Campus Evangelization Initiative

 

The Associates of St. John Bosco is pleased to announce the RISE [Renewal through Innovative Student Evangelization] Awards, an exciting initiative to foster innovation, reward creativity, and evangelize college campuses like never before!

The Associates of St. John Bosco will award up to a total of $25,000 to up to three (3) Catholic Campus Ministries (CCM) in Virginia, Maryland, and/or Washington D.C. who plan and execute the most creative evangelization and outreach plans in order to reach college students on their respective campuses.

 

The application will open on March 1, 2025, and close at 11:59 PM ET on May 1, 2025.

 
 

Application Guidelines

Catholic Campus Ministries for colleges and universities in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are invited to apply for an award to help fund the execution of their most creative evangelization project to reach one of the following groups:

  • Freshmen

  • Fallen-away Catholics

  • The “Nones” (unaffiliated or disaffiliated people of faith)

  • Athletes

  • Other

A CCM may submit more than one application, but each application from the same CCM must be for a different group above (only the first such submitted for a group will be evaluated). Submissions will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. Excellent submissions may result in the request for additional information or an interview. ASJB reserves the right to award more or less than the amount requested or reject applications that are not consistent with the goals of this initiative. All complete submissions will receive a response on or about May 5, 2025. Those chosen for Round 2 must complete the comprehensive Project Plan by June 1, 2025. Winners will be announced in mid-June 2025. All funded applications will be posted on the ASJB.org website. By submitting an application, you agree to grant ASJB and others the use of your ideas under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

The award process has three steps for your CCM:

  1. Submit an Application with your Idea and Simple Budget by the May 1, 2025 deadline.

  2. CCMs that advance to Round 2 will be notified by May 5, 2025 to submit their full Project Plan and Detailed Budget by June 1, 2025.

  3. RISE Awardees will be selected and notified by mid-June 2025 and provided funding shortly thereafter. Within three months of the event date, RISE Awardees must provide a revised Project Plan and Video Summary.

FAQ

  • The world is your oyster! We cannot offer suggestions at this time as the goal of the project is ingenuity and zeal - get brainstorming and see what you come up with! Every campus is different and each ministry has different needs - allow this project to help fill the needs of your CCM and campus as a whole.

    • The project can last any length of time in the 2025-2026 school year.

    • The project could be anywhere from a few hours to lasting the whole year long.

    • The RISE Awards will be given to the winner(s) of the Campus Evangelization Initiative shortly after being notified of their winning in mid-June 2025.

    • If selected, you must send in a final single PDF with photocopied receipts of all the expenses for the project.

    • If the amount spent on the project comes under the budgeted amount by more than $500, you must return the remainder to ASJB at the same time that the final project plan and video are submitted.

    • All finalists will be asked to complete a Project Plan utilizing a provided template. Applicants will be selected from these finalists and provided funding to implement their ideas. All funded projects must document their project and within three months after the activity, provide ASJB with a final Project Plan (as implemented) and a 3-5 minute video on how the project was carried out and its impact.

    • Each winning CCM must create a video to detail the success of the Campus Evangelization Initiative on their respective campus. The goal of this video is twofold: 1) ASJB will share the video on its digital platforms to reach other campus ministries to inspire creativity in their outreach on their own campuses. 2) ASJB will share with its networks and donors how the award money was impactful for the specific campuses in leading souls to Christ.

    • The video should be 3-5 minutes long with a horizontal (landscape) orientation. While we don’t necessarily expect a professional video, we’re still looking for high quality video, photos, and audio to be included to be shared with ASJB’s networks and digital platforms. We’re looking for a creative, well-executed video.

    • The video style should include compilation or advertisement style content. We’re looking for something punchy and exciting to watch. The video can include clips of students talking, however, this should only be a short aspect of the video. 

    • Some prompts to think about for the video could include: 

      • How was the grant money impactful for your campus? 

      • What need did your campus have that this money helped fill? 

      • How can your specific creative campus outreach inspire other campuses to use ingenuity in their outreach to their campus?

      • How was your ministry affected by the call for creativity in campus outreach? 

    • We highly recommend documenting videos/photos throughout the planning and execution process of your project so you can easily have content to pull from for the video.

  • The application will be open on March 1, 2025, and close at 11:59 PM ET on May 1, 2025. Those CCMs chosen for Round 2 will be notified by May 5, 2025, and will be asked to produce a comprehensive Project Plan by June 1, 2025.

    • The awarded money cannot be used to bring in another group to do evangelization for your CCM (ie: FOCUS, SPO, etc).

    • CCMs must use the money only for the project that they apply for. The money cannot be used for outside projects/purposes.

  • Please join us on one of our Zoom calls, which will answer any more questions you may have. Please register for one of the following times:

    March 11 at 12pm (1 hour)

    March 19 at 7pm (1 hour) 

    Please pre-submit your questions to rise@asjb.org so that we can ensure we get to everyone’s pressing questions!