Capacity-Building Grants

Among the persistent challenges identified by faculty, staff, and administrators at Wake Forest’s 2021 “Convening on Character in Higher Education” was 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 that 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. 

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
• A faculty/staff seminar that brings together key partners across the institution to discuss the opportunities and challenges of character education and how they might pursue it 
• Honoraria for visiting scholars, educators, or experts to generate interest in character education, lead a faculty workshop on character or strategies to educate it, and/or provide insight on how it 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 
• Funding and time to plan and apply for a larger grant from the Educating Character Initiative or other grant-making institutions.

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, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, single-gender colleges, and tribal colleges. We also welcome applications from cross-institutional networks of colleges, universities, and organizations that wish to collaborate on a shared project or initiative.

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. 

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)
  • An overview of the academic institution – its mission, vision, and the alignment of character education to its overall culture, orientation, or tradition.
  • A description of work already undertaken at the institution toward the education of character in undergraduate students and any relevant outcomes.
  • A description of both the character and capacity-building approaches to educating character in the undergraduate student population 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 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 and outcomes relating to both educating character and building capacity, including how those outcomes will be achieved as well as assessed or measured. 
  • A timeline of activities, to extend not more than one year beginning in Summer 2024.
  • A plan for sustaining this work beyond the initial grant period.
• Curriculum vitae for the project leader(s)
• 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 & curriculum development, student programming, research & assessment, personnel, and other character-related training costs, separated by year of the award period. A budget template will be available in the ECI Grant Portal beginning December 29. 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.
  • Additional artifacts that support the narrative of the initial application, 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.  

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 February 29, 2024, at 5:00 PM ET through the ECI Grant Portal. The portal will accept completed applications beginning December 29. Award decisions will be issued by June 1 for projects to begin on August 1. 

We will hold optional, one-hour online Q&A sessions regarding Capacity-Building Grants at 11:00 am and 3:00 pm ET on November 30 and December 11, 2023, as well as January 10, 2024.

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 must register as a member of the Educating Character Initiative community.

Colleges and universities may apply for an Institutional Impact or Capacity-Building Grant, but not both. Individuals may not be awarded a Teacher-Scholar or Professional Development Grant if they are part of a team which is awarded a Capacity-Building Grant or if they are part of team that makes it to the final round of Institutional-Impact Grant consideration.

Funded projects and project leaders will commit to the following:

• Submit interim and final reports, including assessments of outcomes on students, faculty, and/or staff, as well as 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
  • 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.

Dates to Remember

Capacity-Building Grant
Info Sessions (optional)	November 30, December 11, 2023, & January 10, 2024 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. & 3 – 4 p.m. ET on Zoom Register here
Grant Due	February 29, 2024
Grant Decisions	June 1, 2024
Grant Start Date	July 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement
ECI Grant Portal Opens	December 29, 2023 is the earliest date to submit completed applications.