Diversity Grant Guidelines

The document below is copied from guidelines for a diversity grant currently available at BSU. I am placing it here on my blog for the benefit of diverse stakeholders (alumni and community members) who might have ideas relevant to the grant, but who cannot access the guidelines. I apologize for the weird formatting.

ALL members of the campus community are encouraged to submit applications to fund their diversity-related projects.

Apply Now! Applications for Fall 2013 projects are due October 4, 2013

Awards recipients for fiscal year 2013 projects have been selected.

Deadlines for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 projects
For projects occurring during Fall 2013:

• Deadline 1: April 19, 2013
• Deadline 2: October 4, 2013 (Maximum possible grant award is $10,000)

For projects occurring during Spring 2014:

• Deadline 1: November 1, 2013 (Maximum possible grant award is $5,000)
• Deadline 2: February 14, 2014 (Maximum possible grant award is $5,000)

About the Grant

The Promoting Diversity Grant is designed to promote, support, and encourage new and collaborative diversity and social justice efforts that directly benefit undergraduate students, including but not limited to programs, projects, workshops, series, events, and other creative initiatives.

• Grants of up to $5,000* are awarded four times during the fiscal year: twice during the Fall semester and twice during the Spring semester. There are two application periods during both the Fall and Spring semesters
• Grants are available to campus departments, offices, and officially recognized student organizations
• All grant recipients will be required to submit the results of their project's assessments to the grant committee to gauge the impact of their program/project
• Assessments are due 30 days from the date of the project's completion
• Applications are judged based upon a scoring rubric

* Applicants may potentially be awarded more than $5,000 during a given cycle.  Any remaining funds from one application and disbursement cycle are rolled into the next application and disbursement cycle but only if both cycles occur within the same fiscal year. Funds remaining after the fiscal year are NOT rolled over to the next fiscal year. 

Grant Requirements
Projects that receive grant funding must meet the following criteria:

• Relates to diversity or social justice
• Collaborative
• Fills a campus need or educational gap
• Specifies learning goals
• Conducts assessments to gauge effectiveness of program/project
• Directly benefits undergraduate students
• The submitted application contains all required materials and information

Preferred Criteria
Project developers are encouraged to create projects that have the following characteristics:

• Intersectionality
• Highly collaborative
• Innovative or pioneering
• Sustainable
• Interdisciplinary

Read how the committee understands "diversity," "social justice," "collaborative," and "intersectionaliry" on our "definitions" resource. 

Grant Restrictions
Projects that include any of the below elements are not eligible for funding:

• Funds that go to individual students to address personal financial need, including student travel to conferences
• Projects that support a candidate for political office or ballot question
• Projects that charge admission to BSU undergraduate students
• Projects that include fundraising of any kind during the event
• Funds that pay honoraria to BSU faculty or staff
• Projects or programs that are off-campus
• The grant will fund projects that offer gifts or prizes to participants, but the monies from the grant may not go towards those expenses
• A project that has any expenses that violate federal, state, or local law, or BSU policies

Note: Grant recipients who fail to submit their project assessment results by the deadline are ineligible to receive funding from the Promoting Diversity Grant for one academic year.

The grant committee strongly encourages applicants to be familiar with the following:

1. The committee's working definitions of diversity and social justice, collaboration vs. cooperation, and intersectionality

2. Resources are available to help applicants write learning outcomes and assessments, potential assistance with writing outcomes and assessments from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment is available to assist with developing learning outcomes and assessments

3. The committee's scoring rubric --the tool used to determine which projects will be grant funded

Assessment Guidelines
In a one page pdf document, summarize the results of your assessment. At minimum, include the following information based on your assessment data:

• Specify how your project did or did not achieve your learning outcomes
• Specify how your project did or did not benefit undergraduate students
• Indicate if or how your project should be modified in the future to improve its benefit to undergraduate students