California College Promise Innovation Grant Program (RFA #16-041) Frequently Asked Questions (Updated 01-11-17) Instructions: Click on the hyperlinked question below to view the answer. 1. Can California College Promise Innovation Grant funds be used for direct student support? 2. Is it permissible for our District to submit two separate and distinct applications? 3. The timing is difficult since it was just released during finals week/end of term, and it is due when faculty return for the spring semester. Very little room for dialogue? 4. How does this grant fit with other funding streams/efforts like Student Equity, Innovation Awards, Transformation? 5. Since we are required to submit an electronic copy of the grant, how large of a PDF can you accept to your email? Does the whole thing have to be in one PDF? Will you send a confirmation that you received email? Is there still a 10mb pdf size limit? 6. I was wondering if the funds from the grant must be spent within the two-year time frame of the grant, or can some of them be budgeted for a year to two beyond the grant time frame.
7. Are illustrations or diagrams acceptable? 8. In section E, item #2, the RFA asks us to increase the percentage of high school students who place in college-level math and English at a public postsecondary university in California. That seems to imply placements at the 4-year level only. Is that truly the focus or was the intent to allow for increases at the community college level as well? 9. Want to ensure that sustainability into the future can indicate a use of categorical funds? 10. Must applicants within the grant period allow registration for a full-year at once? Please see question 14 for updated information regarding this objective. 11. Will there be clarification on use of funds? Any specific exclusions beyond what is usual and customary? 12. Should this grant rather have a more general impact for all students, or can it focus on a particular vulnerable population, e.g. survivors of sex trafficking by looking at a "street to college" pipeline? 13. Can California College Promise Innovation Grant funds be used to set up an endowment or foundation account to assist with the sustainability of a College Promise program? 14. In regards to Objective 4, our registration windows currently do not allow students to enroll in a full year of courses at once. Is this a requirement to receive funding, or is it allowable that we would work towards this objective during the grant period? 15. I notice on the Application Budget Detail Sheet there is a line that asks for the Program Year. Should we therefore include more than one Application Budget Detail Sheet -- for instance, one for the period from May 2017 to June 2018,
and one from the period from July 2018 to June 2019? Or, should the entire budget go on this one sheet? 16. The RFA also says (page 10) we should "submit a Budget Detail Sheet for each funding source." It is unclear what this refers to. The Application Budget Summary has a column for Total Grant Budget and Total Apportionment Budget. So would we need to submit separate Budget Detail Sheets for these two things? 17. I am wondering where we would put information about how we address one of the Application Priorities (described on pp. 7-8). For example, to get points for the first priority, is it sufficient to describe how we qualify for it in the narrative sections? 18. Can Promise grant funds be used to cover student enrollment fees? 19. We ve noted that eligible applicants are restricted to just community college districts. However, must the proposed project and services (1) be implemented all colleges within a multi-college district or (2) can the activities and services focus on just one college? 20. Objective #4 reads that services like priority registration and enrolling for an entire year of coursework must be provided to college students enrolled throughout the district. However, Objective #5 reads as if the outreach may be provided to students at a single college or multiple colleges within a district. Must an entire district participate in all of the program requirements if only a single college within the district chooses to develop a Promise program? 21. How do we account for additional sources of funding on the Budget Summary form?
1. Can California College Promise Innovation Grant funds be used for direct student support? Yes, funds may be used to provide direct student support. Direct student support must be coordinated with your Financial Aid dept. 2. Is it permissible for our District to submit two separate and distinct applications? No, only one application will be accepted per district. 3. The timing is difficult since it was just released during finals week/end of term, and it is due when faculty return for the spring semester. Very little room for dialogue? We recognize the timing is less than ideal. The timeline is driven by the bill chapter date, BOG meeting schedule and the deadline to encumber funds. There is approximately 9 months between the date the bill was chaptered and the date in which the funds need to be encumbered. We did everything possible to provide potential applicants with as much time as possible to develop their applications. 4. How does this grant fit with other funding streams/efforts like Student Equity, Innovation Awards, Transformation? Applicants are encouraged to include other sources of state funding in their applications. In fact, doing so can earn an applicant priority points. The first priority criteria speaks specifically to leveraging new or existing sources of local and state funding to better align efforts to improve student success. Other funding streams may also play a role in the sustainability of your College Promise program once grant funds have been completely expended.
5. Since we are required to submit an electronic copy of the grant, how large of a PDF can you accept to your email? Does the whole thing have to be in one PDF? Will you send a confirmation that you received email? The Chancellor s Office can now accept files up to 25mb in size. If your application exceeds that limit, you may submit the application in parts across multiple e-mails. An e-mail confirmation will be sent once an application is received. 6. I was wondering if the funds from the grant must be spent within the twoyear time frame of the grant, or can some of them be budgeted for a year to two beyond the grant time frame? Funds must be expended during the two year (26 months) program performance period. The deadline for expenditures is 6/30/19. 7. Are illustrations or diagrams acceptable? Yes, illustrations and diagrams are acceptable; however, they will count toward the page limits prescribed in the RFA. 8. In section E, item #2, the RFA asks us to increase the percentage of high school students who place in college-level math and English at a public postsecondary university in California. That seems to imply placements at the 4-year level only. Is that truly the focus or was the intent to allow for increases at the community college level as well? It is our interpretation that the intent is to allow for these particular increases at the community college level as well. 9. Can categorical funds play a role in ensuring sustainability of a promise program? Yes, categorical funds may play a role in your sustainability plan.
10. Must applicants within the grant period allow registration for a full-year at once? Yes, this requirement (objective #4) was taken word-for-word from the chaptered bill, which is now codified. Please see question 14 for updated information regarding this objective. 11. Will expenditure guidelines be provided? Expenditure guidelines will not be developed for this grant program. Applicants should follow locally established expenditure policies when developing project budgets. 12. Should this grant rather have a more general impact for all students, or can it focus on a particular vulnerable population, e.g. survivors of sex trafficking by looking at a "street to college" pipeline? There is nothing in the RFA prohibiting applicants from narrowing the focus of an application to a particular student population. 13. Can California College Promise Innovation Grant funds be used to set up an endowment or foundation account to assist with the sustainability of a College Promise program? Yes, you may use some of the funding to establish an endowment or fund to support the ongoing success of your Promise program. 14. In regards to Objective 4, our registration windows currently do not allow students to enroll in a full year of courses at once. Is this a requirement to receive funding, or is it allowable that we would work towards this objective during the grant period? Objective 4 was taken directly from education code. Since the requirement is law, applicants are required to establish a process for allowing their Promise
students to register for a full academic year, prior to the end of the grant (June, 2019). As long you have completed the steps needed to develop the process and begin implementation during the next registration period, we will consider this requirement to be met. 15. I noticed on the Application Budget Detail Sheet there is a line that asks for the Program Year. Should we therefore include more than one Application Budget Detail Sheet? For instance, one for the period from May 2017 to June 2018, and one from the period from July 2018 to June 2019? Or, should the entire budget go on this one sheet? Please provide one budget detail sheet, per funding source, for the entire term of the grant. 16. On page 10 of the RFA it states, "submit a Budget Detail Sheet for each funding source." It is unclear what this refers to. Applicants must provide individual budget detail sheets for the grant funds and any other public or private funding sources that will play a role in supporting your College Promise program. 17. Where do we would put information about how we address one of the Application Priorities (described on pp. 7-8)? For example, to get the points for the first priority, is it sufficient to describe how we qualify for it in the narrative sections? Yes, you may address the priority components within the various narrative sections. 18. Can Promise grant funds be used to cover student enrollment fees? Yes, you can use grant funds to cover enrollment fees for program participants who are not eligible for the BOG fee waiver. We recommend you coordinate
this type of expenditure with your Financial Aid office to avoid any unintended consequences. 19. We ve noted that eligible applicants are restricted to just community college districts. However, must the proposed project and services (1) be implemented all colleges within a multi-college district or (2) can the activities and services focus on just one college? The project can be implemented at a single college within a multi-college district. Please note, in that scenario, the maximum award amount would be $750,000. 20. Objective #4 reads that services like priority registration and enrolling for an entire year of coursework must be provided to college students enrolled throughout the district. However, Objective #5 reads as if the outreach may be provided to students at a single college or multiple colleges within a district. Must an entire district participate in all of the program requirements if only a single college within the district chooses to develop a Promise program? We agree that it would be difficult to implement objective #4 across an entire district if only a portion of the colleges within the district are participating in your program. Implementation of objectives #4 and #5 need only apply to those colleges within the district participating in the Promise program. 21. How do we account for additional sources of funding on the Budget Summary form? We recognize the Budget Summary form is confusing. The purpose of the first column is to capture total grant funds requested, by Object of Expenditure code. The second column captures any/all additional funding sources, by Object of Expenditure code. The form has been revised to more clearly articulate this information and can be found in the announcement and forms sections of the California Promise webpage. http://extranet.cccco.edu/divisions/studentservices/californiapromise.aspx