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Stories change hearts. Skills change lives.

Free mental health education for your school

Impactful Fund supports free access to film-powered, evidence-based mental health education for schools and youth-serving organizations. The program is the Creative Coping Toolkit. You pay nothing — donors cover the cost.

We have been doing this since 2011. Nearly 8,000 schools across California, Hawaii, Illinois and Washington have had access this way.

Apply

What you get

Access to one Creative Coping Toolkit program, chosen by you to fit your community:

  • Films built on real stories, not lecture videos
  • Age-appropriate brain science on anxiety, loneliness, bullying, social media and belonging
  • Guided conversations and practical activities, ready to use
  • Resources for families, so the conversation continues at home

You get one program, not the whole toolkit — the one that matches what your young people are facing. Schools often come back for another.

A month or a year?

Both give you one program. The difference is how much room you have to use it.

  • One month

    A concentrated run. Young people see the film, have the conversations, keep talking in class afterwards, and work through the activities. Everything happens in a focused window — often the easier thing to protect in a school calendar.

  • A full year

    The same program with room to breathe. Use it in assemblies, clubs and PE as well as the classroom, and weave it into math, science and English. There is time to bring families in properly, and educators get training and support.

Tell us which fits you on the form. If you are not sure, say that too.

Who can apply

Any public K–12 school, school district, or youth-serving organization in the United States can apply. There is no cost to apply, and no cost to you if funded.

If your school has had a program from us before, you are welcome to apply again for a different one.

How we prioritize

Funding is limited and demand is greater than what we can cover, so we direct it where the need is greatest. Priority goes to schools and organizations that meet one or more of the following:

  • Title I schoolwide programs
  • Schools where 40% or more of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
  • Rural schools, as designated by the National Center for Education Statistics
  • Tribal schools and Bureau of Indian Education schools
  • Schools in a federally designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area — communities with too few mental health providers for the population
  • Organizations serving young people in those same communities
  • Schools and organizations that have not previously had access to the Creative Coping Toolkit

If none of these describe you, apply anyway and tell us about your situation. We look at every application. Need does not always show up in a federal category.

How decisions get made

Awards are based on funding availability, demonstrated need, and the order in which requests are received. We fund as donations allow.

Applying does not guarantee funding. You stay on the School Access Fund list until funded, and we will tell you where things stand rather than leave you wondering.

If you have some budget

If you have some budget but not enough, say so. We accept partially funded applications and can cover the gap. It means your money goes further and more schools get started.

One thing we ask in return

Before you start and again at the end, one person rates how things stand — whether young people here feel they belong, whether staff share a language for this, whether families are part of the conversation. Twelve questions, under five minutes, answered as a group and recorded by one person.

The toolkit itself also collects impact data as it is used, under COPPA, CIPA and FERPA. We do not collect personal information about any young person.

It is how we learn what is working, keep improving the program, and in time tailor it to what different communities actually need. It is part of the deal, and we would rather you know now than find out later.

How it works

  1. You apply. The form takes about ten minutes.
  2. We confirm eligibility, usually from public data, so you are not chasing paperwork.
  3. You join the School Access Fund list.
  4. When you are funded, we tell you and set it up.

Apply at least one term ahead of when you would like to start.

Apply

A real person reads every one of these. We may come back with a question or two — that is us trying to get you funded, not screening you out.

The application form opens shortly. In the meantime, write to us and we will send it to you as soon as it is ready. info@impactfulfund.org

Questions before you apply? Write to us — we would rather talk it through than have you guess.