Funding Opportunities for Community-Engaged Learning and Scholarship
Grants are available to Loyola faculty, students, and staff who are working with community
partners. In addition to our standard CELS grants, which are offered on a rolling
basis, we also offer two time-sensitive grant programs: Course-Development Grants and Kolvenbach Grants.
CELS Grants can be used for a wide range of projects. Examples are provided below, but this list is not exhaustive. Applicants are encouraged to be creative with their proposals. Please note that funding requests above $500 will need to be approved by the Committee on Engaged Scholarship, so the review process may take longer. Most grants are reviewed on a rolling basis throughout the year, and approval is contingent on our remaining budget.
Award recipients will be required to provide timeline and expenditure updates and submit a final report.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please reach out to our team at cels@loyola.edu.
Potential Uses for CELS Grants
Most of our grants are awarded on a rolling basis. Below are some possible uses for these grants, but this list is not exhaustive. Have a funding idea that doesn’t fit into any of the examples below? Please contact us. We love to explore new ways that funds can be used to support community-engaged teaching and scholarship!
Professional Development - Support fees for conferences, trainings, or other experiences to learn about community-engaged learning and scholarship.
Project Funds - Support expenses to develop, mobilize, and implement joint community workshops and collaborative service project activities.
Course Operating Funds - Support expenses to enhance community-engaged learning courses or develop service component modules within courses. This might include purchasing equipment or materials or some other expense related to community-engaged learning.
Campus-Community Partnerships in Knowledge - Fund speakers, events, workshops, and service events held on or off campus and inclusive of Loyola and Baltimore communities, especially those served by the York Road Initiative.
Class on the Corridor Grants - Plan an outing with your class on the York Road corridor, and CCSJ will cover up to $250 of the cost. These grants can only be used to reimburse purchases made on York Road (between Northern Parkway and 42nd St.) Note: this particular program is not limited to community-engaged courses—any faculty or staff member at Loyola is welcome to apply.
Community-Engaged Scholarship - Fund expenses related to implementing community-engaged projects/scholarly endeavors or presenting community-engaged scholarship at conferences.
Course-Development Grants
Course Development Grants are available to support faculty as they create new community-engaged courses. Faculty may use a Course Development Grant to revise a community-engaged course with a new emphasis or new community partner, to adapt a course that currently has no community engagement, or to create a completely new course.
Faculty members who receive a Course Development Grant will earn a $1,000 stipend for their preparatory work and be eligible for Course Operating Funds when the class is first offered.
Course Development Grants will follow the guidelines below:
- Course preparation work must be completed during the spring and summer of 2025.
- The course must be offered at least once during the 2025-26 academic year. If you’re unable to offer the course until the 2026-27 year, please email Stephen Park (smpark@loyola.edu) to discuss options.
- Community-engaged learning must be central to the course.
- Faculty and students will work closely with a community partner.
Applications are due by December 16, 2024.
Kolvenbach Grants
Inspired by an October 2000 address by Rev. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Loyola University Maryland offers the Kolvenbach Research Grant Program to support socially engaged research. The program seeks to honor Loyola's research strengths and galvanize the institution's commitment to faith and justice work that serves the needs of the underserved in the Baltimore community and beyond. Work may be conducted during the academic year or summer. These grants are available to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and community partners.
Applications are due by March 10, 2025.