Outstanding Student Initiatives grants range in amount from $1,500 to $7,500. They are awarded to student leaders who seek to create an innovative, interactive, and experiential approach to Jewish life on campus. The grants are for long-term initiatives, campaigns, or projects that reach a broad range of students, focus on follow-through, have a strong Jewish connection, and produce a high level of impact on campus.
These grants are designed to fund first-time, start-up, and particularly unique Jewish offerings targeted at involving as many students as possible.
Repeat projects that have been changed, improved, or re-designed are not prioritized for Outstanding Student Initiatives Grants.
Hillel professionals are also eligible to apply for an Outstanding Student Initiatives grant. It is recommended that Hillel professonals collaborate with students on OSI grant applications, enhancing and refining ideas in order to achieve the greatest impact.
Outstanding Student Initiatives Criteria
Grant proposals must address the following four criteria to be eligible for Outstanding Student Initiatives funding.
- Follow-through
- Initiatives must include a detailed plan for follow-through designed to connect with students on an ongoing basis. You should anticipate how you plan to build relationships with the people impacted by the initiative and what their interests are. In order to follow-up with participants it is important that you create and demonstrate a strategy for name collection, relationship building (Facebook, etc.) and gathering participants' interests, contact information, etc. This plan should also facilitate ways for follow-through to impact campus culture or significantly enhance Jewish life.
- Proposals should include a compelling vision and/or strategy for achieving the long-term goals of the initiative, including how follow-through helps achieve these objectives.
- Proposals should include anticipated ways for students to continue their involvement either with the initiative directly or connecting to other areas of Jewish life.
- Broad student reach
- Initiatives must reach and impact a significant number of students; targeted experiences can be focused on a smaller number of student activists in order to accomplish broader objectives.
- Initiatives will be considered for funding according to the following scale based on the number of students impacted*:
- 100 - 200 students: $1500
- 200 - 500 students: $3000
- 500 - 800 students: $5000
- 800+ students: $7500
*Your application should indicate primary ways students will be impacted as well as
student populations targeted for impact. For example, a campaign designed to shape
perspectives of the editors of major campus newspapers might impact the entire
readership of those campus publications.
- Interactive and experiential
- Initiatives must bring students together as active participants in accumulating knowledge, skills, thoughts, feelings, memories or relationships.
- Artists, speakers, educators, musicians, performances, and presentations must only be included in order to advance the interactive and experiential components.
- Food cannot be a primary expense of funded initiatives and should not represent more than ¼ of the total funding requested.
- Jewish life - Initiatives must significantly impact campus culture, demonstrating the relevance of the following Jewish values in students' lives:
- All initiatives must exhibit:
- A pluralistic, welcoming, and inclusive environment
- Student growth and the balance in being distinctively Jewish and universally human
- Initiatives must advance at least one of the following in a Jewish context:
- Social Justice: Engaging in acts of loving-kindness or repairing the world, and encouraging creative & strategic action in addressing social issues.
- Jewish Learning: Celebrating Jewish life and heritage through experiencing and learning rituals, prayers, texts, life-cycle events, or Jewish holidays.
- Spirituality: Experiencing awe, wonder, and amazement in that which is greater than ourselves through the exploration of faith, belief, and life's 'big' questions.
- Israel: Exploring educational, cultural, or political aspects of Israel or advocating for Israel as the Jewish and democratic state within secure and recognized borders and as a member of the family of free nations.
- Jewish Peoplehood: Connecting Jews across time and space with a familial bond based on the shared heritage, memory, history, language, and culture of Jewish civilization.
No funding will be awarded for:
- Stand alone programs such as concerts, speakers, parties, etc.
- Initiatives without clearly articulated goals; initiatives without strategies for measuring follow-through with students and goal attainment
- A string of unrelated offerings; elements of an initiative must share the same vision and objectives
- Alcohol
- Fundraisers
- Promotional items
- Pre-packaged offerings
- Retro-active request
- Any initiative which begins within two months of the last day of classes for the spring semester / quarter
Maximum Grants
Initiatives will be considered for funding according to the following scale based on the number of students impacted:
- 800+ students: $7500
- 500 - 800 students: $5000
- 200 - 500 students: $3000
- 100 - 200 students: $1500
Deadlines
Grants will be reviewed on a rolling basis through May 2009. Grants are reviewed by committee. Applications must be submitted at least 30 days in advance of the initiative. Initiatives will not be funded retro-actively. Applicants will be notified of funding determinations via email within 30 days.
Publicity
All flyers, newspaper articles, brochures, and other publicity must visibly state: To find funding for your outstanding initiatives, visit www.campusinitiative.org.
Applying for a Grant
Applications for this grant are accepted on-line. You do not have to fill out the application all at once (you will be able to save in process and return), however we still recommend that you look at a sample blank application before filling it out to make sure you have all the necessary information.
Apply Now
Questions? Contact:
grants@hillel.org