Founded in 2009, the Public Service Grant Commission is the Nashman Center’s social innovation fund supporting GW students’ innovative passions for stimulating change in Washington, DC.
The Public Service Grant Commission encourages and cultivates student-led social innovation by providing institutional support to individuals and organizations to carry out innovative, feasible community service programs and ideas.
Grant awards provide financial backing to the ideas of GW students to deliver solutions through projects and initiatives in partnership with Washington, DC area organizations. They range from $500 – $2500 per individual or group project, per deadline.
The deadlines to apply for the 2023-24 academic year are:
Round 1: March 31, 2023
Round 2: September 15, 2023
Round 3: October 31, 2023
Note: New grants will be awarded for each of the rounds!
There are two primary types of projects that are eligible for funding through PSGC, enhancement projects, and innovation projects. When preparing your application to PSGC please keep these two types of projects so that the commissioners who review applications can evaluate your project with the appropriate metrics
Enhancement Project: An action-oriented project that proposes an additional service component, which seeks to meet an organization’s mission. Enhancement projects may propose an additional component of service to bolster the organization’s capacity to meet its mission.
Example: Providing hot lunches to students involved in a nonprofit organization specializing in increasing literacy rates of underserved youth.
Innovation Project: A wholly unique focused action-oriented solution that proposes a new approach meeting pressing community needs.
Example: Starting a baseball skills training camp to address issues of childhood obesity, life skills and athletic development for young men in Ward 8 of Washington DC.
Check out this project by one of our 2018-2019 Recipients, Roger Isom Jr.
