wow this is cool.

but sadly it's only open to US residents. =(

Do Something Key Change Grants (Deadline: December 15)

DoSomething.org and the GRAMMY Foundation® have teamed up to give out $25,000 in community action grants to fund teen-led projects that use music to make a difference. This can be a project that you’ve already started or an idea that you’ve been cooking up. All projects should be around the theme of using music to make a difference in your local and/or global community. There will be 5 Grand Prize Winners each receiving a $3000 community action grant and an all-expense paid trip to the GRAMMY® Awards in Los Angeles on February 8th, 2009. There will also be 20 First Prize Winners who each receive a $500 community action grant. http://www.dosomething.org/programs/apply-a-key-change-grant

Youth Leaders for Literacy Grants 2009 - Deadline November 20
By Michael Minks

Youth Leaders for Literacy is an initiative of the National Education Association (NEA) and Youth Service America (YSA) to help youth direct their enthusiasm and creativity into reading-related service projects. Grant applications should propose youth leadership in developing and implementing a literacy project that begins on NEA's Read Across America Day, March 2, 2009, and culminates on YSA's Global Youth Service Day, April 24-26, 2009. During the six-week program period and beyond, we hope to create a groundswell of literacy service in communities across the country.

The NEA and Youth Service America developed the Youth Leaders for Literacy program in 2001 to encourage and celebrate literacy service of our nation's young people, and to provide them with resources to conduct reading-related activities that benefit others. Making a difference in the lives of America's children is what the relationship between the NEA and YSA is all about.

Learn more at: http://www.nea.org/readacross/volunteer/index.html
Download the application: http://www.nea.org/readacross/volunteer/images/2009yllgrantapp.pdf
The deadline to apply has been extended to November 20, 2008.

Why participate?

Something powerful happens in literacy service. There is the intrinsic reward of community involvement, but youth also learn about themselves and the importance that reading plays in their own lives. The ability to read makes everything else possible, including the opportunity to make meaningful, lifelong contributions to family, community, and the world.

Who can apply?
Applicants, ages 21 or younger, can be either individuals or groups.

When is the deadline?
Grant applications must be postmarked by November 20, 2008. Winners are usually announced in late December.

How many grants are awarded?
Each year NEA 20 grants of $500 each to student-led initiatives.

What kinds of activities are acceptable?
To be eligible for grant funds, applicants must include a scheduled activity (read aloud session, trip to the library, book-making, etc.) each week of the project period as part of the proposed service project.

UnitedHealth HEROES Service-Learning Grants (Applicants in selected states in the USA)
By Nandini Assar

UnitedHealth Heroes Service Learning Grants (applicants from selected states in the USA)

UnitedHealthcare and Youth Service America are excited to offer the UnitedHealth HEROES service-learning grant program for youth-led community education projects in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee, and in the following specific areas: Florida—selected counties, Illinois—Chicagoland and Peoria, and New York—Long Island, New York City and Syracuse.

These grants of up to $1,000 support teachers, service-learning coordinators and students in the health professions to implement service-learning projects around childhood obesity and engage children and youth ages 5 to 25 as volunteers. We encourage semester-long projects that launch in February, and celebrate Global Youth Service Day, April 24-26, 2009.

To learn more, download materials below. Questions? E-mail: healthheroes@ysa.org.

Deadline: January 15, 2009.

1. To download the Introduction and Requirements (pdf) click here.
2. We provide a brief eligibility quiz to assist potential applicants in figuring out whether they are eligible to apply. To download and take a brief eligibility quiz (htm) click here.
3. We provide the application questions in pdf format to help applicants gather relevant information prior to beginning an application. To preview the application form and guidelines (pdf) click here.
4. To download our web-based application form (htm) click here. You can save the document to your computer and complete it at another time. Please note the following:
* You must complete the entire application in one session, including the budget template. Information that you fill in cannot be saved. Please preview questions and gather information requested before you begin the application.
* You must be connected to the internet to access the online resources provided as hyperlinks in the application.
* You must be connected to the internet to submit the completed form and budget spreadsheet.
* Upon successful submission of a completed application, you will receive an automated confirmation by email. If you do not receive the confirmation, your application was not submitted correctly.

Youth Leaders for Literacy Grants 2009 - Deadline November 20
By Michael Minks
Youth Leaders for Literacy is an initiative of the National Education Association (NEA) and Youth Service America (YSA) to help youth direct their enthusiasm and creativity into reading-related service projects. Grant applications should propose youth leadership in developing and implementing a literacy project that begins on NEA's Read Across America Day, March 2, 2009, and culminates on YSA's Global Youth Service Day, April 24-26, 2009. During the six-week program period and beyond, we hope to create a groundswell of literacy service in communities across the country.

The NEA and Youth Service America developed the Youth Leaders for Literacy program in 2001 to encourage and celebrate literacy service of our nation's young people, and to provide them with resources to conduct reading-related activities that benefit others. Making a difference in the lives of America's children is what the relationship between the NEA and YSA is all about.

Learn more at: http://www.nea.org/readacross/volunteer/index.html
Download the application: http://www.nea.org/readacross/volunteer/images/2009yllgrantapp.pdf
The deadline to apply has been extended to November 20, 2008.

Why participate?

Something powerful happens in literacy service. There is the intrinsic reward of community involvement, but youth also learn about themselves and the importance that reading plays in their own lives. The ability to read makes everything else possible, including the opportunity to make meaningful, lifelong contributions to family, community, and the world.

Who can apply?
Applicants, ages 21 or younger, can be either individuals or groups.

When is the deadline?
Grant applications must be postmarked by November 20, 2008. Winners are usually announced in late December.

How many grants are awarded?
Each year NEA 20 grants of $500 each to student-led initiatives.

What kinds of activities are acceptable?
To be eligible for grant funds, applicants must include a scheduled activity (read aloud session, trip to the library, book-making, etc.) each week of the project period as part of the proposed service project.

UnitedHealth HEROES Service-Learning Grants (Applicants in selected states in the USA)
By Nandini Assar

UnitedHealth Heroes Service Learning Grants (applicants from selected states in the USA)

UnitedHealthcare and Youth Service America are excited to offer the UnitedHealth HEROES service-learning grant program for youth-led community education projects in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee, and in the following specific areas: Florida—selected counties, Illinois—Chicagoland and Peoria, and New York—Long Island, New York City and Syracuse.

These grants of up to $1,000 support teachers, service-learning coordinators and students in the health professions to implement service-learning projects around childhood obesity and engage children and youth ages 5 to 25 as volunteers. We encourage semester-long projects that launch in February, and celebrate Global Youth Service Day, April 24-26, 2009.

To learn more, download materials below. Questions? E-mail: healthheroes@ysa.org.

Deadline: January 15, 2009.

1. To download the Introduction and Requirements (pdf) click here.
2. We provide a brief eligibility quiz to assist potential applicants in figuring out whether they are eligible to apply. To download and take a brief eligibility quiz (htm) click here.
3. We provide the application questions in pdf format to help applicants gather relevant information prior to beginning an application. To preview the application form and guidelines (pdf) click here.
4. To download our web-based application form (htm) click here. You can save the document to your computer and complete it at another time. Please note the following:
* You must complete the entire application in one session, including the budget template. Information that you fill in cannot be saved. Please preview questions and gather information requested before you begin the application.
* You must be connected to the internet to access the online resources provided as hyperlinks in the application.
* You must be connected to the internet to submit the completed form and budget spreadsheet.
* Upon successful submission of a completed application, you will receive an automated confirmation by email. If you do not receive the confirmation, your application was not submitted correctly.

Calling All Green Families!

Have you and your kids worked together on a project that helps the environment? We want to hear from you! Maybe your family started a recycling program in your school or turned a vacant lot into a community garden. Enter the 2009 FamilyFun Volunteers Contest: Green Edition and tell us all about it. Five families chosen by the editors and HandsOn Network will each win $5,000 for the nonprofit of their choice, courtesy of The Walt Disney Company. We also want to hear about your family's best, most creative, and most successful Green Tips: simple ways you and your kids have changed your lives to reduce your impact on the planet, such as switching to reusable lunch containers or starting a walking school bus to get kids to school.

The 25 families whose green tips are chosen for publication will each receive $100. Go to www.FamilyFun.com/volunteers for official rules and submission instructions. The deadline is November 30, 2008, so we hope to hear from you soon!

It's not too late to make your vision a reality through the State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grant or the Disney Minnie Grant. Application deadlines have been extended to October 30th, 2008. For more information, visit www.ysa.org.


State Farm® Good Neighbor Service-Learning grants (US and Canadian Applicants)

With generous support from the State Farm Companies Foundation, Youth Service America is offering the annual State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grant for youth-led community improvement projects across the United States and Canada (Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick provinces only). These grants of up to $1,000 support teachers and service-learning coordinators in engaging students (ages 5-25) to implement service-learning projects for Global Youth Service Day, April 24-26, 2009. We encourage semester-long projects that are launched on Martin Luther King Day on January 19, 2009 and extend through Global Youth Service Day. To learn more, download our NEW electronic application, grant guidelines, and budget spreadsheet at www.YSA.org/awards. Questions? Please contact goodneighbor@ysa.org. Deadline: October 30, 2008

The Disney Minnie Grants GYSD 2009 (U.S. and International Applicants)

The Walt Disney Company and Youth Service America are excited to announce grants of up to $500 to support child-led service projects. These grants support children (ages 5-14) in planning and implementing service projects in their community. Teachers, older youth (15-25), and youth-serving organizations are also eligible to apply, if they engage younger children in planning and implementing the project. A significant part of the service must take place on GYSD 2009, April 24-26. We particularly encourage applicants to address the environmental issues and to seek to empower children as young citizens through their projects. Applicants can use the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a reference and review past grantees’ projects from all over the world at: http://www.ysa.org/AwardsGrants/DisneyMinnieGrants/DisneyMinnieGrantees2008/tabid/292/Default.aspx. Applications are welcome from all countries. Applicants from India, China and Russia are especially encouraged to apply. While grant information is made available in Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish, applications will only be accepted in English (an online translation tool is available at the YSA website).. Past Disney Minnie Grantees are also eligible to apply. Questions? Email MinnieGrant@ysa.org. Deadline: October 30, 2008. Be sure to download the correct application and review all application materials, available at www.YSA.org/awards.

Project 10 to the 100 presented by Google.com

Why this project?

Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.

The question is: what would help? And help most?

At Google, we don't believe we have the answers, but we do believe the answers are out there. Maybe in a lab, or a company, or a university -- but maybe not.

Maybe the answer that helps somebody is in your head, in something you've observed, some notion that you've been fiddling with, some small connection you've noticed, some old thing you have seen with new eyes.

If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We're looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we're committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.

How it works

Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Here's how to join in.

1. Send us your idea by October 20th.
Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.
We'll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. Send me a reminder to vote.

3. We'll help bring these ideas to life.
We're committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

September 27th is the ServiceNation Day of Action. This day is about telling the story of service — how it transforms our communities while simultaneously transforming citizens. This day is also about the vision of a country where 1 million people are serving full time or part time annually and 100 million people are volunteering throughout the year to address our nations most pressing unmet needs. The theme of the Day of Action is “What If….” “What if” paints a picture of a world where service is brought to scale: What if every child had a mentor? What if every child graduated from high school? What if our parks, rivers, and open spaces were void of pollution and trash? What if service became a right of passage and not a punishment or chore? To learn about events going on in your community, or to register your own, please visit: http://events.servicenation.org/signup.