Throughout GivingPoint, students are rewarded for learning and serving others. For every 500 points earned, members can apply for micro-grants to fund the community projects on our website that interest them most.

Grant amounts range from $100 to $250, depending on the quality of the application and the amount of time and commitment you put into creating your giving legacies on GivingPoint.  

On the grant application, you will be asked which project from the GivingPoint PROJECTS page you would like to fund with your grant money. You can either direct your grant funds to a project that you posted, or fund a project that GivingPoint has posted.

Once your grant has been approved, GivingPoint will donate the amount you won to the project you chose. You will see your picture show up under the "Who's Donated?" section for the project.

 Remember, we want to see that you are actively working with nonprofits and building relationships with them. We want you to talk to the nonprofits you care about and encourage them to create accounts on GivingPoint and reward you with service tags. We appreciate your help marketing GivingPoint and inspiring others to become social innovators! Part of that process is reflecting on your volunteer experience and writing a compelling case for supporting a cause. We want to reward students who consistently shares their civic passion with others through periodic blogs on GivingPoint.

Keep in mind, we want to help you become a better social entrepreneur, so the application questions get more detailed as you move up in levels. To better understand the questions asked in the grant application process at each level and what we look for when reviewing grant applications, please take a look below.

1st Grant

Once you earn 500 points, you will receive an email from GivingPoint with instructions to complete your grant request for a donation that will go toward the charity of your choice. We want to reward you as we teach you about being a world class volunteer, so we have some criteria you need to fulfill before applying for a grant from GivingPoint.

A student must be have completed their profile (filled in the "About Me" and "My Legacy" sections); affiliated with the nonprofit they are requesting a grant for; posted at least 2 blogs (that are posted on different days); volunteered at least 40 hours; and uploaded a picture.   Here are some of the questions that you will be asked to complete in the grant application. 

1. Describe your volunteer experiences. 
2. Who benefited from your volunteer experience? And to what degree did they benefit? 
3. Describe the Program You Would Like to Fund with Your Grant. 
4. Describe who will be served by the project and how you want them to benefit from your donation. 
5. How do you plan to evaluate the success of the project?

NOTE:  There is a minimum of 600 characters per question.

2nd Grant

Once you earn 1000 points and become a Bronze Level Volunteer on GivingPoint, you are now eligible to apply for your second GivingPoint grant for  the charity of your choice. When reviewing the grant applications, we are looking to see if you are an active member of GivingPoint -- helping us fulfill our mission. We like to see students who are posting projects to raise funds for their causes, reflecting and blogging regularly about their volunteering experience, commenting on other blogs so students can feel a hopeful purpose in posting their stories, and getting their favored nonprofits to create accounts on GivingPoint.  You can apply for a 2nd grant if you have posted a project on GivingPoint, raised $10 for a nonprofit from your posted project and uploaded a picture from their volunteer experience. You also need to post a few more blogs about your volunteer experience.  Here are some of the questions you will be asked on the 2nd grant application.  Be sure you write about a DIFFERENT experience from the one you wrote about in your 1st application. 

1. Describe your volunteer experience or project.
2. What did you accomplish through your volunteer time?
3. What were the outcomes and results of your hard work?
4. Who benefited from your volunteer experience? And to what degree did they benefit?
5. Describe the Program You Would Like to Fund with Your Grant. 
6. Describe who will be served by the project and how you want them to benefit from your donation.
7. How do you plan to evaluate the success of the project? 

3rd Grant

Once you earn 1500 points, you will receive an email from GivingPoint with instructions on how to complete your third grant request as a Gold Volunteer Leadership member.  To get your grant approved, you must first invite 5 friends to join GivingPoint, raise at least $15 from your posted project, and uploaded a 2nd picture from a volunteer experience.  Here are the questions you will see on your 3rd grant application: 

1. What leadership positions have you held within your nonprofit? Or what volunteer activities did you help to coordinate and lead?
2. Describe your responsibilities.
3. Describe the most important leadership trait you used and why.
4. Discuss how you felt members of the group perceived you.
5. Discuss personal strengths you discovered in this position.
6. Discuss any other lessons you learned in this position.
7. Describe the Program You Would Like to Fund with Your Grant. (50 words or more)
8. Describe who will be served by the project and how you want them to benefit from your donation. (40 words or more)
9. How do you plan to evaluate the success of the project? (25 words or more)

4th Grant

Once you earn 2000 or more points and become a Platinum Community Leader, you can apply for your fourth GivingPoint grant for the charity of your choice. To get your grant approved, you must have posted a 2nd project, raised $20 on your fundraising pages, recruited at least one "supporter" to create an account on GivingPoint and received at least one service tag from a nonprofit.   

 Here are the questions you will see on your 4th grant application:

1. What leadership positions have you held within your nonprofit? Or what volunteer activities did you help to coordinate and lead?
2. Describe your responsibilities.
3. Describe a specific problem you encountered and how you worked with others to solve it.
4. Describe how you made a difference overall and/or in a specific situation.
5. Describe the most important leadership trait you used and why.
6. Discuss how you felt members of the group perceived you.
7. Discuss personal strengths and weaknesses you discovered in this position.
8. Discuss what you would change about this experience if you had it to do all over again.
9. Discuss how this experience will influence your actions as a member of groups in the future when you are not the leader.
10. How did volunteering make you feel?
11. Discuss any other lessons you learned in this position as a volunteer leader.
12. Describe the Program You Would Like to Fund with Your Grant. 
13. Describe who will be served by the project and how you want them to benefit from your donation. 
14. How do you plan to evaluate the success of the project? 

How We Review Grant Requests

Each grant is reviewed by the GivingPoint Team. Grant amounts are between $100 and $250. You can apply for up to 4 grants per year. Here’s what we consider when reading a request and deciding the grant amount:

1. How well is the grant request written?(Is it thoughtful? creative? grammatically correct? compelling?)
2. Has the grant writer posted a project? Consistently returned to GivingPoint to share stories and blog about their volunteer experience? (How well is the blog written? Does the grant writer reflect on their volunteer experience in a way that is motivating for other students?)
3. Has the student posted pictures to help tell their philanthropic story?  
4. Has the grant writer commented on other blogs or tried to encourage and motivate other students on GivingPoint?
5. Has the grant writer made an effort to recruit other students to GivingPoint?
6. Has the grant writer affiliated with other nonprofits?
7. Has the grant writer tried to market GivingPoint to nonprofits they are working with?
8. Has the grant writer received any service tags from nonprofits?