Grants
Request for Proposals
In 2024, the Educating Character Initiative intends to award grants to both individuals and institutions, varying in scale, focus, and expected impact.
Grants for Institutions
In this grant cycle, we anticipate awarding up to 10 Institutional Impact Grants of between $100,000 and $1,000,000, as well as 20 Capacity-Building Grants of up to $50,000. Successful grantees will be teams of faculty, staff, and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities with outstanding proposals for developing the moral, civic, and/or intellectual character and capacity of faculty, staff, and students.
To encourage an organic, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach, we seek to recognize the work already done to focus on character education and existing expertise at partner institutions. The Educating Character Initiative is prepared to pair the creation and dissemination of resources with context-specific support from Wake Forest staff, fellows, and consultants to aid institutions and individuals who seek to advance character education. These grants are meant to provide institutions with the time, resources, and freedom to discern what might work best in their context. Priority will be given to applications that show strong institutional support; clear alignment with the institution’s mission, vision, and values; and the potential for integrating character in ways that are robust and impactful across the institution.
Grants for Individuals
NOTE: We are not currently accepting applications for these individual grants.
In addition to grants to institutions, we will award 5 Teacher-Scholar Grants of up to $15,000 and 10 Professional Development Grants of up to $5,000 to individuals who wish to research character education in higher education, deepen our collective understanding of character, and/or expand their capacity to educate character in their contexts. We welcome applications from individuals at all U.S. colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, or higher education organizations, including those whose institutions may not yet be part of the wider network. Project leaders and co-leaders of Institutional Impact or Capacity-Building Grants may not apply for these individual grants, though other faculty and staff at the same institution who are not part of the proposed institutional project may do so.
If you do not feel ready to apply for a grant this year, additional grants in all four categories will be available next year and potentially in future years.
Grants Webinar Replay
Click play to hear Beth Purvis and Jennifer Rothschild answer questions from the community regarding the four grant types available.
Dates to Remember
Institutional Impact Grant
| Initial Application/ Letter of Inquiry | February 29, 2024; portal accepting submissions beginning December 29, 2023 |
| Decisions about Initial Application | May 1, 2024 |
| Full Proposal Date | July 1, 2024 |
| Grant Decisions | August 1, 2024 |
| Grant Start Date | September 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement |
Other Grants
| Capacity-Building Grant | Teacher-Scholar Grant | Professional Development Grant | |
| Grant Due | February 29, 2024 | January 29, 2024 | January 29, 2024 |
| Grant Decisions | June 1, 2024 | March 15, 2024 | March 15, 2024 |
| Grant Start Date | July 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement | May 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement | May 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement |