Application Guidelines

Transcription

1 Application Guidelines Grant Summary Grant description Grant amount Eligibility and region Population to be served (Great Lakes) seeks to provide funding to Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin organizations that have developed a program that provides direct services to increase semester-to-semester retention and year-to-year persistence rates for undergraduate students from traditionally underserved backgrounds. Individual grants of up to $300,000, in support of direct service program costs (minimum grant amount is $50,000) Nonprofit, Title IV-eligible higher education institutions and community-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations located in Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin Programs must serve undergraduate students from traditionally underserved backgrounds who are enrolled in two-year and four-year colleges and universities, including community and technical colleges. For the purposes of this grant, students from traditionally underserved backgrounds include students from low-income households, students of color, and first-generation college students. Application deadline 5:00 p.m. Central on Thursday, March 14, 2013 Grant period September 1, 2013, through August 31, 2014 Funding notification August 8, 2013 Contact information Ben Dobner, Community Investments Program Manager bdobner@glhec.org College Success Grant More students are entering college than ever before, but many particularly students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and first-generation college students face unique obstacles that prevent them from completing their studies. As a result, college completion rates have not increased at the same rate as college enrollment. To help more students access the support they need to graduate, and to recognize programs delivering that extra support, Great Lakes is offering College Success grants of up to $300,000 each. Great Lakes College Success grants are intended to support programs that connect students of similar backgrounds who are attending two-year and four-year colleges and universities, including community and technical colleges. These grants will help students develop those connections through specialized services such as mentoring, proactive advising, development of learning communities, and academic tutoring College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 1

2 Eligibility Applicants must be one of the following types of organizations: Nonprofit, Title IV-eligible higher education institution located in Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin Community-based nonprofit organization in Iowa, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, classified as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code Eligible organizations may submit up to two applications for this grant opportunity. Organizations submitting more than one application should coordinate application efforts across the various offices within their organization. This opportunity is not for planning grants; programs must be fully operational on the first day of the grant period. Please note: The following are not eligible to apply for this grant opportunity: Programs designed with the goal of GED/HSED completion Individual K-12 schools and school districts, including K-12 school foundations and charter schools Grant Goal The goal of programs to be funded through College Success grants must be to increase semester-to-semester retention and year-to-year persistence rates for current undergraduate students. Program Requirements To be considered for funding, programs must: Be specifically designed to serve undergraduate students from traditionally underserved backgrounds (students from low-income households, students of color, and first-generation college students). Provide a defined set of ongoing services to a cohort of students. For purposes of this grant opportunity, a cohort is a clearly defined group of students that the program can identify, serve, measure, and track from the beginning of the grant period through the end of the grant period. Services may not be provided on a drop-in basis. Provide a defined set of ongoing services that are specifically designed to increase student retention and persistence rates. Provide retention and persistence rates for a baseline group consisting of similarly situated students from academic year The baseline group for higher education institutions must be comprised of similarly situated students at the institution. For community-based organizations, data for the baseline group must be comprised of similarly situated students at one partner higher education institution that cohort students attend. Track semester-to-semester enrollment (retention rates) and year-to-year enrollment (persistence rates) of cohort students. Institutions of higher education are required to use their institutional database system. Community-based organizations are required to use the National Student Clearinghouse for all retention and persistence data; student self-reported enrollment is not sufficient for reporting purposes. Organizations not currently tracking transfer data will be required to do so during the grant period. Collaborate with external and/or internal partners in order to best serve the cohort College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 2

3 Budget Guidelines The following guidelines are designed to assist in program budget development. Eligible programs (See Eligibility and Program Requirements above) may request grant funds of up to $300,000 to be expended during the grant period September 1, 2013, through August 31, 2014 (minimum grant amount is $50,000). Grant recipients cannot re-grant the funding; funds must be managed by the grant recipient and cannot be provided to a partner organization. Eligible Expenses Eligible expenses can include, but are not limited to: Personnel (salary and benefits) Supplies Academic tutors Mentors Food Transportation to direct service activities Program staff development (up to $3,000 if a specific training opportunity is imperative to the success of the program and is justified in the Budget Narrative) Evaluation costs, limited to no more than 10% of the total funding request. If funds are used for external evaluation, the grant recipient must share results/publications with Great Lakes. Student incentives (see below) Student Incentives Incentives for students in the cohort, in the form of book vouchers or stipends, are eligible expenses and should be listed in Section 6B Other Direct Expenses. Requests for student incentives may not exceed 20% of the total funding request and may not exceed $1,000 per student. Incentives in the form of scholarships, wages, and/or tuition payments are not eligible expenses. To be an eligible expense, students must earn the incentive. For example, it would be allowable to offer the student a book voucher if he/she attended all of the required workshops for the semester; it would not be allowable to simply give the student the incentive for being part of the program. Grant recipients must track student progress toward earning incentives and the disbursement of incentives; this information must be reflected in the Interim and Final reports. Ineligible Expenses Indirect costs are not eligible for funding through this grant opportunity. Additional ineligible expenses include: Tuition and fees for college credit Scholarships or other forms of postsecondary financial aid Wages for cohort student employment Unallocated administrative fees Computers (e.g., PCs, laptops, ipads, tablets) Equipment (e.g., office furniture and printers) Study abroad programs Student participation in research projects Rent Utilities Depreciation Capital campaigns Endowments Event sponsorships or fundraising activities College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 3

4 Informational Webinar We strongly encourage applicants to attend an informational webinar on February 7, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. Central. This webinar will include advice on how to submit a successful Application for a Great Lakes College Success grant. Please visit mygreatlakes.org/community to register. A recording will be made available on mygreatlakes.org/community. Submission Information A complete application package must be submitted via to communityinvestments@glhec.org no later than 5:00 p.m. Central, Thursday, March 14, A complete application package will include the following individual documents: Application Attachments, as indicated in the Application Instructions below Current IRS Form 990 (community-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations only) Current, dated within the past two years, third-party audited financial statements (community-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations only) Late or incomplete packages will not be considered for funding. Format The Application must be completed using the Word document provided, with all text in Times New Roman, 12pt font. Applications must be limited to 20 pages (excluding requested attachments). Applications submitted in PDF format will not be considered for funding. Attachments Required attachments must be submitted separately from the Application, and cannot be combined into a single document. Attachments do not count toward the Application s 20-page limit. Great Lakes will only review and consider attachments requested in the Application Instructions. Attachments are requested in Sections 2E and 6A. Application Timeline January 24, 2013 February 7, 2013 March 14, 2013 June 17, 2013 August 8, 2013 Application period begins Informational webinar Applications due to Great Lakes by 5:00 p.m. Central Applicants notified of promotion to final review phase Applicants notified of final funding decisions College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 4

5 Program Notification June 17, 2013: All applicants will be notified whether or not they have been selected to proceed to the final review phase. Applications that do not move on to the final review phase will not be considered for funding. June 17 August 8, 2013: The final review phase will take place June 17 through August 8, During the final review phase, Great Lakes may contact applicants for additional information, clarification, supporting documentation, and/or to schedule a site visit. Applicants that proceed to this phase of review may or may not be awarded grant funds. August 8, 2013: All applicants that advance to the final review phase will be notified of final funding decisions on Thursday, August 8, Please note that Great Lakes will notify applicants of all decisions via . Great Lakes will send notifications to the program contact listed in the Application. What to Expect if Awarded a College Success Grant Grant Management Applicants that receive notification of funding on August 8, 2013, will be expected to complete a Grant Agreement within 30 days of notification. Great Lakes expects that grant recipients will complete activities and expend funds as indicated in the Application. Great Lakes also expects that the number of students for which funding is requested will be recruited and served. Grant funds may be rescinded if the grant recipient does not implement the program as outlined in the Application and the Grant Agreement. Unused funds must be returned at the end of the grant period. Disbursements Awarded grant funds, in most cases, will be distributed in two disbursements. The initial disbursement will take place upon execution of a Grant Agreement between Great Lakes and the grant recipient. The second disbursement will be made during the second semester of the academic year and will be contingent upon Great Lakes receipt of an Interim Report outlining expended funds and the program s progress toward its stated goals. Reporting Grant recipients are required to submit an Interim and Final Report. Charts similar to those in Sections 4 and 5 of the Application will be used for reporting. Grant recipients will be expected to report on their progress toward achieving the activities and outcomes indicated in the Application College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 5

6 Application Instructions The Application must be completed using the Word document provided, with all text in Times New Roman, 12pt font. Applications submitted in PDF format will not be considered for funding. Applications must be limited to 20 pages. Required attachments should be submitted separately and do not count toward the 20-page limit. In order to retain document formatting, certain sections of the College Success Application have been locked. The tables within Sections 5 and 6 remain open to editing, so that rows can be added as necessary. Section 7 is also open to editing, and may be used to insert existing tables, charts, or other pertinent graphics. Section 1: General Information Provide information as indicated, including organization name and mailing address. Completed budget information from Section 6 of the Application should be used to complete the Funding Request information. Section 2: Program Narrative 2A. Program and Contact Information The program summary should provide a brief and general overview of the program. This overview is limited to 600 characters (not words), including spaces. Provide the contact information for the person responsible for communications with Great Lakes staff in the event the program is awarded grant funds. If the program is selected for the final review phase, Great Lakes will request additional information from the indicated program contact. 2B. Program Details Clearly describe the program s history and what the program does. It must be clear who specifically is served by the program, how students are recruited and selected, what risk factors are experienced by the target population, and how the program addresses these risk factors. A summary of the program structure should be provided, detailing the types of activities that will be conducted. (A more detailed description of activities should be included in Section 5.) When complete, Section 2B should stand alone as a description of the program, and the reader should have a clear understanding of what the program does and whom it serves. 2C Program Participation Data Total number of students to be served during the grant period should reflect the total number of cohort students to be served under this Application. For purposes of this grant opportunity, a cohort is a clearly defined group of students that the program can identify, serve, measure, and track from the beginning of the grant period through the end of the grant period. This number should accurately reflect the number of students that the program can reasonably recruit, serve, and track during the grant period. In addition to indicating the total number of students to be served, indicate, in the provided chart, the year in college and projected demographics for all cohort students. This is measured as the year in college that students will be in during the academic year. Define the demographics using definitions as determined by the program. The projected cohort may or may not fit into more than one demographic; subsequently, percentages do not have to add up to 100% College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 6

7 2D. Program Staff Briefly describe the experience and role within the program of key staff and organizational leadership, as well as the staff members who will be responsible for leading program activities. 2E. Partnerships Briefly describe internal and external individuals, organizations, and departments with whom the program will collaborate in order to increase retention and persistence rates. It should be made clear how the program and partner work directly together to positively serve the cohort students. If collaborating with external partners, letters of support may be submitted as attachments. Section 3: Baseline Data To help determine the impact of the program, applicants must provide baseline data on a group of similarly situated students. The baseline group should have similar demographics to the students to be served by the program during the grant period. The number of students in the baseline group can be determined by each applicant. This baseline group does not need to be tracked during the grant period; if selected for funding, this baseline data will be compared to the actual retention and persistence rates of the students in the cohort. 3A. Baseline Group Explanation In this section, describe the makeup of the group of students from Fall 2011 that will be used as baseline data and explain how the students were determined to be similarly situated to the students to be served by the program. The baseline group for higher education institutions must be comprised of similarly situated students at the institution. Community-based organizations must use a baseline group comprised of similarly situated students from one partner higher education institution where cohort students attend. Do not use past program participation data as the baseline; instead use students who were not served by the program and who are similar in demographics to the cohort students. 3B. Retention and Persistence Rates of Baseline Group Complete the chart as indicated. The number entered in Total number of baseline group students, Fall 2011 should be used as the denominator for all percentage calculations in this section. If transfer data is not currently tracked, the National Student Clearinghouse can be used to obtain this information. If a student graduates and re-enrolls the following semester, he/she may be counted as both graduated and reenrolled at either the same or a transfer higher education institution. Section 4: Outcomes Primary Outcome (Outcome A): Projected Retention and Persistence Rates (required) Complete the chart as indicated. The number entered in Total number of cohort students, Fall 2013 should be used as the denominator for all percentage calculations in this section. All applicants will be required to track semester-to-semester enrollment (retention rates) and year-to-year enrollment (persistence rates) of cohort students. Institutions of higher education are required to use their institutional database system (e.g., Banner, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar) as the data source for this outcome. Community-based organizations must use the National Student Clearinghouse for all retention and persistence data; student self-reported enrollment is not sufficient for reporting purposes College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 7

8 Organizations that do not currently have access to the National Student Clearinghouse may request funding for the cost of the Student Tracker for Outreach Programs in Section 6. Organizations not currently tracking transfer data will be required to do so during the grant period. Supporting Outcomes (optional) Applicants may choose up to three Supporting Outcomes (Outcomes B, C, and/or D). A strong outcome will be objective and numerical and will be measurable. Clearly state what is expected to occur and which students are included in the measurement. Applicants should propose outcomes that accurately reflect the focus and capacity of their program. For each supporting outcome, describe the data source(s) that will be used to collect and track the outcome. Examples: % of all first-year cohort students will declare a major by March 15, Data Source: Student record in the institutional database system. The number of cohort students on academic probation will decrease by %. Data Source: Student record in the institutional database system. % of cohort students will meet with their mentor for two hours each month. Data Source: Mentor log as maintained by Program Coordinator. For assistance with developing measureable outcomes, Great Lakes encourages applicants to utilize the Evaluation Toolkit provided by the Pell Institute and Pathways to College Network ( Section 5: Activities Activities In chart format, describe the activities that will be conducted throughout the grant period to impact outcomes. Where appropriate, indicate the frequency or total number of sessions that will take place. In order to describe the timeline of activities, include the month that each activity is planned to take place. All activities for which funding is requested must be described. Additional activity lines may be added as necessary. Number of Cohort Students Participating Indicate how many students will participate in each activity. This should be a number, not a percentage of students. Outcomes Indicate (using corresponding letters) which outcome(s) from Section 4 are impacted by each activity (e.g., A and D). Justification Provide a brief justification for how or why the activity impacts the indicated outcome(s) College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 8

9 Section 6: Program Budget and Budget Narrative Applicants must provide a detailed description of program costs. Eligible expenses include direct program costs associated with services designed to increase the retention and persistence rates of the cohort students. All funds requested must relate to and be included in the Activities outlined in Section 5. Dollar amounts must be rounded to the nearest whole number. See Budget Guidelines (page 3) for specific details related to eligible expenses. 6A. Program Personnel Salaries and Fringe Benefits Replace Position Title with the actual position title of the requested personnel. Indicate the percentage of full-time employment (FTE) that will be spent performing activities directly related to the funding request. If funds are requested for personnel salaries, each corresponding position description must be submitted as an attachment. Funds may be requested for fringe benefits directly related to the requested personnel positions. List wages for peer mentors and tutors (who are not students in the cohort being served) as separate line items. Indicate a breakdown of costs (number of mentors/tutors, hourly rate, number of hours per week, number of weeks per year) in the Budget Narrative. Indicate in the Total Program Budget column the total program cost of each requested line item. In the Total Requested of Great Lakes column, indicate the dollar amount of the total program expense requested of Great Lakes. These two columns may be equal. Additional lines may be added as necessary. 6B. Other Direct Expenses Replace Program Expense with a brief description/title of funds requested. Provide a full description in the Budget Narrative. Include wages for peer mentors and tutors (who are not students in the cohort being served) in Section 6A. Indicate in the Total Program Budget column the total cost of each line item. In the Total Requested of Great Lakes column, indicate the dollar amount of the total program expense requested of Great Lakes. These two columns may be equal. Additional lines may be added as necessary. 6C. Total Program Expenses Total Program Budget and Total Requested of Great Lakes should reflect the sum of each column. Great Lakes strongly encourages applicants to review this section and verify the accuracy of Subtotals and Totals prior to submission. 6D. Budget Narrative The Budget Narrative should provide a brief justification for each line item requested; describe each line item separately. The Budget Narrative should make clear the specific purpose of requested funds. A simple calculation to demonstrate how the request was determined should be provided. An example of a clear and specific budget request is provided below. Example: $4,500 is requested for Food in Section 6B Other Direct Expenses. Budget Narrative: Food: Snacks for weekly cohort meeting (30 weeks x 50 students x $3/student/week=$4,500) College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 9

10 Section 7: Space for Insertion of Tables, Charts, and Graphics This space may be used for placement of program-specific tables, charts, or other graphics that you would like to provide. If the material provided in Section 7 supports a response from another section in the Application, please specify the section to which you are referring. If Section 7 is used, the space will count toward the Application s 20- page limit. If Section 7 is not used, it may be deleted. Before submitting your complete Application, please proofread and review Submission Information on page 4. If you have questions about the College Success Grant Guidelines or Application, please contact Ben Dobner, Community Investments Program Manager, at bdobner@glhec.org or College Success Grant Application Guidelines Page 10