Thank you for your interest in our classroom grant program, and for the work you do every day to support and inspire students.

After much discussion, the board of Colibri Grants has made the difficult decision to wind down our grant program. This decision wasn’t made lightly, but is the result of two overlapping challenges.

First, the political climate around education has shifted significantly in recent years. When we created this program, our goal was to uplift classroom projects rooted in the values of diversity and inclusion — principles we believe are foundational to a strong and representative public education. Unfortunately, these values have increasingly become targets for political sportsmanship, and efforts that once centered students’ opportunity and development are now being dismantled or politicized, often at the intentional expense of the very communities they were meant to support. It’s deeply disheartening to watch educational equity become collateral damage in a broader cultural debate.

Second, the rapid rise of AI-generated content has had an unexpected impact on our grantmaking. While we understand and respect the role AI can play in easing administrative burdens, we’ve seen a sharp decline in the clarity, authenticity, and individuality of the applications we receive. In many cases, it’s become difficult to distinguish between genuine teacher requests and application content generated to maximize algorithmic appeal. Everyone on our board is volunteering their time, and asking them to spend hours reading through applications that don’t actually say anything is both unfair and unfulfilling.

Ultimately, we believe in funding people, not polished templates — and when we can no longer confidently tell the difference, we risk failing both.

We’re deeply grateful to the educators who’ve shared their stories with us over the years, and we hope to find new ways to support classrooms in the future that are as human-centered as the work you’re doing every day.