College Well-Being Award
American College Health Foundation
https://www.acha.org/ACHF
PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Objective:  

The purpose of the American College Health Foundation’s (ACHF) College Well-Being Award Funding Opportunity is to offer up to two $3,500 awards to one or more institutions of higher education to create or improve underlying campus infrastructure (e.g., networks, resources, tools, structures, coalition-building) in a manner that raises the well-being of students as evidenced through creative programming and outcomes research initiatives. 

The Foundation’s newest award embraces the focus on well-being, a more encompassing reference to the individuals, population, and environmental state of being. The Foundation believes it is time to apply fresh thinking on how we dedicate and apply our resources to positively impact the quality of our students’ lives. This new award is intended to stimulate creative, new approaches to well-being focused programming with evaluation driven measurable outcomes. 

Why Well-being?

Merriam-Webster provides a definition:
Well-being - the state of being happy, healthy, or successful

Language tends to evolve to reflect our culture. The use of “well-being” can be found on college and university campuses as evidenced in professional titles and programs. This is a reflection of the changing nature of our students who seek something more than good health. Furthermore, there appears to be momentum to increase measurement of happiness and flourishing more so than historical measures of health.

Aspirations for success and happiness are individual priorities expressed by contemporary students. It suggests, therefore, that the strategies we employ to promote student well-being extend beyond traditional interventions of education, diagnosis, treatment, and health care at the clinical level. Through the collaborative efforts of health, academics, student affairs, and administrative colleagues, institutions of higher education can foster healthy environments and behaviors in ways that yield demonstrable feedback from students who report improvement in their well-being.

Evaluation Criteria:  

This award expands the opportunity by expanding the frameworks that proposers may choose to use. Applicants are expected to provide a local, operational definition of well-being and a description of how the proposed activities to be funded by the award will contribute to student well-being. Further, applicants must describe how they measure well-being and will evaluate the proposed funded activities.

Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

●	Clear campus definition of well-being
●	Activities linked to improving campus well-being
●	Impact on fostering a collective vision and shared responsibility for achieving the proposed outcomes
●	Collaboration in fostering a collective vision and shared responsibility for achieving the proposed outcomes 
●	The level of innovation, creativity, and potential effectiveness of the proposed project
●	Evaluation plan
●	Sustainability plan
●	Commitment of personnel and funding from the institution
●	Replicability and willingness to share outcomes with other institutions.

Eligibility Requirements:	
Only campus health professionals who are American College Health Association Individual Members or employed at an ACHA Member Institution are eligible to apply. If an applicant is not an Individual Member but is employed at a Member Institution, the institution’s representative individual member (RMI) must also sign the application. An ACHA Membership Number must be included on the application form. At least one person signing the application must be an ACHA member or RMI.

Ineligible Requests:

This award will not fund requests to support existing operations, existing staffing, or the cost of attending conferences.

Additionally, this funding opportunity does not support activities directly tied to fundraising events, advertising unrelated to the project, and purchase of routine supplies/equipment other than that needed to implement the project. It does not cover attendance at conferences or professional development activities.  However, activities such as outside speakers used to train leaders for the project are acceptable. This funding opportunity is not a grant therefore indirect costs are not applicable. 

Application Procedure: 
1.	All applications, including the cover sheet, must be typed, double-spaced, contain no more than 6 pages of narrative project description, and not more than 12 total pages including budget, evaluation plan, and appendices. 
2.	Electronic submissions are required. Please email your proposal and signed Application Cover Sheet Form in ONE pdf file to ACHF at: achf@acha.org.  Only proposals in pdf formatted documents will be accepted. 
3.	The Application Form Cover Sheet must be signed by two different individuals:
a)	The proposed Project Director
b)	The Project Director’s supervisor or authorizing agent.
4.	Applications must be complete and not exceed the page limits.  Proposals that are incomplete or exceed the page limits will not be considered.
5.	Proposals are only eligible for consideration from one ACHF funding opportunity per year. An applicant may apply to more than one offering if the projects are completely unrelated. 

Application Review/Selection Process:
Each application will be reviewed for completeness and for its relevance to the funding objective. Weight will be given to proposals that develop or utilize collaborations and that can demonstrate internal financial and in-kind support. It is important that project outcomes and impact be both identifiable and measurable. Consideration will be given to proposals where institutional commitment to sustain the project is evidenced. Funding decisions will be made by the American College Health Foundation Board of Directors.

Application Timeline: The deadline for applications is February 3, 2025. All applications must be received by the deadline date. Recipient(s) will be announced at the 2025 ACHA Annual Meeting scheduled for May 27-May 31, 2025, in New Orlean, LA.

Amount of Financial Assistance: Up to two allocations of up to $3,500 may be awarded. 

Length of Financial Assistance: Project funding is available for use over a 12-month period. Funding allocations are distributed in two payments, 50% at the beginning of project work and the remaining 50%, six months later, after a mid-year report has been submitted to the ACHF office.

Post Project Requirements:  The recipient shall submit a project results report to the ACHF Office within 60 days of the completion of the funding cycle. In addition to the final report, an abstract describing the results of the project will be submitted to the American College Health Foundation. Copies of the abstract may be made available to ACHA members during the ACHA annual meetings or in ACHA/ACHF publications, including the ACHF website to demonstrate the effectiveness (pro or con) of the award’s objective. Recipients may also be requested to make a presentation at a future American College Health Association conference (state, regional, national) and write an article for publication in college health-related periodicals discussing project outcomes. This requirement can also be filled by being interviewed or writing an article for the ACHF quarterly newsletter, The Impact. Please also take and include a photo of your project, project group, students interacting with the project, or a headshot of the Project Director at the school which ACHF may print in “The Impact.” In addition, ACHF may share successful practices developed to advance the awards objective of supporting campus well-being to enhance both individual and community health as a strategy to support student, faculty and staff success in demonstrable ways that enhance student’s perception of their well-being.

See the next page for application cover sheet.

APPLICATION FORM COVER SHEET
2025 ACHF College Well-being Award Funding Opportunity
Title of Project:
	
Total Funds Requested (not to exceed $3500):	
Project Director:
Name: ______________________________________________________________________________
ACHA Membership #: _________________________________________________________________
Position title: ________________________________________________________________________
College/University:  ____________________________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________________________
Telephone: _________________________________ Cell: ____________________________________
E-Mail Address: ______________________________________________________________________	
Student Health Center Authorizing Agent:
Name: ______________________________________________________________________________
Title: _______________________________________________________________________________
College/University:  ____________________________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________________________
Telephone:  _______________________________________________________________________
E-Mail Address: ______________________________________________________________________	
Post Project Requirements
The recipient shall submit a project results report to the ACHF Office within 60 days of the completion of the funding cycle. In addition to the final report, an abstract describing the results of the project will be submitted to the American College Health Foundation. Copies of the abstract may be made available to ACHA members during the ACHA annual meetings or in ACHA/ACHF publications, including the ACHF website to demonstrate the effectiveness of the award’s objective. Recipients may also be requested to make a presentation at a future American College Health Association conference (state, regional, national) and write an article for publication in college health-related periodicals discussing project outcomes. This requirement can also be filled by being interviewed or writing an article for the ACHF quarterly newsletter, The Impact. Please also take and include a photo of your project, project group, students interacting with the project, or a headshot of the Project Director at the school which ACHF may print in “The Impact.” In addition, ACHF may share successful practices developed to advance the awards objective of supporting campus well-being to enhance both individual and community health as a strategy to support student, faculty and staff success. 
	
Project Director
I agree to accept responsibility for the implementation of the proposed project and to provide the post project requirements as outlined if the project proposal is awarded as a result of this application.

SIGNATURE (in ink)                                                                                         DATE: _______________	
Project Director’s Supervisor or other Authorizing Agent:
I endorse the proposed project and accept responsibility to monitor project progress and completion of post project requirements.

SIGNATURE (in ink)_____________________________________ DATE: _________________	

PROPOSAL OUTLINE

Please submit ACHF College Well-being Award Funding Opportunity proposals using the following format:

Section I.	Executive Summary (One-page limit – double spaced)
Provide an overall description of the project, including the evaluation plan.

Section II.	Project Narrative (Six-page limit – double spaced)
This section should address the following points:
●	Your institution’s definition of well-being and how this project will meet the vision and process for building a healthy campus community and the progress your institution has made toward realizing this vision.  If your institution is still in the beginning stages of this journey, please describe how your institution plans to establish a collective vision and process throughout the campus.  Please limit to one paragraph.  
●	Describe the overall funding request, including:
o	rationale 
o	goal(s)
o	specific objectives
o	anticipated impact 
●	Identify key personnel and campus partners who will be responsible for executing the proposed project.
●	Describe the evaluation procedures that will be used to measure the proposed project.
●	Identify other resources that will support this proposed project (in-kind campus contributions).
●	Describe the sustainability plan after the funding concludes

Section III:	Budget (One-page limit– single spaced)
Provide budget detail, including funds requested and justification for their use.

Section IV:	Appendices (Optional - Four-page limit– double spaced)
•	Evaluation instruments
•	Letters of support
•	Other supporting documentation

Submission:

●	Email completed proposal and the signed Application Cover Sheet Form in ONE pdf file to: achf@acha.org

●	For more information, please contact the American College Health Foundation at: achf@acha.org