Project Gallery

The Be a Philanthropist project has provided valuable experience for students, donor foundations, and grant applicants since the beginning of Grantwell. Inspired by Bill Somerville’s grassroots philanthropy philosophy, the Peery Foundation partnered with Grantwell to award $500 micro-grants to individuals and organizations seeking to do good and started this unique program.

Be a Philanthropist provides a unique classroom philanthropy opportunity that gives students, future non-profit professionals, and others a chance to be the one giving grants instead of applying for them. Rather than donating one grant to an organization of their choice, students develop criteria based on the donor foundation’s values to evaluate applications and award $500 to 20 distinct projects per semester. Every year, interested organizations and individuals are encouraged to apply and the student team selects those that best fit the criteria. The team has increased its marketing efforts over the years, consistently asking one question through various channels: What good can you do with $500?

The Sorenson Legacy foundation has continued where the Peery Foundation started and continues to fund Be A Philanthropist as Grantwell’s partner. In the 2017-2018 school year, Be a Philanthropist students evaluated dozens of applications and approved 40 projects on five different continents. Since the start of Be A Philanthropist, over 200 grants totaling over $100,000 has been given in micro grants. Whether the grants have gone toward buying dozens of chicks to help feed orphans in Thailand, provide fresh underwear for Syrian refugees, or purchase musical instruments for a local Title I middle school, participants have found that $500, matched with a good idea, can do a whole lot of good.
To learn more about Be A Philanthropist or to apply for a grant yourself, visit beaphilanthropist.com

The Granite Education Foundation is ranked as one of the top 25 education foundations in the nation. To continue to improve their services, they are seeking to implement impact evaluations into their program. This project consists of conducting market research to find what methods are being used by other foundations and thereby develop a implementation plan for Granite Education Foundation to measure both short term and long term impact. This will also allow them to expand their funding sources as they can show donors the measurable impact of their service.

Refugee & Immigrant Services is a Latter-day Saint Charities initiative focused on supporting the well-being of immigrants and refugees as they integrate into their new communities and become self-reliant. A portion of the work is done through volunteer-led activities, but a larger portion is through donations to immigrant and refugee support agencies. By partnering with community organizations, Refugee & Immigrant Services provides much-needed support and services.

Latter-day Saint Charities has partnered with Grantwell to help them disperse donations to immigrant and refugee support agencies through substantial focus grants. Our Grantwell team is creating a request for proposal document and grant application to be sent to potential partner organizations. We will also provide them with a proposed dissemination method and recommendations of organizations to whom they should send the request for proposal. This project not only gives students a chance to understand the grant-making process on the giving end, but it also allows them to take the lead in the various parts of the project.

The DentiCare project includes assisting a new nonprofit organization in developing a charter and other guiding documents.

The United Way of Utah County project includes creating governance standards and benchmarks to ensure continuing excellence within a nonprofit organization.

The Marketing Team works to expand the reach and recognition for Grantwell as an organization, both on campus and in the broader community.

1. Establish a local grassroots and strategic plan to achieve the company’s community initiative
2. Support their goal of food equity in minority and underserved communities in Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada
3. Skills utilized: corporate DE&I consulting, grant allocation, RFP, logic model creation, and presenting

1. Sorenson Legacy Foundation- funded program that allocates $10,000 a semester in a $1,000 microgrants
2. Recruit grant applicants and make grant allocation decisions
3. Skills utilized: strategic marketing, grant vetting and allocation, and understanding of grant-making environment

1. Improve the UCCJJ grant monitoring team’s ability to objectively perform risk-based monitoring of grantees and sub-grantees.
2. UCCJJ seeks an Excel based tool that employs weighted randomizing of monitoring selection based on our existing risk assessments and other monitoring criteria
3. At a minimum the tool will allow for basic input of risk scores and result in a randomized list of which grants to monitor based in part on those risk scores
4. Skills utilized: Qualitative and quantitative data analysis, Excel coding, and State government monitoring practices

1. Residents of the City of Moab voted to adopt an additional sales tax to fund recreation, arts, and parks within the City.
2. Create a committee that reviews applications for internal and external funding requests annually
3. Skills utilized: Creating grant vetting processes and allocation standards, and advising on board structure.

1. Strategically plan and organize information on Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) to help inform and direct people who have CCD related questions for the organization
2. Create a comprehensive resource that makes CCD Smiles the number one resource for individuals with CCD
3. Skills utilized: strategic planning, resource development, and marketing research