Professional Development Grants
NOTE: We are not currently accepting applications for this grant.
Professional Development Grants (up to $5,000) are intended to equip faculty and staff to become educators of character or lead efforts to educate character at their institutions.
Grant support could include, but are not limited to, funding for the following:
- Travel and registration for individuals or teams of faculty and staff to attend or present at character-related conferences or convenings
- A faculty/staff seminar, pedagogical workshop, or visiting speaker to support faculty and staff in learning about character and how to educate it
- Books, materials, or resources to support faculty and staff’s intellectual, professional, and/or pedagogical development
- A character-related training or certification
The Program for Leadership and Character will provide multiple opportunities for individuals 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.
Application Instructions
The full application will be available in the ECI Grant Portal. You must provide:
- Contact Information for Applicant, Administrative Assistant (if applicable), and Department or Supervisor (if applicable).
- Project Name and Summary (500-word maximum)
- Amount Requested ($5,000 maximum)
- A description of why this professional development is important to you and/or your institution and how it will affect your work going forward (500-word maximum)
- A description of the core activities to be completed through the grant, including why ECI support is necessary to complete these activities (250-word maximum)
- A description of target impact and outcomes that will be realized by the end of the professional development and how you will assess any change in your character, knowledge, capacities, or skills (250-word maximum)
- Curriculum Vitae
- Project Timeline
- Budget, including separate lines for travel & registration costs, books & research material costs, and other character-related training costs, separated by year of expenditure. A budget template will be available in ECI Grant Portal beginning December 29. Given limited grant funding, we encourage applicants to request funds only for the most essential activities.
The submission deadline for the application is January 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 March 15. We will hold optional, one-hour online Q&A sessions regarding Professional Development Grants at 10:00 AM 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 a faculty or staff position at an accredited college or university in the United States, or alternatively, must hold a relevant position in a registered non-profit organization. All applicants must register as a member of the Educating Character Initiative community.
Individuals may apply for either a Teacher-Scholar or Professional Development 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 final reports, including assessments of outcomes.
- Attend at least one virtual or in-person gathering sponsored by the Program for Leadership and Character.
- 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
| Professional Development Grant | |
| Info Sessions (optional) | November 30, December 11, 2023 & January 10, 2024 10 – 11 AM ET on Zoom Register here |
| Grant Due | January 29, 2024 |
| Grant Decisions | March 15, 2024 |
| Grant Start Date | May 1, 2024 or as decided by grant agreement |
| ECI Grant Portal Opens | December 29, 2023 |