FAFSA Completion Challenge Grant
Competition Announcement and Application Materials

The National College Access Network seeks proposals for the FAFSA Completion Challenge Grant from 118U.S. cities to strengthen urban postsecondary ecosystems by raising their FAFSA completion rates among high school seniors. With financial support from The Kresge Foundation, NCAN is challengingcities to raise their FAFSA completion rates among the Class of 2017 by at least 5%, compared to the Class of 2015.

Need for a FAFSA Completion Challenge
Millions of students who are eligible for aid fail to file the FAFSA each year, leaving billions of unclaimed dollars that could support their postsecondary education. A recent analysis by the financial media company NerdWallet found that of the U.S. high school graduating class of 2014, an average of 45% of students failed to complete the FAFSA. NerdWallet estimated that half of those FAFSA noncompleters would have been eligible for Pell Grants totaling an astounding $2.7 billion.

We know FAFSA completion is strongly associated with postsecondary enrollment and good postsecondary student outcomes. In fact, 90% of high school seniors who complete the FAFSA attend college directly from high school, compared to just 55% of FAFSA noncompleters. Research also tells us that every additional $1,000 in grant aid per student increases postsecondary persistence rates by four percentage points.

Two significant changes to the FAFSA in the fall of 2016 will make applying for aid easier and better timed than ever for low-income students. First, FAFSA will change to accept tax data most families have already filed earlier in the year with the IRS, which can be used to pre-populate many FAFSA questions and reduce the difficulty of completing the application. Second, the start date for FAFSA completion will move up from January 1 to October 1. High school seniors will be able to complete FAFSA and receive their federal financial aid eligibility before, rather than after, deadlines to submit college admissions applications. This shift will encourage more low-income students to complete college applications because they will know that a Pell Grant is available to them. The Obama Administration estimates that in the first year alone, these changes could help 50,000 additional students apply for and receive Pell Grants.

“These changes should help empower students with information about the financial support that is available to them before they have to make decisions about where to enroll,” said Caroline Altman Smith, Kresge’s deputy director, education. “This challenge grant program comes at an opportune time, when getting the word out about these changes is crucial. We’ve been energized by seeing many promising examples of cities significantly boosting their FAFSA completion rates, and we’re hopeful this grant competition will help even more cities develop a coordinated plan to ensure students know about the FAFSA changes and take advantage of them.”

This year is a strategic moment to increase FAFSA completion initiatives, take advantage of these beneficial FAFSA changes, and dispel old beliefs that FAFSA is too complicated or that “I’m not eligible.”Cities are a natural place to concentrate FAFSA assistance to ensure that we reach large numbers of students with support. Let’s work together to help our students access these unclaimed dollars and ultimately improve postsecondary student outcomes.

NCAN thanks The Kresge Foundation for granting the funding for the FAFSA Completion Challenge.

GRANT FUNDING and ADMINISTRATION

Funding:NCAN will make up to 20 grants of up to $55,000 each to be spent on planning and executing a citywide, cross-sector FAFSA completion effort for the 2016-17 school year.

In September 2017, NCAN will also award three to fiveadditional monetary prizes totaling $300,000 among the 20 grant-funded cities. Prizes will go to:

  • The city demonstrating greatest percentage point growth in high school FAFSA completions for the Class of 2017, compared to the Class of 2015
  • The city demonstrating the highest high school FAFSA completion rate for the Class of 2017
  • The city demonstrating the most innovative or collaborative FAFSA completion strategy and/or partnership with postsecondary institutions

Technical Assistance: NCAN will coordinate technical assistance to the 20 competing cities about effective best practices in FAFSA completion via webinars, a half-day workshop, and blogs and newsletter articles. The workshop will take place on Sunday, Sept. 18 in Detroit, Michigan, preceding NCAN’s national conference, Driving Postsecondary Attainment for All.

Eligible Cities:NCAN determined the list of 118eligible citiesusing the Census Bureau’s2014 estimated population data. It includes the 100 largest cities by population size and the largest city in each state. Cities must be included on this list to apply.

Eligible Applicants:NCAN will accept grant proposals from one of the listed organizationsin each city. Because NCAN will accept only one proposal per city, we encourage the listed organizations to work together to determine which among them is best positioned to serve as applicant.

In each city, NCAN has included the following entities in the list of eligible applicants:

  • NCAN member organizations
  • Lead organizations in Lumina Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Attainment initiative
  • Members of the StriveTogether Network
  • Former applicants to the National Talent Dividend Prize competition
  • Selected other organizations that are emerging to lead citywide college access and success initiatives
  • In some cases, public school districts and community foundations

If you believe NCAN has overlooked a relevant organization in the list of eligible applicants, please contact us using the email below. NCAN will consider whether to add the organization to the list.

Applicants must be a 501(c)3 nonprofit, K-12 public school district, higher education institution, local government agency, or community foundation.Applicants that are selected for grants that are not NCAN members may use grant funds to join NCAN during 2016-17.

Selection Criteria: NCAN will evaluate grant applications using the following criteria and information:

  • Collaboration among multiple stakeholders including, at a minimum, nonprofits, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions as well as possible participation from local government, the business community, faith-based organizations, the media, or other groups
  • Strength of a city’s FAFSA completion strategy and initial plans
  • Experience to date on FAFSA completion efforts
  • Understanding of relevant FAFSA completion dataand ability to use data to direct resources to students based on their needs
  • Geographic distribution, relative city size, poverty rates, and student demographics

FAFSA Completion Data: Each city’s FAFSA completion rate will be measured as follows:

Total FAFSAs completed by high school seniors Number of high school seniors

Applicants must submit FAFSA completion data for each public district high school located within the city’s school district, as reported by the U.S. Department of Education’s FAFSA Completion by High School tool, for January through June 2015.

To calculate a completion rate, each city must also submit its 12th grade enrollment for 2014-15 for each high school as the school district reported to the state education agency for the purposes of the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey.

These data will represent the “baseline” against which FAFSA completion from October 2016 through June 2017 will be measured. Grant winners will submit the same data set for the Class of 2017 for the purposes of prize determination.

In cities with multiple school districts within the city’s geographic boundaries, applicants must include data for the largest of those districts.Please contact NCAN using the email address below if you wish to include data from more than one district. Data become property of NCAN and are subject to verification by NCAN. Any applicant submitting invalid data will be ineligible to compete.

Grant Advisory Committee: To guide the FAFSA Completion Challengegrant, NCAN will assemble an advisory committee of individuals with expertise in FAFSA completion strategies and data as well as urban higher education ecosystems. The committee will review grant applications, advise NCAN on data issues, and confirm winners of the additional prizes described above.

Grant Application Materials: For grant application materials, visit

Application Timeline

  • Call for Proposals: March 7, 2016
  • Prospective Applicant Webinar: Wednesday, March 16, 2 PM Eastern (will be recorded and posted online)
  • Application Deadline: Friday, April 15, 2016 (11:59 PM Eastern)
  • Award Notification: May 13, 2016
  • Grant Funding Start Date: June 1, 2016
  • FAFSA Strategies Workshop: September 18, 2016, 1:30 to 5 PM (Detroit, Michigan) (attendance strongly encouraged)
  • Grant Funding End Date: No later than July 31, 2017
  • Grantee Final Report Deadline: July 31, 2017
  • Prize Announcement: September 2017

Questions: Contact Lisa King, FAFSA Completion Challenge grant coordinator, at . NCAN will post a continuously updated list of FAQs for the grant competition at

FAFSA COMPLETION CHALLENGE APPLICATION SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Applicants will save Parts I, II, and III as one single PDF.Submit Part IV as an Excel file. We are unable to review applications that do not adhere to the grant submission instructions.

The grant application should be emailed as attachments to Lisa King at with the subject line: [Organization Name] - FAFSA Completion Grant Application.File size limit is 15MB. Hard copies will not be accepted.

APPLICATION CHECKLIST

□PDF including

  • Part I – Applicant Information
  • Part II – Application Narrative & Support
  • Part III - Budget

□Excel file including

  • Part IV – Baseline data (Class of 2015 FAFSA completions and 12th grade enrollment)

PART I - APPLICANT INFORMATION

Name of Organization:
Address:
City/State/Zip:
EIN:

Executive Director Name:
Phone:
E-mail:

ProjectContact Name:
Title:
Phone:
E-mail:

Amount Requested:
Total Project Budget:

Authorized Signature:______

PART II - APPLICATION NARRATIVE & SUPPORT

Application narrative must be no more than 8 pages, single spaced, and 12 point font with 1 inch margins

Describe how your city intends to raise FAFSA completion rates among high school seniors by at least 5%for the period of October 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017, compared to the Class of 2015, including your overall goals, strategy, circumstances, and past experience. Provide a narrative that fully addresses the following topics or any other relevant information. These questions are not intended as a proposal outline.

  • Goal:What was your city’s FAFSA completion rate for the Class of 2015, and what are your goals for FAFSA completion for the Class of 2017 and beyond? Be specific about intended outcomes (e.g., “We want to increase FAFSA completion among high school seniors by X%for the Class of 2017 and by Y% by within Z number of years”).
  • Strategy:In detail, describe how your city intends to increase awareness of and participation in FAFSA completion among high school students. Consider addressingtopics such as planning, target audiences, implementation activities, general timeline, FAFSA completion assistance, marketing and promotion, use of technology, and media engagement.
  • Cross-Sector Collaboration: Please identify all collaborating organizations (new and pre-existing) in your local urban higher education ecosystem and explain their role in your city’s FAFSA completion initiative. At minimum, partnerships should include nonprofit organizations, K-12 schools, and local higher education institutions. Other partners may include local government, the business community, faith-based organizations, the media, or other groups. Describe the structure and/or mechanisms you use to coordinate among partners.
  • Experience: Please describe any current FAFSA completion effort and discuss how you will use FAFSA Completion Challenge grant funds to build momentum based on prior efforts.
  • Use of Data: How does your city use data to understand how many students are completing the FAFSA? How will you use it in real-time during October 2016 through June 2017 to guide your FAFSA completion work?
  • Local Student and High School Characteristics: Please describe thecharacteristics of your city’s students (e.g., race/ethnicity, poverty, English language learners, high school dropout rates) and their relevance to your FAFSA completion strategy.Please also provide a breakdown of student enrollment in public, charter, and parochial/private schools in the city.

Letter of Commitment: Please include a letter from the public school district superintendent or district leader of school counseling/guidanceconfirming the district’s intent to be a major partner in the FAFSA Completion Challenge.

Optional Other Documents: You may attach up to 5 pages of additional documents that will help NCAN better understand your FAFSA Completion Challenge narrative, if needed.

PART III – BUDGET

NCAN encourages applicants to cover staff time for planning and coordination. Matching funds are not required but may be included on the form if known. Please complete the budget form below or attach a similar budget form.Please round the total budget to the nearest $1,000. For information about the NCAN national conference, visit information about NCAN member benefits, visit For annual membership rates, visit

Requested Grant Funding / Matching Funds (Cash) / Matching Funds (In-Kind) / Project Totals
Salary
Benefits
Travel (may include up to $5,000 for travel and registration to NCAN 2016 conference in Detroit).
Materials & Supplies(no more than $10,000)
Contractual Services
NCAN Membership, 2016-17*
Other Direct Costs
Indirect Costs (no more than 15% of salaries and benefits)
TOTALS

* Required for those not already NCAN members.

Below this form or on an additional page, please provide a brief narrative explanation for each budget line item.

PART IV – BASELINE DATA

Please complete the required Excel spreadsheet. For each public district high school located within the city’s school district (or its largest school district when there are multiple districts), please report:

  • FAFSA completion totals for the 2015/16 Cycle through June 30, 2015,as found in the FAFSA Completion by High School tool
  • 2014-15 12th grade enrollment as the school district submitted to the state education agency for the purposes of the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey

Include all public district high schools with at least one FAFSA completion reported in the FAFSA Completion by High School tool. Do not include non-district charter, private, or parochial schools or home-schooled students.

Revised March 28, 2016

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