1) Enhance Educational Experience
The Community Volunteer Foundation seeks to encourage a range of programs that will broaden students’ outlooks and perspectives, and introduce them to ideas and experiences that will educate them and better prepare them for their adult lives. We seek programming that instills in participating students a better understanding of the greater Santa Barbara community and involves interactive education that cannot be matched by a classroom lecture.
2) Foster Greater Awareness
The Community Volunteer Foundation holds that there are important issues in the greater Santa Barbara community that go neglected by the general student body. The Foundation expects formal and active outreach to the student body by its grant recipients. This may include, but is not limited to, presentations, panels, conferences, and other active attempts at outreach. In this way, we seek projects that will foster greater awareness of community issues in students that are not currently a part of the program, and allow such students an opportunity to volunteer and participate in the project.
3) Engage Students as Volunteers or Leaders
The Community Volunteer Foundation aims to provide assistance to student-involved community programs and/or projects. This aim includes aiding students who are looking to create or develop a volunteer service project. We hold that fostering such projects through financial and social support will enable larger avenues of community service for students, benefit the greater community, and empower a future generation of student leaders.
4) Strive to Have a Meaningful and Lasting Impact
The Community Volunteer Foundation seeks projects that are forward-looking, which entails a desire for future growth and expansion while also taking measured steps to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability. Grant applicants must have a target demographic in mind that will directly benefit from the project’s activities, and an openness to modify their practices in the future if such a benefit is not achieved to the degree aspired for. The Foundation is looking to fund projects that demonstrate a unique vision that is comprehensive and distinguishable from direct practices of charity.