Professional Development Grant

Purpose

The Massachusetts Speech & Debate League (MSDL) has approved the expenditure of up to $1,500 to be used during the 2025-2026 school year for the purpose of making grants to coaches who would like to pursue professional development and/or activities which benefit the MSDL Speech and Debate community as a whole.

Our goal is to support professional development, especially for new or less experienced coaches. We seek to encourage creative thinking about how to improve the MSDL, expand participation, and to offer support to those endeavors. Possible uses for these grants might include (but are not restricted to) assisting with expenses related to registration for coaching workshops or speech & debate conferences, tuition for online or in-person classes in coaching or team management, fees for guest speakers or mentors to present at an MSDL member school, etc. 

Eligibility:

• Applicants must be affiliated with a team currently in good standing, which means the team's signed Participation Agreement & Dues have been submitted and recorded for the current year.

• Applicants must be either (a) the faculty or adult head coach of their team or (b) approved by the adult head coach of their team.

• Applicants must be high school graduates or older.

Process:

• Applications for the 2025-26 school year, including the summer of 2026, may be submitted electronically at any time. 

• The subcommittee will review applications at two times:

  1st deadline: January 6, 2026
2nd deadline: April 11, 2026 

• Applicants may request funding in any amount up to $500 with the understanding that there may not be money left after the January 6, 2026 deadline.

• Applications are reviewed by a subcommittee of the MSDL Board, which makes recommendations to the full MSDL Board for approval.

• The Board reserves the right to partially fund an application, dependent on the application itself or in the instance of multiple worthy applications.

• Grant recipients will be asked to submit documentation of their completed program, either in writing or in a presentation to the board as appropriate.