Community Investment
The Mary Gates Community Investment Scholarship provides up to $10,000 to community-engaged UW undergraduates and recent graduates to propose and carry out an ambitious, community-based project that meets a community-identified need, over a period of three to eight months.
Scholars can come from any discipline, and projects can take many forms — public service, community-based research, arts projects, small community-based social-impact ventures, or any other original idea with a clear and rigorous goal of working alongside a community to address a need that community has named. It is the newest and most open-ended of the Endowment's scholarships, and 2026 is its inaugural year, re-envisioned from the Endowment's earlier Venture Scholarship.
A community-identified need is one that a community has named for itself — out of its own experience, values, and context, through local input and participation — so that whatever is proposed is culturally grounded and genuinely endorsed by the people it is meant to serve. That emphasis runs through everything about the scholarship: scholars are expected to work as the next generation of community leaders, building on Mary Gates' public legacy, staying connected with their cohort and the Endowment, and serving as a bridge between the University and the communities they work in.
What kind of project fits
Innovative, ambitious projects built in genuine partnership with a community — closer to seed funding than to a typical scholarship, and designed to outlast the award.
The scholarship looks for projects that are innovative and ambitious — larger in scope than a typical Research or Leadership Scholarship project — and often a little risky, in the sense of a bold idea with no guarantee of success but a solid, well-formed plan behind it. It is closer in spirit to seed or start-up funding for community work, meant to encourage scholars to bring original, entrepreneurial ideas to the table. Whatever form a project takes, it should be created and carried out in genuine partnership with the community it serves, and it should include a clear plan for sustaining its impact beyond the award period.
The scholarship launches something new rather than sustaining ongoing efforts, so a project may build on past relationships or earlier work, but its core should be a fresh undertaking — a student who has volunteered overnight at a shelter, for instance, proposing to build a new food pantry program there that the shelter will carry on afterward. Campus club or RSO work is a better fit for the Leadership Scholarship; internships and paid positions within organizations are not eligible, since proposals should be original ideas separate from existing jobs. A business plan fits only if it takes the form of a small, community-based social-impact effort addressing a community-defined need, rather than start-up funding for a business in general.
Because this is a new scholarship program, there are no past Community Investment projects yet. The earlier Venture Scholarship it grew out of supported ten UW undergraduates from 2001 to 2014 with unusually ambitious work — among them an all-ages music venue, a dance piece staged in airports around the world, a songwriting tour across Washington State, and field research on rural nursing in Greenland. Those give a sense of the spirit a Community Investment project might take today. UW's Community Engagement Knowledge Hub is a good place to find tools, definitions, and training to help shape a proposal.
Who can apply
Open to current undergraduates and recent graduates with a UW community-engagement background and working with a community collaborator and a mentor.
The scholarship program eligibility is intentionally limited to students and alumni who already have a foundation in community-based work at UW. To qualify, an applicant must be:
- A past or present Mary Gates Leadership Scholar;
- A participant in a Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center program; or
- Enrolled in (or a graduate of) UW's Leadership Minor.
Beyond that, applicants must be currently matriculated UW undergraduates, or alumni who earned their bachelor's degree within the previous academic year. UW graduates currently enrolled in a graduate program are not eligible. Individuals or small teams may apply, but a single primary representative submits the application and receives the funding on the team's behalf. Every applicant needs at least one community collaborator based in the community the project serves — external to UW, though you are encouraged to draw on UW resources as well — and at least one mentor willing to meet with you regularly throughout the project. Projects must run at least three to eight months and carry that clear plan for both the community work itself and the continuation of its impact afterward.
Students who receive need-based financial aid can find guidance on the Endowment's financial aid page about how a Mary Gates scholarship might affect their aid package.
Timeline
The Community Investment cycle runs on its own timeline in the spring; current dates TBD.
The Community Investment Scholarship runs on its own application cycle, separate from the Autumn cycle for the Research and Leadership Scholarships.
Questions are always welcome at mgates@uw.edu.