DIVISION OF STUDENT SERVICES

SEEDS (Students for Education, Empowerment, & Direct Service)

Find an Opportunity

Sources of Funding

Another summary of grants and awards open to Reed students can be found here.

Domestic

Break Away
Break Away lists fundraising resources, including a partnership with Better World Books to hold Book Drives for Better Lives on campus to raise money for your cause.

The Do Something Awards
If you're 25 or under, and have been working on a problem in your own community, you could win a $10,000 grant and pretend you're a celebrity at a "star-studded gala." One young person will also win $100,000 to further thier work.

Echoing Green Fellowship Program
Echoing Green provides financial and technical support during a two-year fellowship not for full-time students, but for individuals or partnerships with new and exciting ideas for tackling social problems.

Everett Public Service Internship Program
The Everett program provides a $230/wk stipend for ten-week summer internships at participating organizations, the names of which can be found at their website. Most seem to be in New York and Washington, D.C. Students apply to the organization, including the information that they're applying for an Everett position, and if they're lucky they get a position and money.

Green Corps Environmental Leadership Training Program
Green Corps is a non-profit Field School for Environmental Organizing, founded by leading environmentalists in 1992 to identify and train the next generation of environmental leaders. The program begins in August with the Introductory Classroom Training in Boston, and concludes with graduation in August, the following year. 35 people are invited to participate in the program.

Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship

The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship was established in 1987 to provide college graduates with the opportunity to gain a Washington perspective on key issues of peace and security by working with nonprofit, public-interest organizations.

J. W. Saxe Memorial Prize
An award of $2000.00 is given to university students who propose projects that will involve them in some aspect of public service in the U.S. or abroad. The award is meant to enable students to gain practical experience in public service by taking a no-pay or low-pay job or internship during a summer or a semester. Preference will be given applicants who have already found such a position but who require additional funding.

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New AmericansThe Soros Fellowships provide opportunities for continuing generations of able and accomplished new Americans to achieve leadership in their chosen fields. The Fellowship provides half tution and $20,000 maintenance for two years. Candidates must be either holders of green cards, naturalized citizens, or children of naturalized citizen parents.

SEEDS Mini-Grants
Available only to Reed students. 

 

Potentially International

The Ananda Foundation
"Through humble efforts we can make a difference in the world one life at a time. We believe that four main factors contribute to global poverty: Social injustice, economic disparities, lack of access to health services and educational opportunities. We support projects that work towards the improvement of these factors. We feel the best investments are in health and education. We consider each project an investment and every life a potential success. Ananda Foundation supports projects in the following areas:

 * Improving the health of vulnerable populations
 * Providing educational opportunities for children
 * Supporting economic empowerment through small loans (microcredit)
    and training for women that facilitates entrepreneurship & fosters
    small business development."

Brower Youth Award
This award annually honors six young people (ages 13-22) in North America for outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and environmental justice advocacy. Samples of projects and campaigns eligible for award include those dealing with conservation, preservation, and restoration. The winners of the award receive a $3,000 cash prize, a trip to California for the award ceremony and wilderness camping trip, and ongoing access to resources and opportunities to further their work at Earth Island Institute.

The Davis Projects for Peace

Dell Social Innovation Challenge
The University of Texas and Dell are looking for college students from around the world who want to improve areas of critical human need through innovation. Providing a vehicle for taking student innovations from idea to reality, Dell’s Social Innovation Challenge is a real-world exercise for perfecting your skills in:
 * Project/business plan development
 * Pitching ideas to investors
 * Building resource networks

Do you have groundbreaking idea in mind? With your fortitude and personality, can you mobilize people and resources to affect wide-ranging, scalable social change? If so, we invite you to register now. Tackle a pressing social issue -- win a $50,000 prize to put your plan into action.

Qualifications: Current undergraduates or graduate students.

McGill Lawrence Internship Award

Mellon Environmental Studies Summer Experience Fellowship
Mellon Environmental Studies Fellowships are intended to support continuing Reed students pursuing environmentally-themed summer opportunities for which no compensation is otherwise available. These opportunities might include internships at nonprofit agencies or field research internships/training (on or off-campus). Award amount is $3800 stipend for a minimum 10 weeks fulltime engagement, with up to $700 additional funds for budgeted travel and supplies.

Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award
The Campus Compact, an organization to which Reed belongs, sponsors this award for public service. Each member president can nominate one undergraduate student for the award, and five students total are chosen to receive recognition of their achievements in the past year and $1,500 to help support their service program.

The Samuel Huntington Public Service Award
"The Samuel Huntington Public Service Award provides an annual stipend of $10,000 for a graduating college senior to pursue public service anywhere in the world. This allows recipients to engage in a meaningful public service activity for one year before proceeding on to graduate school or a career."

Students Serve
"If you're a college or graduate student and have an idea to use your knowledge to make a difference, we want to hear about it. Submit an online application, and you may get the money you need to make it happen. In our previous application cycle in the fall, we awarded 7 grants, and you can learn about their projects on our website. We encourage any student with an idea about how to address a local, national, or global problem to submit an online application."
Application period: Feb. 1 - March 15.

 

Strictly International

Cross Cultural Solutions
CCS is an international NGO dedicated to providing opportunities for volunteering abroad. They provide information and support for fundraising to cover program costs.


Fulbright Grants for Educational and Cultural Exchange
The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. This is administered through Reed; for further instructions, see Jo Cannon in Eliot 422.

Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarships
In order to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries, the Ambassadorial Scholarships program includes scholarships for undergraduate students. The scholars are supposed to servce as "ambassadors of goodwill" to their hosts and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups. When they come back home, scholars share their experiences with local Rotarians and others.

Volunteers for Peace International Workcamps
Provides consultation and placement service for workcamp hosts and volunteers.

CIEE Scholarships
The Council on International Educational Exchange offers scholarships for its own exchange and volunteer programs. See the website for more information.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
Graduating seniors are nominated by their schools for a year of travel in an unfamiliar country and a $22,000 stipend. A number of Reed students have gotten this fellowship over the years. You have to have your own creative and personally significant project in mind: no formal study, no full-time training, and no submission to a volunteer organization's schedule.

AIF Service Corps Fellowship
The American India Foundation aims to build bridges between American and India by sending talented/skilled young Americans to work with NGOs in India through its Service Corps Fellowship. The ten-month program includes training, supervision, a stipend that covers food, housing and other needs, and the opportunity have a significant impact on a community's welfare. Fellows must have an undergraduate degree before the program starts.

Freeman Asia Awards
The primary goal of the Freeman-ASIA Program is to increase the number of American undergraduates who study in East and Southeast Asia, by providing students with the information and need-based financial assistance they will need. Awardees will be expected to share their experiences with their home campus to encourage study abroad by others, and to spread understanding of Asia in their home communities. Eligible study abroad programs must be country-based and a minimum of 12 weeks for the spring semester. Eligible students are U.S citizens or permanent residents, enrolled as undergraduates in good academic standing in an accredited U.S. college or university, and currently receiving financial aid or have verifiable need for financial assistance to study abroad in Asia.

Bridging Project Scholarships for Study Abroad in Japan
The ATJ Bridging Project offers scholarships to American students participating in semester- or year-long study abroad programs in Japan. Undergraduate students majoring in any field of study are eligible to apply for these scholarships. Japanese language study is not a prerequisite. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and be enrolled as undergraduates in a college or university in the U.S. Recipients of Briding Scholarships will recieve a stipend of $2,500 (semester long programs) or $4,000 (academic year program).

 

Searchable Databases

Cornell
Cornell's Einaudi Center for International Studies lists a large number of funding opportunities, searchable by category.

Foundation Center
A database of grantmakers and funders which also includes statistics on philanthropy and profiles of each organization.