The 2025 Community Collaboration Challenge, backed by the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, offers financial awards to foster cross-sector collaboration focused on student success. Managed by the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) Support Hub at the Everyone Graduates Center, the initiative encourages projects that scale, pilot, or develop evidence-based support roles like tutors, mentors, success coaches, and post-secondary transition advisors. It is particularly focused on people-powered supports and prioritizes applicants with projects addressing chronic absenteeism or engaging high school students as student support providers. The challenge aims to enhance student support frameworks by activating partnerships among schools, nonprofits, government bodies, and community-based organizations.
Eligible applicants include U.S.-based nonprofits, school districts, city or state agencies, and institutions of higher education. Both local and national nonprofits are eligible, as are organizations from U.S. territories. Applicants should have a demonstrated capacity to convene diverse community stakeholders in support of a collective goal, and they must include a school or district partner in their proposal. Ideal proposals should feature projects that align with existing community efforts or introduce new initiatives to address local educational challenges.
Funding awards range from $5,000 to $10,000, adjusted based on the scope of the proposal. Recipients are required to complete all deliverables by June 15, 2025. The funds are designated for expenses that facilitate stakeholder collaboration but exclude uses such as legislative lobbying or non-charitable activities. No matching funds are required, and disbursements will be managed by Johns Hopkins University. In addition to funding, awardees will attend three virtual sessions to support project design, offering a platform for collaboration and sharing best practices.
Applicants must outline the types of stakeholders involved, set 1-3 project goals, and propose key activities or deliverables to achieve these goals. There is flexibility in the type of stakeholders engaged, but school or district representation is required. Awardees will have access to technical resources from the NPSS Hub, including networking opportunities and tools to identify high-quality student support providers in their area.
The application deadline is Friday, November 15, 2024, at 5:00 pm ET, with awards announced in December. To assist applicants, NPSS will hold office hours and informational webinars, including sessions on November 5 and November 13, which will feature past awardees. Questions can be directed to the NPSS team via email, and applicants can access further guidance through NPSS's voluntary quality standards for student support.
