It’s that time of year again! Our first official invitation emails went out yesterday , signaling that registration for the 18th National Forum on Character Education is now open! (If you haven’t received yours yet, let us know and we’ll make sure you’re in our system.)

We’ve already begun to hear about excited attendees and speakers who are low on funds for the conference. It certainly is a great expense, when you add up the registration fees, hotel costs, flights, and any other expenses that come to mind. We know what it’s like, being a nonprofit ourselves in these challenging time. Know that we are constantly working to find funding opportunities for you. Our Director of Resource Development is as we speak trying to secure funds we can reserve for scholarship money for our wonderful attendees out there, and we will be sure to let you know as soon as funds do become available throughout this registration cycle.

In the meantime, what options are out there for finding funding on your own? Many schools have pulled travel and conference funding as budgets are being slashed across the nation. One of our breakout session speakers initially applied after confirming that funds were available to travel, but has since heard that none of those funds will actually be available. So it becomes vitally important to explore all possible options to find other sources.

Here are some ideas that can help get that process started, many of which have been successful endeavors by previous conference attendees. Continue reading →