Any non-profit institution of higher education is eligible to apply for a grant from NPFI. The applicant must be a full-time or adjunct instructor with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to carry out the proposed project.
The grant proposal should identify:
- a specific course that will be offered during the spring, summer, or fall semester of the upcoming calendar year,
- a specific non-profit organization,
- a specific software artifact that will help the non-profit improve one of its mission-critical activities, and
- (optionally) a specific software professional who will act as an observer and resource during the course and oversee deployment of the software after the course is completed. This option is particularly recommended for projects with larger enrollments (7-12 students).
Please submit your proposal as a single PDF file, no longer than 9 single-spaced pages. The proposal should include the following elements:
- A brief overview of the proposed project and goals, including the name of the non-profit organization that you intend to work with.
- A brief summary of the non-profit’s mission and the particular way the new software will fulfill a mission-critical need.
- A 1-page letter from the non-profit that supports the project and agrees to participate in the semester-long development process.
- Identification of an existing course that will house this project, including the number of academic credits students will receive upon completion.
- A summary of the proposed course timeline (e.g., a syllabus) to ensure that a completed prototype will be deliverable at the end of the semester.
- A summary of the preparation that students will bring to the course, including prerequisites completed and the number of students who will likely enroll.
- A brief CV for the instructor (the applicant) who will be leading the student team, including his/her most relevant teaching and/or software development experience.
- A statement that the software developed by the project will be free and open source (FOSS), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and hosted on GitHub or a comparable code-sharing repository for future reuse by others.
- (optional) Identification of the professional developer who will serve as a resource for the project, including a brief CV and a summary of his/her role in this project.
Completed proposals should be emailed to:
Allen Tucker: allen@npfi.org
Jennifer Tucker: jenny@npfi.org