Capacity-Building Grants

Among the persistent challenges for faculty, staff, and administrators seeking to cultivate character at their institutions is a lack of resources, including difficulty integrating character across their curriculum or culture without more institutional and financial support. To address this challenge, up to 20 Capacity-Building Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to institutions who wish to strengthen their ability to educate and embed character in their distinctive contexts. These grants may be especially useful for institutions that are just beginning to explore how to educate character, that are envisioning discrete projects that do not require substantial funding, and/or that need support to plan for a larger grant application to the Educating Character Initiative or another funding organization in a future year.

We welcome applications from two- and four-year 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: 

• Course or time buyouts, salary replacement, and/or summer funding for
  individual faculty or staff to devote time to planning or implementing 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 “train the trainer” events at the institution. (Note: The ECI team may be able to provide some staff support for faculty 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.
• Funding and time to plan and apply for a larger grant from the Educating Character Initiative or other grant-making institutions.

Because we are eager to support diverse approaches to character education and learn from thoughtful experimentations, we encourage project leaders to be intentional and creative in building the necessary support and capacity to educate character across their institutions.

Given limited funding, we also encourage project leaders to be frugal with resources and intentional about which funds are most necessary to achieve the project’s aims.

A list of institutions and projects funded by 2024 ECI Capacity-Building Grants is available here.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants for the Capacity-Building Grants should apply 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 ($50,000 maximum)
• 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 approach to educating character that applicants intend
  to use for the project, noting the relevant expertise and/or experience of the
  applicants. If the project aims to determine the most appropriate character
  frameworks, orientations, or approaches for the institution, please explain
  how this discernment will proceed.
  – A description of the core capacity-building and character goals of the project.
  – A description of project activities and explanation of why ECI support is
  necessary to complete these activities.
  – 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 role
  of intentional character formation in achieving this impact. Articulate
  proposed capacity-building and character 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 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 timeline of activities, to extend not more than one year beginning in
  Summer 2025.
  – 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.
• Signed letter of support from the head of the institution, such as the
  president, chancellor, or vice-chancellor.
• Budget, including (minimally) separate lines for faculty engagement and curriculum development, student programming, research and assessment, personnel, and other character-related training costs, separated by semester of the award period. 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 and 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, such as course syllabi;
  program descriptions; published or on-going research; a description of
  character-focused conferences, workshops, or convenings; or descriptions
  of grants and awards focused on character formation. Additional artifacts
  should be organized in a Google drive accessible to the Educating
  Character Initiative via a link in the project narrative. 

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.

The submission deadline for the application is March 17, 2025, at 5:00 PM ET through the ECI Grant Portal. The portal will accept completed applications beginning December 11, 2024. We anticipate the announcement of award decisions by May 15 for projects to begin July 1 or later. 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.

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 agree to register as a member of the Educating Character Initiative community.
In most cases, institutions may apply for an Institutional Impact or Capacity-Building Grant, but not both. 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. 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 final reports, including
  assessments of outcomes on students, faculty, and/or staff, as well as 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
  – share the results and findings of their projects
  – 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.

Capacity-Building Dates to Remember

Grants Info Sessions:          Available here.
Final Proposal Due:             March 17, 2025
Grant Decisions:                   May 15, 2025
Grant Start Date:                  July 1, 2025

All dates and deadlines are subject to change.