Educational Grants – Building A Stronger Floriculture Industry

Since 1961, American Floral Endowment has been funding educational programs to promote the floriculture industry. The majority of the programs are wide-reaching and focus on attracting young people to the industry or educational endeavors to identify and solve industry needs and/or challenges.

All requests are reviewed on an annual basis, with funding dependent on the amount of funds available. The deadline for submission is June 1^st.

Download the Educational Grant Application

• Special Education Grant Report:

Building the Capacity of the 21st Century Floriculture Industry:  Assessing Ways to Impact Student Career Choice and Enhance Post Secondary Education

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Other AFE Grants:

James and Helen Phillip Scholarship Grant - a grant given annually to institutions to provide tuition assistance to students training in retail floral design and operations.

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Current and Past Organizations who have received AFE Educational Grants:

Pi Alpha Xi

The American Floral Endowment has a long rich history of sponsoring this national design competition. The program is sponsored in cooperation with Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society for Floriculture, Landscape Horticulture, and Ornamental Horticulture. The National Intercollegiate Floriculture Floral Crop Evaluation and Design Competition Every April since 1937, university graduate horticultural students from across the U.S. have completed in the Pi Alpha Xi competition. The competition site is rotated annually. University teams participate in a crop evaluation contest by ranking the quality of 30 classes of cut and potted floral products. The floral design competition is comprised of both a novice and advanced students divisions in which their designs are evaluated and then scored by a team of floral designers.

Supporting the Future – FFA

In a continuing effort to bring a focus on floriculture. The American Floral Endowment sponsors several programs for students already interested in agriculture as identified by their involvement and membership in the FFA (Formerly Future Farmers of America).

Floriculture Career Development Event

The national career development events are educational activities organized by the National FFA Organization implemented through local chapters with local, regional and national competitions. Classroom instruction is emphasized when students use their skills in a competitive event sitting. As FFA members participate in events, they grow and develop solid technical and business skills earn rewards for their hard work, and prepare for their chosen profession. Event participants develop technical knowledge in agriculture, judgment, reasoning ability, self-confidence, goal settings and sportsmanship. Each event has been developed and is continually revised to test a student’s skills and knowledge in particular area of agriculture and leadership.

Booth At the FFA Convention

The hundreds of booth’s at the FFA are designed to attract the young students and inform them of the excitement and opportunities available in the many agricultural career fields. For many years, the Endowment has funded the floriculture booth sponsored by the Society of American Florists (SAF).

National Floriculture Forum

The National Floriculture Forum (NFF) is an educational meeting of university professors, students, government scientists and industry leaders with the objective of bringing together members of these communities for a three-day meeting to: 1) address issues of importance to the floriculture industry, 2) form collaborative relationships, and 3) learn from each other. Virtually any topic of significance can be the focus any one year. In the past, such topics have included improvement of federal research funding, identification or research needs, and (most recently) recruitment of students into floriculture careers. This meeting is the only one of its kind and it bringing more and more members of the floriculture community together each year.

SAF Pest Management Conference

At SAF’s annual Pest Management Conference, SAF grower members learn proven, leading techniques to help fight insects and disease. Networking with growers from varying background helps attendees create the best strategies to adapt to their business. The conference features a tabletop trade show of the latest Integrated Pest Management (IPM) products, technical information on disease and insect management tools and an update on American Floral Endowment research funding.