Deadline: 1/12/22 for LOI; 2/20/22 for Grant Application
Amount: $25,000-$5,000,000 (typical grant size: $1,000,000-$1,500,000)
Website: https://highered.colorado.gov/matching-student-scholarship-grants/preparing-for-application
Description:
Grants to Colorado nonprofit organizations to match educational scholarship funds on behalf of counties, community workforce programs, and institutions of higher education throughout the state. Applicants are required to submit an Intent to Apply prior to submitting a full application. Funding is intended to increase the availability of scholarship dollars for underserved students by leveraging funds and to promote student support best practices.
About the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI): The Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI) was created in 2014 to increase the attainment of postsecondary credentials and degrees for underserved students in Colorado. The project addresses this challenge by focusing on accessibility and affordability. To improve accessibility, COSI funds programs that will help prepare students for postsecondary education, as well as support them through completion. To improve affordability, COSI provides tuition support to students through matching funds for community scholarships. These approaches together work to create a strong network of support for students throughout the state as they move to and through postsecondary credentials.
Matching Student Scholarship Grants (MSS Grants) are designed to provide tuition support to students via matching funds for community scholarships so that tuition costs are not a barrier to entry and helping to reduce the currently unmanageable amount of student loan debt.
Grant awards are intended to:
- Generate greater availability of scholarship dollars for Colorado students whose income is determined to be between 0% and 250% of the maximum permissible income to determine eligibility for Pell grants.
- Promote scholarship programs that include student support services to help students persist and complete a certificate or degree in a timely fashion.
- Encourage communities to create or leverage scholarship foundations that assist their students with covering the costs of higher education and motivate students to graduate and go on to pursue a degree or credential; and
- Align tuition assistance programs with workforce development programs.
MSS Grants will be awarded in three categories or program models:
- Public Institutions of Higher Education for use at the institution. This funding is available to one applicant, specifically institution foundations, and the COSI Advisory board determines the allocation on an annual basis.
- County to provide funding for county residents at public institutions of higher education in the state. This funding is available to one applicant, specifically non-profit organizations and institution foundations, and the COSI Advisory board determines the allocation on an annual basis.
- Workforce promotes credential and degree completion in specific high-need industries or for specific vulnerable populations over the next two years. This funding is competitive and non-profit organizations and institutions of foundations are eligible to apply.
COSI requires the use of funds to begin within two years of the award year, and the grant term should be guided by the data, the needs of the student population, and allocation.
Eligible applicants:
The MSS Grant is for eligible counties, institutions of higher education, community workforce groups, and non-profit organizations—501(c)(3) or 501 (c)(4)—that are are committed to increasing the availability of scholarship dollars for Colorado students leveraging COSI funds to incentivize new philanthropic monies and promoting student support best practices aimed at completion are eligible to apply. Also, applicants should consider:
- How the scholarship program will support the Colorado Commission of Higher Education’s master plan goal to increase the number of Coloradans who hold postsecondary credentials to 66 percent by 2025.
- How data (institutional, county, enrollment rates, etc.) will be used to determine the student population’s needs and where COSI and matching funds will make the most impact on credential completion.
- How the scholarship program will support the COSI goals of increasing credential completion and decreasing student loan debt.
- How to develop a scholarship program to begin distributing funds within two years of the award year.
PROGRAM CONTACT
Colorado Department of Higher Education
1600 Broadway, Suite 2200
Denver, CO 80202