I hope you get several replys from others who have a succesful grant program in their PTO, but I'll play devil's advocate here. I've never felt comfortable with the notion of parents granting money to the teachers. Specifically, how can we parents presume to know which requests have merit and should get our PTO money...and which are frivolous, or extreme or for some reason not worthy of the PTO's support? Sure, we're parents - involved ones at that -but we're not professional educators. I cringe at the image of a meeting of the PTO's grant committee debating the various grant requests. What basis would the committee use? How could the parents measure the value of each request? Can we be certain committee members wouldn't favor their own teachers?

We have a great relationship with our principal - who happens to the boss of the teachers. We defer to him on special requests for our surplus money. If HE believes a program has merit and HIS budget can't fund it, he might come to the PTO for support. But if he doesn't deem the proposed program to be worthy, we'd never even hear of it. That way, HE's the bad guy, not the parents. As the boss of the school, that's part of his job description.

Our PTO is very lucky to have year end profits that we can spend on non-budgeted items. Last year we purchased new items that are used by the entire student body as well as all faculty/staff members and pto members.
Last year some of our teachers made a request for PTO to purchase them some supplimental teaching materials. We offered to help them with fundraising but because the materials were not for all grade levels, we felt that we could not purchase them.
This year we have be asked to consider purchasing a rather large ticket ($) item for one particular grade level. Our school is PK - 6. After speaking with the executive board, I have learned that we have different opinions. The vast majority of us as parents believe that the purchase is needed but as board members we feel that we cannot purchase an item for one grade level and leave the other 7 with nothing.
I suggested that we develop a "Teacher Grant". This "Grant" would allow all teachers to make their request. All request would be reviewed by a committee. I suggest creating 3 or 4 grants for x amount of dollars each. The funds would not be paid directly to the teacher but rather to an educational vendor. The "Grant" would have to be for educational resources and materials. And all enteries must be recieved by a set deadline.
Has anyone ever done anything like this? Or could some else make a suggestion?