Institutional Impact Grants

Up to 10 Institutional Impact Grants of between $100,000 and $1,000,000 will be awarded to institutions who wish to undertake a substantial and sustained effort to educate character in undergraduate populations across their institution. We expect to award three grants of between $500,000 and $1,000,000, three grants of between $250,000 and $500,000, and four grants of between $100,000 and $250,000. Organizations should align the size of the request with the impact of the proposed project and their expertise and capacity to steward the funds efficiently and effectively. Since funds are limited, please design projects that will have the maximum impact using the fewest resources.

These three-year grants will provide support to enable institutional leaders, faculty, and staff to infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming in ways that align organically with their college or university mission, context, and culture. Institutional Impact Grants may be especially useful for institutions that have already begun educating character in their context, that have previously received a Capacity-Building Grant from the ECI, and/or that have faculty and staff with the relevant expertise to undertake a major initiative dedicated to character. We imagine these grants will be focused primarily on coherent and collaborative implementation rather than initial exploration, though we welcome innovative ideas that have not been fully tested.

We welcome applications from two- and four-year U.S. colleges and universities—both public and private, secular and religious—including but not limited to research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, military academies, minority-serving institutions, and single-gender colleges. We also welcome applications from cross-institutional networks of colleges, universities, and organizations that wish to collaborate on a shared project or initiative.

Potential project activities could include, but are not limited to, some or all of the following: 

• The launch of a new major, minor, certificate program, or curricular requirement and/or a co-curricular center, institute, or program related to character.
• New faculty, staff, or postdoctoral fellows whose time is committed to character education efforts.
• Course or time buyouts, salary replacement, and/or summer funding for faculty or staff to devote time to develop a program, initiative, or course at their institution.
• Credit-bearing courses and/or co-curricular programming, such as speaker events, discussion groups, retreats, and/or workshops for students, faculty, and/or staff.
• Efforts to build alignment at the institution around an approach to character, including faculty/staff seminars bringing together key partners across the institution to discuss the opportunities and challenges of character education.
• Honoraria for visiting scholars, educators, or experts to generate interest in character education, lead a faculty workshop on character and related pedagogical strategies, and/or provide insight on how character might be integrated at their institution. (Note: Individual workshops and consulting are available for free from the staff and fellows of the Educating Character Initiative.)
• Books and materials for faculty/staff seminars, reading groups, and research on character education. 
• Student assistants to contribute to literature reviews, data collection, or other tasks. 
• Survey administration and participant incentives to collect data from students, faculty, and staff related to the impact or viability of projects or initiatives. 
• Professional development support, such as travel and registration for relevant workshops that focus on character or character education or funds to host “train the trainer” events at the institution. (Note: The ECI team may be able to provide some staff support for faculty or staff development workshops at your institution, but travel costs for ECI staff attendance should be incorporated into your proposal.)
• Development or revision of resources for educating character at the institution, and/or funds to make resources for educating character ready to share with the wider ECI community.

We encourage institutions to be creative in how they might design, implement, and integrate character education organically in their distinctive contexts.

A list of institutions and projects funded by 2024 ECI Institutional Impact Grants is available here.

Application Instructions

The application for Institutional Impact Grants will be a two-step process. 

Step 1: Letter of Inquiry

All accredited U.S. colleges and universities that are interested in educating character in undergraduates are invited to submit an initial application through the ECI Grant Portal.

You must provide:

• Contact Information for Principal Investigator(s) and Administrative Assistant(s) (if applicable)
• Contact Information for Institutional Grant Approval and Payment
• Project Name and Abstract (500-word maximum)
• Amount Requested
• Proposal Narrative addressing the following (10-page maximum):
  – A brief overview of the institutional context that provides a frame for the
  proposed efforts in character education, including a sense of how the overall
  mission, vision, culture, orientation, or tradition at the institution supports
  the understanding and integration of character.
  – A description of work already undertaken at the institution toward the
  education of character in undergraduate students and any relevant
  outcomes.
  – A description of the character approach that applicants intend to use for the
  project, noting the applicants’ relevant expertise and/or experience with this
  approach.
  – A description of the core goals of the project.
  – A description of the project activities, articulating the connection between
  those activities and the project goals.
  – A general timeline for activities (a more detailed timeline will be requested
  at the full proposal stage). Grant activities may not extend beyond three
  years.
  – A description of the target impact, outcomes, and outputs for the project.
  Identify who will be impacted, how the impact will be achieved, and the
  place of intentional character formation in achieving this impact. Articulate
  proposed outcomes, including plans for assessment and measurement of
  those outcomes. Name intended outputs, such as publications, resources, or
  other anticipated products of the work.
  – A plan for sustaining this work beyond the initial grant period.
• Brief curriculum vitae for the project leader(s), no more than 5 pages
  each. No photos, please.
• A signed letter of support from the head of the institution, such as the
  president, chancellor, or vice-chancellor
• A broad budget outline (a more detailed budget will be requested in the
  full proposal stage). Please note that, due to limited funding, general
  overhead or indirect costs may not be included in the request; however,
  direct costs for administration, equipment, and consumable items may be
  included. Applicants are encouraged to determine how best to use grant
  funds and to show institutional support through cost-sharing or donor
  matching where appropriate.
• Optional Appendices:
  – Statements of support from other institutional leaders, such as a provost,
  dean, or department chair, or evidence of strong and broad faculty/staff
  partnerships.
  – Additional artifacts that support the narrative of the initial application,
  such as course syllabi; program descriptions; published or on-going
  research; descriptions of character-focused conferences, workshops, or
  convenings; or examples of other character-focused grants and awards.
  Additional artifacts should be organized in a Google drive accessible to the
  Educating Character Initiative via a link in the project narrative.

Given limited funds, Institutional Impact Grant applicants should be mindful of the following when determining the size of the grant request:

• The number of students impacted by the proposed project
• The number of faculty, staff, and administrators impacted by the proposed
  project
• The proposed project’s depth of impact
• The unit(s) impacted by the proposed project (departments, divisions, schools, colleges, or university-wide) 
• Whether the project involves collaboration across institutions
• The expected development of scholarly research that can inform the larger
  community
• The extent to which existing expertise, programs, and operational frameworks at the institution can scaffold a project of the requested size.

The Program for Leadership and Character will provide multiple opportunities for colleges and universities to convene in person and virtually to discuss topics of common interest.

Since the Educating Character Initiative will be organizing major conferences and
convenings for the entire network, funding to host conferences may not be included in these requests, unless plans are coordinated in advance with the staff of the Educating Character Initiative. Staff from the Educating Character Initiative will also be available to provide individualized coaching and support for faculty, staff, and student development and/or assessment, so those costs need not be included within the grant. Applicants are encouraged to determine how to show institutional support through cost-sharing and/or donor-matching where appropriate.

Initial applications (Letters of Inquiry) are due by February 17, 2025, at 5:00 PM ET through the ECI Grant Portal. The portal will accept completed applications beginning December 11, 2024.  Responses to the initial application are expected to be shared with applicants by April 15, 2025. All dates and deadlines are subject to change.

The Educating Character Initiative team will host six, hour-long, online sessions in order to provide an overview of and answer questions about 2025 ECI Grants:

• November 20, 2024, 11am – 12 pm ET and 12 pm – 1pm ET
• December 12, 2024, 11am – 12 pm ET and 12 pm – 1pm ET
• January 9, 2025, 11am – 12pm ET and 12 pm – 1pm ET

Register for an online session here.

All inquiries should be directed toward ECI@wfu.edu.

Step 2: Full Proposal

Up to 20 institutions will be invited to submit a full and final proposal by June 2, 2025. Project teams invited to submit final proposals can expect to be asked to produce revisions to the LOI narrative, timeline, or budget, more detailed versions of LOI requirements, and/or supplementary materials as requested by ECI. In some cases, teams will be invited to submit a full proposal for a level of funding reduced from the initial request.

We anticipate the announcement of grant decisions by July 1, with the term of the grant expected to begin on August 1. All dates and deadlines are subject to change.

Grant Eligibility and Expectations for Funded Proposals 

The project leader(s) must be in or contracted to a long-term faculty or staff position at an accredited college or university in the United States. All applicants must register as community members of the Educating Character Initiative.

Colleges and universities should coordinate Institutional Impact projects internally and plan to apply for no more than one Institutional Impact Grant. In most cases, institutions may apply for an Institutional Impact or Capacity-Building Grant, but not both. Institutions that currently hold an Institutional Impact Grant from the ECI may not apply again this year. Individuals may not be awarded a Teacher-Scholar Grant if they are part of a team awarded a Capacity-Building Grant or if they are on a team invited to the final round of Institutional-Impact Grant consideration. Funds may not be used for capital projects. Please
reach out to the ECI team with any questions.

Funded projects and project leaders will commit to the following:

• Attend check-in meetings with ECI staff; submit interim and final reports,
  including assessments of outcomes on students, faculty, and/or staff; and
  interim and final expenditure reports.
• Attend at least one gathering sponsored by the Program for Leadership and Character.
• Attend and present key results at a convening where they will be required to:
  – provide feedback to others and receive feedback on their own project
  – suggest avenues for future research, integration, and/or implementation
  – consent to have their presentation(s) recorded.
• For all project outputs that arise from work supported by the grant, awardees must notify the Educating Character Initiative of any significant events, presentations, or awards; submit copies of all published work or other public products to the Educating Character Initiative; and acknowledge the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University and Lilly Endowment Inc. in project publications.
• Follow stipulations of the grant award as communicated and determined by the Educating Character Initiative.

Institutional Impact Dates to Remember

Grants Info Sessions:           Available here.
Letter of Inquiry Due:          February 17, 2025
Final Proposal Due:               June 2, 2025
Grant Decisions:                    July 1, 2025
Grant Start Date:                  August 1, 2025

All dates and deadlines are subject to change.