Competition for the Impact Awards is strong. Here are some tips for putting together a successful Impact Award application that may stand out among all the others:
1. Define your project
Keep the main purpose of the Impact Award in mind: to pursue objectives that expand the impact of the knowledge and skills gained during your Fellowship experience.
2. Think about the long term
When thinking and writing about your potential project, please be sure to spend a lot of time on the most important aspect: impact.
How will your project make a difference in your community? How do you hope to make a difference?
The more you stress the potential impact of your project and the steps you will take to gauge this impact, the better.
3. Keep it simple
Be straightforward and clearly define your project and goals with concise responses to application questions.
Similar attention should be given to the budget page of your application.
4. Strong letters of commitment
Letters of support from partnering organizations demonstrate to the review committee that not only are you committed to the success of this project, but others are, too.
The stronger the evidence of support from institutions relevant to the proposed project and its objectives, the more competitive your application will be.
Regardless of whether such institutions can provide matching funds, it should be clear that the institution is making a good faith effort to support the project with Alumni Impact Award funding. Proposals that appear to depend only on Alumni Impact Award funding for support may not be considered competitive.
