National Student Civic Engagement Week Grants

Posted by on November 15, 2002

Pennsylvania Campus Compact
with support from
The Pew Charitable Trusts and National Campus Compact

National Student Civic Engagement Week
February 16-22, 2003

Request for Proposals

Proposal Submission Deadline: November 22, 2002, 4:00 p.m.

To assist campuses in developing and implementing activities that highlight civic engagement during National Student Civic Engagement Week, February 16-22, 2003, Pennsylvania Campus Compact (PACC) is offering mini-grants of $1,500 to its member institutions to fund capacity-building civic engagement activities during National Student Civic Engagement Week. (For more information on the campaign, visit http://www.compact.org/scec).

Guidelines:

? Part of the proposed activities should include dialogues that bring students together to better understand civic issues. (For a dialogue resource guide, visit http://www.compact.org/scec/dialogues).

? Activities should be part of on-going work towards understanding and/or addressing issues on the campus or in the community (including special community service activities or a series of guest speakers addressing issues emerging from civic dialogues, for example). Activities can include events that are of a civic nature that have previously existed on campus and now will be a part of the campus? Civic Engagement Week. Activities must take place during Civic Engagement Week, February 16-22, 2003.

? Planned activities should be inclusive of diverse students, with particular attention paid to ensuring political diversity among participants.

? Proposals should outline a strategy for drawing into activities students who are not currently engaged.

? Proposals should demonstrate a commitment to working with Pennsylvania Campus Compact, National Campus Compact and their agents to get optimal media coverage for events. All promotional materials for activities should acknowledge Campus Compact as a funder of the event with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

? Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate that they can use grant funds to leverage additional resources from their campus.

? Proposed activities should indicate how they will involve at least 100-150 students on the campus. The number of students included in the proposed activities and the expected leverage for future student civic engagement will be factors in the grant-award selection process.

? Each proposal must include a project evaluation component.

? Only one proposal per campus will be accepted.

Funding Parameters:

? No more than $1,500 is available to each campus. Funding will be on a reimbursement basis, following submission to PACC of a complete financial report for the event based upon the approved project budget. Financial reports must be received by PACC by March 31, 2003. Reimbursement will not exceed the amount approved in the project budget.

? Campuses with successful mini-grant applications will provide PACC with a final project report by March 31, 2003, that will include the following information: 1) Number of volunteers recruited to help organize the National Student Civic Engagement Week event; 2) number of student participants in the National Student Civic Engagement Week activities; 3) number of hours of volunteer service provided in support of the National Student Civic Engagement Week; 4) value of any in-kind donations obtained for National Student Civic Engagement Week; 5) amount of cash donations (exclusive of PACC mini-grant funding) obtained in support of National Student Civic Engagement Week, and; 6) summary of the results of the project evaluation.

? To receive funding for an event during National Student Civic Engagement Week, applicant campuses must be a member of Pennsylvania Campus Compact for the 2002-03 academic year.

? Funds cannot be used for personnel or equipment costs.

Required Proposal Elements:

? Section One: Cover page (copy attached). Include contact information (name, title, department, mailing address, phone, fax, and email) of the main campus representative (person who will be lead liaison to PACC for this mini-grant).

? Section Two: A 2-3 page description of planned activities for National Student Civic Engagement Week, including plans for leveraging student participation in future activities, project evaluation, anticipated capacity-building benefit to campus civic engagement movement, and how those activities comply with guidelines described above.

? Section Three: Attach a one-page line item budget (please see attached sample budget) with a narrative describing how the funds (no more than $1,500) will be spent. Indicate any matching funds (not required) where applicable.

PACC must receive proposals by November 22, 2002, at 4:00 p.m. Successful applicants will be notified by December 9, 2002. Send original proposal and one copy to:

Pennsylvania Campus Compact
800 North Third Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102

(717) 232-4446