These grants support students, faculty, staff, community partners, alumni and other stakeholders who are creating or expanding networks of people and programs to collaborate around a shared issue of public concern. The grants can fund activities to:

• Raise awareness and visibility about the issue and university-community work being done to address it.
• Increase positive impact on communities around the issue being addressed.
• Deepen and broaden university-community partnerships to better approach community issues in an interdisciplinary way.
• Increase student participation in community-engaged learning related to the issue — through both curricular and co-curricular activities. Proposals that foster collaboration between academic and student affairs’ (Student Campus Life-based) units are encouraged.

There are two levels of funding:

• Seed Support: Up to $5,000 to be used over 1-3 years to identify interested parties and map the network, as well as to develop new collaborations around a shared issue of concern OR
• Network Support: Up to $30K to be used over 1-3 years to support the expansion and impact of an existing network working on a shared issue of public concern

Teams must include representatives from at least two of the following stakeholder groups: Cornell faculty and/or staff*, Cornell students* and community partners.

*Exception: Individuals from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, College of Human Ecology, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business or the School of Industrial and Labor Relations can’t apply directly for this grant since these colleges are participating in our Engaged College Initiative. If you are from one of these colleges and are co-leading a project with individuals from other colleges, please email einhorncenter@cornell.edu about your application. We also encourage you to contact your college representative to learn about current and upcoming opportunities to support your community-engaged work.

Cornell affiliate organizations, community-based coalitions and alumni may be eligible to apply as part of the leadership team and should email einhorncenter@cornell.edu for information.

• Funded teams will design a process for healthy collaboration among their team and new collaborators (e.g., setting goals and intentions, exploring common interests, creating shared decision-making processes, welcoming new/diverse voices to the team)
• Funded teams will publicly share their collaborative work (e.g., through posts on the Einhorn Center’s Ripple Effect blog, on a website managed by the team, in a “town hall” or other public forum, public network map)
• Teams will submit annual report on their network growth, activities, evaluations of impact, use of funds, and future plans for the network

Application Process and Timeline

Instructions

Teams must have submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) and consulted with the Einhorn Center before applying. The LOI process is intended to support applicants in developing strong and compelling proposals.

The full application is now open and includes:

• LOI number and title;
• Team membership, including community partners;
• Level of funding being sought (seed or network);
• Public issue the team is addressing;
• Narratives describing:
  • how the proposal interfaces with other Einhorn Center-funded work;
  • who else at Cornell or in the community is interested in/working on the issue;
  • how Cornell students, especially undergraduates, will participate;
  • how team will raise awareness and visibility around the issue;
  • how the team plans to work together;
  • the team’s intended outcomes;
  • methods the team will use to assess impact;
  • methods the team will use to evaluate the network’s process, growth and effectiveness;
• Preferred timeline for the grant (one, two or three years);
• Letters of support from collaborators;
• Signed endorsement from dean of team lead’s college;
• Budget, following the budget guidelines; and
• Budget justification that aligns directly with budget categories.

Funding for this is flexible, depending on the needs of the team, but there are a few unallowable expenses:

• overhead and indirect costs (IDC);
• tuition;
• capital projects;
• Cornell faculty and staff salaries;
• wages or travel costs for students who have already graduated.

Einhorn Center staff, leadership and partners will review proposals, with selections being made by applying the following criteria, as appropriate:

• Potential to increase opportunities for Cornell undergraduates to participate in community-engaged learning or deepen their commitment to community-engaged learning
• Clear articulation of public issue or interest that the network will address
• Potential of network to involve multiple stakeholder groups, including faculty/staff, students, community partners, and/or alumni. Letters of support from collaborators are especially valuable.
• Feasibility of planned network activities and appropriate fund allocation
• Strategies for working together across stakeholder groups, and for assessing the growth of the network and the impact of its activities