Request For Proposals - Fiscal Year 2007
Application Deadlines:
September 1, 2006
November 1,
2006
April 12, 2007
The
mission of the UPS National Venture Fund is to enrich
educational opportunities for students and to create
efficiencies in the management and delivery systems of
higher education, typically through institutional
collaborations and uses of technology.
The Vision of
the UPS National Venture Fund:
The UPS National Venture Fund of
the Foundation for Independent Higher Education provides
a unique means to strengthen the nation’s independent
sector of higher education. It has been established to
inspire and fund creative solutions to the needs of
independent colleges and universities, and to encourage
participation in such efforts by foundations,
corporations, government agencies, individuals and other
not for profit organizations, including the state
independent college funds.
Topics of
Strategic Focus for the UPS National Venture Fund:
Beginning in Fiscal 2005, UPS
National Venture Fund Committee developed the listing
below to assist those considering an approach to the
Fund. These topics of strategic focus are an effort to
put in perspective how the FIHE network has the ability
to address significant issues and challenges to private
higher education. The primary source for these topics
is a categorization of programs that have been funded
(by the NVF) in the past; in addition, the committee
added areas of collaboration that have been recognized
by other organizations[ii].
Proposals are encouraged to address one or more of these
topic areas, but are not required to:
Administrative Restructuring/Business Process
Redesign/Cost of Education
College Preparation Programs
College/Community Engagement and Service Learning
Distributive Learning/Distance Learning
Duel Enrollment/Articulation Programs between 2-year and
4-year Institutions
Faculty Development
Learning Centered Campus
Institutional Diversity/Campus Climate
Internationalize Curriculum/Global Education
Shared Governance
Student/Faculty Research
Student Access
Student Retention
Student Learning/Assessment of Learning/Skill
Development
Technology for Teaching and Learning
Origin
of the UPS National Venture Fund:
The
UPS National Venture Fund was authorized at the Annual
Meetings of the Membership and Board of Directors, and
includes those funds available to the National Office
allocated by the Foundation’s board from the
Foundation’s UPS Educational Endowment Fund. The amount
for each fiscal year will be according to the
Board-adopted spending policy. Under this formula, for
Fiscal 2007, $430,000 has been made available to support
the National Venture Fund and the FOP Venture Fund.
Grants will typically be made in the range of $25,000 to
$50,000. Proposals for larger amounts will be fully
considered, however the Committee’s preference is to
fund a larger number of projects.
Use of UPS National Venture
Fund:
The UPS National Venture Fund
creates opportunities both for raising funds and for
distributing funds. FIHE continues to be both an award
maker and a grant seeker, consistent with the Design
Team Recommendations as approved by the Membership and
the Board of Directors at their Annual Meetings in
1999. These guidelines will focus on the awards to be
made by the UPS National Venture Fund Committee through
their regular review process.
Award Maker:
During FY
2007 (June 1, 2006 - May 31, 2007), funds available for
awards must be matched by a third party, including:
donors (corporations, foundations, government agencies
and individuals), state funds, groups of state funds,
regions, and groups of colleges.
State funds may singly, or in
collaboration with other state funds, request support
from the UPS National Venture Fund on a competitive
basis, whether for their own programs or for those of
their member colleges.
All UPS National Venture Fund (NVF)
proposals should be prepared in light of the broad
intentions of the donor (United Parcel Service) that
proceeds from the UPS Educational Endowment Fund be used
“for student educational purposes and not for
administrative, building or capital fund purposes.” The
NVF Committee, with approval of a representative of UPS,
has accepted proposals that aim to address, for example,
managerial efficiency, because there is an obvious
benefit to students.
Note: The
Venture Fund Committee also serves as the review panel
for First Opportunity Partners Venture Fund. This
process operates in tandem with the UPS National Venture
Fund and has no negative impact on the UPS National
Venture Fund.
Proposal Content:
Proposals must include the
following:
1.
Cover Sheet.
2.
Narrative addressing the nine selection
criteria (see below) - maximum of 5 pages, one
can be reserved for evaluation plan.
3.
Budget (with budget narrative).
4.
Letter of Support from State Fund Chair.
The review process will be as
paperless as possible. Proposals are to be submitted
via email to FIHE –
mgilliard@fihe.org.
v
All documents should be submitted in MS
Word format (or .pdf).
v
Please do not submit any printed
materials such as brochures, flyers, Annual Reports,
etc.
Selection Criteria:
Applicants are encouraged to use
the criteria as a guide for organizing their grant
proposal.
I.
Purpose of the UPS National Venture Fund Program
The project MUST fulfill one or
more of the four UPS National Venture Fund Program
purposes:
a)
Enriches educational opportunities for students;
or
b)
Creates efficiencies in the management of higher
education; or
c)
Creates efficiencies in the delivery systems of
higher education; or
d)
Increases the capacity of institutions to
effectively utilize technology to enhance the quality
and efficiency of administrative systems, or promote
teaching and learning.
II. Significance – Refer to
“Topics of Strategic Focus”
The discussion of the problem or
need the proposed project will address represents
thoughtful consideration of a significant issue facing
private liberal arts colleges and universities. The
discussion should be concise, logically developed and
convincing.
III. Project Creativity and
Relevance
The proposed solution is
creative and relevant to the unique history
and development of private higher education in a
particular state or region, and the solution builds upon
research and experience of others.
IV. Project
Design
The proposed project includes
appropriate goals, strategies and timelines.
V. Organizational Readiness
Evidence is provided that the
partnering institutions have the capacity, knowledge and
skill to implement the proposed project, including the
use of consultants when appropriate.
VI. Value of Collaboration
Project takes advantage of the
opportunity for all or a portion of the institutions
within a state fund to collaborate with each other,
and/or the state fund office. As a result of the
collaboration, the project seeks to maximize
institutional operating efficiencies, revenues and
expenditures, or enhance the quality and/or quantity of
specific programs or activities.
VII. Project Evaluation
The proposal must include an
evaluation plan that is representative of the project’s
stated goals and objectives. The plan must include the
identification of benchmarks or indicators of program
success by which the proposed activities will be
measured. The plan must provide a timeline of
activities, and describe the data collection process
that will be used. The plan must indicate if the
evaluation is designed to be formative, summative, or
both. For those evaluations designed to measure a
change in some phenomena, a discussion about the
baseline information that will be collected needs to be
included. Finally, the evaluation plan needs to include
a statement about how the information collected will be
used.
VIII. Replication
Project describes how it is a model
for others.
IX. Funder Recognition
The process by which UPS and the
organizations contributing matching funds will be
publicly recognized for their support of the project is
clearly and convincingly stated.
FIHE Committee Requests:
In accordance with the
Board-approved resolution, up to 25% of the annual
allocation to the UPS National Venture Fund may be used
for support for projects proposed to the National
Venture Fund Committee that will support the
organization as a whole. For suchrecommendations the
matching component may or may not be required, depending
on the nature of the project.
Review Process:
Requests for Proposals will be
distributed to all member state funds. The Venture Fund
Committee will serve as the review panel for all
proposals. The deadlines for proposal submissions
are September 1, 2006, for the September 14-15
review; November 1, 2006 for the November 14
review; and April 12, 2007 for the May review
(date, TBD).
Award
decisions will be influenced by the stated vision of the
UPS National Venture Fund and the following elaborations
on the criteria that evolved through experience in the
first four years of the program:
·
Scholarship programs, unless they include
some new programmatic emphasis, will not be viewed as
highly as more non-traditional uses of funding.
Further, scholarship programs that ensure financial aid
throughout a student’s education are rated higher than
those that do not. Note that over 80% of the
expenditures from the UPS Educational Endowment Fund to
the state partners are already committed to
scholarships.
·
Preference is given to proposals that
present “new ventures” in the spirit of the UPS National
Venture Fund and the extent to which the funding
requested would be leveraged by the applicant. It is
acknowledged that a program might be a new venture in
one state while an ongoing program in another. Creative
and innovative programs are viewed most favorably.
·
The committee is not inclined to fund
planning grants at this time;
·
Preference will continue to be given to
proposals that are 1) challenge programs for new or
increased funding where the funds are not already in
hand, or, 2) the result of challenges from other funding
organizations.
·
Matching funds must be new or increased
grants either to the state fund or member colleges.
Matches consisting of in-kind support or institutional
support from the member colleges (that is not new or
increased grants) do not qualify.
·
Funding will be granted for the initial
year of a program only, unless the case can be made that
the second proposal is a discreet project from the first
year program. Further, the committee requests that
proposals stipulate how the grantee intends to keep the
program going after the first year.
Reports
and Evaluation:
State funds will submit a final
report on their uses of UPS National Venture Funding.
Status reports will be required by the Venture Fund
Committee six months after receipt of the funds.
Reports will be required to include
the following:
