How To Apply

To successfully submit a Students Beyond Boundaries mini-grant proposal, applicants must follow all instructions and meet all guidelines in these documents:

1. Request for Proposals (RFP)

2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

3. Application Instructions (current page)

For Students

To complete the application process, follow these steps in order:

Step 1: Read all materials carefully! This is important because the full requirements of grant monies are stipulated in these documents. Read the Request for Proposals (RFP) to see what is required for a complete project, and the FAQ to see common questions and more detailed responses.

Step 2: Develop a general idea of a service-learning project that you'd like to lead. For ideas, see [SIFE videos]. If you're interested in participating in this project but don't have a clear idea right away, your office of service-learning and/or professor(s) can help direct you or give you an idea of community organizations in your area that are available to partner with.

Step 3: Contact your campus' service-learning office to discuss your proposal idea. During this visit, the campus service-learning coordinator will help you and your faculty sponsor develop your application and budget and connect with a community partner, if you don't already have one. For the name and contact information of the service-learning coordinator at your institution, please see our list of member institutions.

Step 4: Schedule an appointment with your faculty sponsor. Each project requires a Student Leader (that's YOU), a faculty sponsor and a community partner. Your faculty sponsor will help you complete your application by helping to identify a community partner, establish goals and outcomes, and develop a budget and the institution's budgetary match. It is extremely helpful to take a copy of the budget template and the online application questions with you to this meeting.

Step 5: Fill out your project budget form. The online application for a Students Beyond Boundaries grant involves a two-step procedure: your first step is to download the budget template and prepare a budget for your project. When you complete the application fields, attach your budget at the end of the application.

To complete the budget, save the budget template to your desktop and fill it out. Once downloaded, simply enter the line-item numbers and Excel will calculate the rest!

(Remember, at least a dollar-for-dollar funding match is required for all projects, so it is important to have this budget worked out with your institution and community partners ahead of time).

Step 6: Fill out the online application and attach your budget. In the application, student applicants are required to complete the information fields described in FAQ 1.17. Make sure that your complete application answers all required fields (marked with "*") and included an attached budget.

Remember, all projects must meet these parameters:

• Each student organization or class must be partnered with at least one clearly-identified community partner, and must have one faculty sponsor at their institution designated to oversee the project and provide guidance for reflection.
• Your service-learning project involves 5 service-learning students per $200 requested, not including match (or 12 service-learning students per every $500, 50 per every $2000, etc). Projects that do not meet this standard risk being only partially funded.
• Your project describes the use of the required project group (Ning) in the Students Beyond Boundaries community.
• If electronic/computer equipment is to be purchased, a justification is made for including the equipment described, and it is clear what will happen to it at the end of the project.  See FAQ 1.10 for more information.

Are you ready to apply? Go to the online application.

For Member Representatives / Service-Learning Coordinators

Step 1: Institutions should submit an institutional application for institutional funding/grants to the office of the Midwest Consortium.

Step 2: Once funding is granted to the institution, students may start appying for mini-grants on-line using the online application.

Step 3: Completed applications for mini-grants will be forwarded to the institution's Service-learning Coordinator and to the office of the Midwest Consortium.

Step 4: Institution oversees review and award of mini-grants requests of $1000 or less. Mini-grant requests for amounts of more than $1000 must be approved by a partnering peer-institute. Existing partnerships should be listed on the instiutions Request for Funding (RFF), but if there is no current partnerships, a peer-institute will be assigned to your institution. Please contact the office of the Consortium at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if a peer-institute needs to be assigned.

Partner institutions for current grantees are:

Augustana College
Wayne State College

Clarkson College
University of Nebraska Omaha

College of St Mary
Nebraska Methodist College

Nebraska Wesleyan University
University of South Dakota

South Dakota State University
University of Nebraska Lincoln

Step 5: Once grants are awarded it is the institution's responsibility to monitor grants on their campus to assure that all parameters of the grants, as described in the Request for Proposal, are met.

Step 6: At the completion of the projects, invoices are to be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at South Dakota State Univeristy.

A Complete Institutional Application for Student Beyond Boundaries contains:

1. Institutional Cover Sheet / Request for Funds (RFF) - Includes an indication of funds requests, Certification and Assurances, and signatures.
2. Student Beyond Boundaries - Request for Proposal (RFP)
3. Institutional Budget Form - Consortium funds to institutions are limited to student-led mini-grants and student stipends. Institutions are encouraged to use Federal Work Study funds to support student assistants. At least 80 percent of the funds requested from the Consortium must be for service-learning mini-grants. The budget form should show whether the grantee share is in-kind or in cash and whether the cash match comes from other federal or non-federal funds. The budget form must show the cost for the program covering the period from the date of the award until the proposed grant ends (not later than December 31, 2010 for Round 3 cycle and not later than May 31, 2011 for Round 4 cycle).

Submission:

Proposals must be submitted via email or fax by January 5, 2010 (for Round 3 cycle), not later than 6pm Central Standard Time to: 

Midwest Consortium for Service-Learning in Higher Education

Attention: Deborah Eisloeffel

Fax: 402-472-8140

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it