Competition Seeks College-App Ideas

October 28, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute

Applying to college, navigating financial aid, and staying in school are especially difficult for low-income students who are the first people in their families to seek higher education. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks social media might be able to help.

The grant maker is accepting proposals for a $2.5-million fund to finance the development of Facebook apps that help first-generation students apply to, attend, and stay in college. Grants will range from $50,000 to $100,000, depending on the size and scope of a project. Winners will receive 40 percent of grant funds to start development; subsequent payments will be based on adequate progress in creating the product described in the proposal.

Nonprofit and for-profit organizations are eligible to apply. Submissions are due November 16, and winners will be announced in January.

For more information: Go to collegeknowledgechallenge.org.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.