International Civic Engagement

Congressional Research Awards Announcement

DEADLINE: All proposals must be received no later than February 1, 2008.

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. A total of up to $30,000 will be available in 2008. Awards range from a few hundred dollars to $3,500.

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible.  The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research.

The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study.  Organizations are not eligible. Research teams of two or more individuals are eligible. No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a Congressional Research Award.

There is no standard application form. Applicants are responsible for showing the relationship between their work and the awards program guidelines.  Applications are accepted at any time. Applications which exceed the page limit and incomplete applications will NOT be forwarded to the screening committee for consideration.

All application materials must be received on or before February 1, 2008.  Awards will be announced in March 2008. Complete information about eligibility and application procedures may be found at The Center's Web site: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_CRAs.htm. Frank Mackaman is the program officer -- fmackaman@dirksencenter.org

The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress and its leaders. Since 1978, the Congressional Research Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out $680,000 to support 350 projects.

Congressional Research Awards Announcement

DEADLINE: All proposals must be received no later than February 1, 2007.

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants totaling $30,000 in 2007 to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. 

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible. The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research.

The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study.  Organizations are not eligible.  Research teams of two or more individuals are eligible. 

There is no standard application form. Applicants are responsible for showing the relationship between their work and the awards program guidelines.

Applications are accepted at any time. Incomplete applications will NOT be forwarded to the screening committee for consideration.

All application materials must be received no later than February 1, 2007.  Awards will be announced in March 2007.

Complete information about eligibility and application procedures may be found at The Center's Web site: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_CRAs.htm.  Frank Mackaman is the program officer -- fmackaman@dirksencenter.org.

The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress and its leaders. Since 1978, the Congressional Research Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out $680,000 to support 350 projects.

My 500th Post - Kiva Update

I wanted my 500th post on this blog to be special, and I found the perfect story to share.

This morning, I received an e-mail from Kiva, the online microfinance web site.  A Kenyan entrepreneur, whom I co-sponsored a few months ago, has made her first scheduled repayment on her loan.

In visiting the Kiva web site this morning, I noticed that with a $25 advance, I could complete a loan to a woman from Togo who intends to open a haberdashery.  I joined 29 other individuals from throughout the United States and Canada to help this woman realize her dream.

I want to congratulate the Kiva staff for their extraordinary vision.  Kiva epitomizes international civic engagement, the theme of this blog.

Call for Proposals to Fund Ideas to Improve Life for Poor People

The World Bank is looking to award at least $4 million in grant awards to the most innovative initiatives that promote good health, adequate nutrition, and access to knowledge and services for reproductive health in developing countries that are targeted to poor communities.

The theme of the 2007 Global Development Marketplace “Improving Results in Health, Nutrition and Population for the Poor,” aims to attract ideas that test and advance:

• Innovative mechanisms to reach vulnerable groups;
• Public-private partnerships to improve delivery of health goods and services;
• Innovative inter-sectoral linkages, such as improving water supply, sanitation services, indoor air pollution, roads, etc., for illness/disease/injury prevention; and
• Cost-effective approaches/methods/technologies to improve local capacity to gather, analyze and apply health, nutrition and population data.

Examples of previous Development Marketplace winners in health, nutrition, and population include a pilot health care system managed by commercial sex workers in Bangladesh, a project to improve distribution of vaccines and medicines in rural Mozambique, and one that enables community health workers in Kenya to collect and analyze public health information through handheld software tools, among others.

To date, the World Bank has disbursed roughly $28 million in awards to over 200 winners around the world through its Development Marketplace Global Competitions. The competition is open to all—eligibility criteria, competition guidelines, and step-by-step instructions are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, at the Development Marketplace website: www.developmentmarketplace.org.

Proposals will be accepted in English only through the on-line application form on the website. The deadline for submitting proposals is November 17, 2006 (10 a.m. GMT) All eligible proposals will be screened by sector specialists in health, nutrition, and population and approximately 100 finalists will be selected to prepare a more complete proposal and to attend the Marketplace and Knowledge Exchange in Washington DC in May 2007. There, an independent jury comprised of leading representatives of academia, civil society, foundations, government, donors and the World Bank, will select 30 to 40 winners to receive grant funding.

Small Grant Available to Midwestern Organizations That Want to Dialogue about Love

The Mystery of Love Project is a national community-based initiative that is focused on putting love into action though a community dialogues. The project is part of a  Fetzer Foundation  multi year campaign on love and forgiveness (http://www.fetzer.org/LoveAndForgive/).   The first film in the 3 part campaign is a documentary called The Mystery of Love (produced by the same people who did Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth), which will be broadcast on PBS in December. The documentary expands on the popular notion of love to include the many forms that it takes- from family and friendship, to carrying love into the greater community through altruism and volunteerism.   We are currently completing the process of identifying 10 community sites that will receive small grants to hold these community dialogues. Each organization selected will receive ample support in dialogue design, media, and facilitation. WE ARE SPECIFICALLY LOOKING FOR ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE NOT BASED ON THE COASTS to participate. If you are interested, please e-mail Leah Lamb at Leah@activevoice.net.

Service-Learning Grants Available

State Farm® and Youth Service America (YSA) know that students, teachers and schools can use service-learning as a tool to help youth build stronger academic skills, foster civic responsibility and develop leadership abilities. Service-learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service and curriculum or program-based learning. Join millions of young people across the globe who are impacting their communities through service-learning.

Youth Service America and the State Farm Companies Foundation are offering the State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grant for youth across the United States. These grants of up to $1,000 support youth (ages 5-25), teachers, or school-based service-learning coordinators in implementing service-learning projects for National and Global Youth Service Day, April 20-22, 2007. To learn more, download an application and grant guidelines at www.YSA.org/awards or email GoodNeighbor@ysa.org. Projects can address any number of themes including the environment, disaster relief, health, teen issues, education, interfaith dialogue, intergenerational relationships, homelessness, and literacy, amongst others.