Growing Together
Planting Our Futurea Growing Together program
Program overview

Pilot cohort application

Apply to become a Planting Our Future grantee and send home free fruit trees with your students this winter.

This application is for educators and organizations that are interested in joining our pilot cohort. The application should take about 10 minutes and doubles as a walkthrough of our timeline and process.

Applications are due Friday, October 2.

  1. About you
  2. Process
  3. Tree funding
  4. Agreement

Step 1 of 4

About you

The point person is who we plan with. They run distribution day and the family follow-up, and they are the contact for the tree grant. Pick the person who will actually be there on tree distribution day.

Schools: your own name is fine. Organizations: name the school partners you'd run it through.

Step 2 of 4

Process

We set your family distribution day first and work backward from there. Every pilot program has the same phases, but the spacing and timing are decided with each partner.

A typical Planting Our Future season, week by week Onboarding in week zero, student education in weeks one to three with an optional campus demo at the end, family outreach in weeks one to four, the cutoff and tree order in week four to five, tree distribution day in week five, and follow-up from week five onward. Week 0Week 2Week 4Week 6Week 8 Onboarding & operations plan Student education Family outreach Cutoff, then the tree order Tree distribution day Follow-up + optional campus demo
The weeks shown are typical. We set your distribution day first and work backward with you.

  1. Onboarding and an operations plan

    A kickoff meeting where we pick your distribution day and confirm your classes. We also start looking at tree suppliers early, because lead times vary.

  2. Student education, about two weeks

    One or two lessons per class, for one to three classes. An optional one-day campus planting demo can close out the lessons. It needs permissions and prep, so we plan it from lesson one.

  3. Family outreach, about three weeks

    Starts as the lessons begin. The sign-up form goes out through the school's own family channel, and the sign-up count at the cutoff date becomes your tree order.

  4. Tree order and distribution day

    A short break after the cutoff while the trees come in, then tree distribution day at your school.

  5. Follow-up

    Texts and calls after distribution day: is the tree in the ground yet, and can we see a photo? This is the part our survival rates rest on.

A rough answer is fine. We finalize at kickoff.

Bare-root fruit trees plant best in winter. We set the exact date together at kickoff.

Step 3 of 4

Tree funding

Need-based grants cover the trees for up to the first 25 households in your participating classes, so a class never has to cap sign-ups at a hard number. You source the trees locally, and we help you find a good supplier.

Step 4 of 4

Agreement

Our plan is to work with each of our pilot partners to produce a program that works for their communities. In return, we ask for a few commitments from our cohort members.

We read every application ourselves and reply by Monday, October 5.