of the foundation is to seek funds from any source, including government grants at the state, local and federal level to help finance the mission of cleaning up the indoor air quality for children. Back to Top Q – How do you choose the board members? What if someone wants to volunteer their time? A – The CAFKP asks people who are influential to serve as board members for 1 or 2 year terms. The goal is to find board members who strongly support the mission of the Clean Air for Kids Program. They will have a very minimum amount of duties to approve the funding and disperse the donated funding. If someone feels they meet the qualifications and want to serve on the board, they should make this known to one of the current board members, or contact one of the founders at 800-860-8709. We want all the Volunteers and Friends of CAFKP we can get. We will list prominent people on the CAFKP website who are interested in fund-raising or helping applicants in each local market. We hope this list grows longer and longer, and can include teachers, students, mothers, PTA groups, PTO groups and anyone who sees this as a good community service cause that is worthy of the time and hard work. Every person who witnesses the health impact of reduced particulates in the classroom will become a strong supporter of this program. The teachers and students deserve help in solving this health problem. It is a very rewarding activity and interviewing the students and teachers after the project is completed will bring a tear to your eyes. They are paying a heavy price in their personal health for a problem that can be solved for a few hundred dollars. The second year costs may be as low as $6 to $8 per student per year, compared to an ear or respiratory infection that costs $300-500 each event and happens five to six times per year to children and teachers with chronic bronchitis. Back to Top Applications can be submitted by scanning them and attaching them to an email to apply@cafkf.org |
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