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Home Student Philanthropy and Grants Opportunities Student Impact Grant

Student Impact Grant

Student Impact Grants provide funding for a variety of University of Iowa undergraduate and graduate student activities outside the classroom, such as research, travel, and service projects. The goal is to enable students to pursue opportunities that might not otherwise be possible without financial assistance.

The President's Office has generously allocated $7,000 per semester to help enhance the student experience through these grants. The designated funds come from generous philanthropic gifts made by alumni and friends who have chosen to provide unrestricted support to the university.

Grants are awarded twice a year. Applications are typically accepted for the summer/fall semester beginning in January and for the winter/spring semester beginning in September.

Read the stories of previous recipients.

The grants are made possible by a partnership between the Office of the President and Student Advancement Network (SAN).

GRANT GUIDELINES

Award Application Process

Applications will be considered for funding based on the timeline below. An online form will be available for students and student groups to use when the application period opens. A maximum of $7,000 in total grants will be awarded. Grant amounts will range from $100-$1,000 awards.

Summer and Fall 2025 Semester Award Grant Cycle

  • January 27: Application opens
  • February 21: Application deadline (5 p.m.)
  • April 11: Grant recipients will be notified about funding requests for winter or spring semester.
  • April 21: Signed recipient agreement form due
  • April 29: Winter/Spring 2024 grant recipient presentations detailing how the funds were used and how the grant enhanced the recipient’s Iowa experience. This event is open to the public.
  • May 19: Award transfers/payments for summer projects
  • August 25: Award transfers/payments for fall projects
  • December 2: Summer/Fall 2025 grant recipient presentations detailing how the funds were used and how the grant enhanced the recipient's Iowa experience. This event is open to the public.

Student Eligibility Requirements

  • Applicants must be enrolled full time as a University of Iowa undergraduate or graduate student for the fall 2025 semester and be in good standing as defined in the University of Iowa Code of Student Life.
  • Student groups or organizations must be recognized by the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership or by a University of Iowa department.
  • If your program is funded in full by other programs or funding methods your program is not eligible.
  • Program/experience must abide by all university guidelines. Grant funding does not permit activities that conflict with these guidelines.
  • Program/experience must abide by all university research guidelines. Grant funding does not permit activities that conflict with Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines. Funding does not provide IRB permission for the project.
  • Funding requests must be shown to improve or enhance the student experience and may not be used to reimburse research subjects. Recipients will share about this outcome during a biannual Student Impact Grant Presentation event.
  • Once a student receives a grant, they are not eligible for another University of Iowa Center for Advancement student grant within the next three years.
  • Grants are not renewable.
  • Recipients must present during the Summer/Fall grant recipient presentation detailing how the funds were used and how your Iowa experience was enhanced because of this award. Presentations will be held on Dec. 2, 2025.

Review Process

Members of the University of Iowa Student Advancement Network will review all submissions and make a recommendation. A University of Iowa Center for Advancement employee will oversee the scoring and review process. After review, recommendations will be sent to the Office of the President, which will make the final decision on all grant awards.

Awardees will then be notified of their selection to receive a grant, and payment will be provided by the Office of the President through a transfer to the student's U-Bill or student organization's account. The University of Iowa Office of Student Financial Aid will be consulted to ensure that funding does not affect other financial aid that a student may receive.

If you have questions, please contact Hannah McClintock at hannah.mcclintock@foriowa.org.

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Old Gold: Religious Studies' Long Association with UI

The UI is home to the nation's longest-standing Department of Religious Studies at a public university. PHOTO: F.W. Kent Collection of Photographs, Faculty series, UI Archives Rufus H. Fitzgerald, an early proponent of the School of Religion, circa 1930. Editor's note: In Old Gold, University archivist David McCartney looks back at the UI's history and tradition through materials housed in University Archives, Department of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries. Religious education was not new to the State University of Iowa when the School of Religion was established in 1927. Attendance at vespers, for example, was expected of students for many years during the 19th century, and courses pertaining to the study of certain religions were offered for credit during the early 20th century before the formation of the school. PHOTO: 1960 Hawkeye yearbook, UI Archives The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's visit to the Iowa Memorial Union on Nov. 11, 1959, was sponsored by the School of Religion. What was new was the concept of organizing such a formalized degree-granting program at a public university. Iowa was the first such institution in the U.S. to do so. Today, the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as the school is now known, ranks among the nation's 25 leading programs, according to theologydegrees.org. Before going any further, Old Gold should clear up a common misconception. The university has not been, nor is it now, the home of a theological seminary. Instead of offering, say, a master of divinity degree, the university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in religious studies. The distinction is important, particularly in the context of a tax-supported institution. As Stow Persons wrote in The University of Iowa in the Twentieth Century: An Institutional History, "Religious courses simply assured a place for religious studies alongside the various secular disciplines. ... The [approach] adopted to justify religious courses in a public university?studying about religion?tacitly acknowledged the not so subtle distinction between religion as lived and religion as perceived." To some, the coexistence of science and religion at an institution of higher learning may seem paradoxical. Since its inception, however, the Department of Religious Studies has maintained its role of service in the realm of research and instruction. This was, in essence, how the university's administration envisioned the program when President Walter Jessup (34LITTD) appointed a Committee on Religious Education in 1921. The committee secured funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and other private sources to launch the school, with direction provided by Rufus Fitzgerald, secretary of the campus YMCA chapter. (Fitzgerald would later serve as director of the Iowa Memorial Union and the School of Fine Arts.) Its first director was M. Willard Lampe, who served from 1927 to 1954. PHOTO: F.W. Kent Collection of Photographs, Faculty series, UI Archives M. Willard Lampe, the first director of the School of Religion, 1927. In its early years, the program relied upon sectarian gifts to financially support faculty representing Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths, a practice intended to maintain the appearance of separation of church and state. The practice, however, brought its own set of problems. Funding from outside sources in some cases meant that donors could assume responsibility for the hiring and firing of faculty with no approval or participation by the college or administration. Critics also expressed concern about the consistency of faculty and whether they met the academic qualifications that would be expected in any other setting on campus. By about 1940, all faculty and staff in the school were paid by university funds, or were supported by private funds with the understanding that the school would exercise its authority to hire and grant tenure. Endowed chairs or funded fellowships now account for four of the program's 16 active faculty. Today the Department of Religious Studies is interdisciplinary, offering a broad and diverse curriculum of over 120 courses at the undergraduate level alone. They entail ethics, popular culture, environmentalism, human rights, gender and sexuality, politics, and anthropology, as well as its roots: studies of all major world religions. Learn more: clas.uiowa.edu/religion/

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NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity that works to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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