The Career Launch grant is designed to provide tuition support to students via matching funds for community scholarships so that tuition costs are not a barrier to entry, to reduce the currently unmanageable amount of student loan debt, and to create a workforce that has the skills, knowledge, adaptability, and diversity to continue to drive Colorado’s economic growth. Applicants are required to match COSI funding 1:1 with community scholarship dollars and provide students with a connection to career services/opportunities.
For fiscal year 2024-2025, the Career Launch grant will leverage $1.5 million in state funds to generate $3 million in new scholarship funds to support Colorado students in postsecondary education and degree attainment. These funds can potentially impact up to 1,000 students over the next few years as they pursue a credential.
Program Goals:
Provide financial support to reduce student loan debt.
- Ensure each Career Launch student is connected with career opportunities that provide gainful employment and a livable wage.
Support credential completion in high-demand pathways that support Colorado’s Top Jobs s.
- Request for Proposal
View full Request for Proposal
Please review the entire request for proposal for all the specific grant rules and requirements.
Organization/Applicant Eligibility
Non-profit organizations - 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), and their partners who are committed to increasing the availability of scholarship dollars for Colorado students leveraging COSI funds to incentivize new philanthropic monies and promoting student support best practices aimed at completion are eligible to apply.
Use of Funds:
Scholarships should not be intended to supplant federal, state, local or non-federal funds. Scholarships should provide support for significant funding gaps in cost of attendance to help close the affordability gap for students pursuing postsecondary credentials. To maximize COSI, the matching funds, and support students across the state, students should only receive scholarship funds from one COSI grant per academic year.
COSI recommends the use of the Last Dollar Plus model in the awarding of funds.
Program Participant Criteria
Participants must demonstrate financial need:
This can be determined using Pell eligibility a must be between 0 and 100% or between 101% and 250% of the maximum permissible income to determine eligibility for Pell grants.
If you are unable to determine a student’s eligibility using FAFSA, the COSI Eligibility Verification Guidance is a resource for alternative ways to ensure a student meets the financial need threshold.
Participation in career-based services to ensure successful placement in the workforce;
Undergraduate student;
Colorado residents for tuition purposes (includes ASSET students); and
Attending public area technical colleges, community colleges, four-year institutions of higher education, and research institutions in Colorado.
Funds can be used for a student’s Cost of Attendance..
Grant Term
Grant terms are two years in length. COSI has the following grant term requirements:
- For 2024-2025 awards, grantees will be required to start disbursement of their funds no later than Fall 2026 and complete spending funds by June 30, 2028.
Grant Awards
Career Launch grants are competitive. Funding will be contingent upon annual appropriations by the State Legislature and any other further discretion at the jurisprudence of the grantor. The Career Launch grant requires that both the COSI award and matching funds serve the same student population. Funded applicants will be eligible for continued funding in the subsequent years of the grant cycle after successfully demonstrating the following:
- Submission of all required evaluation materials.
- Adequate progress toward successfully meeting annual objectives; and
- Full matching and distribution of scholarship funds as outlined in the agreement; and
- Completed annual report to demonstrate fidelity to proceed in subsequent years.
- Proposal Elements
All proposals must be submitted by the date(s) indicated in the Timeline section. The proposal consists of the areas outlined below:
- Proposal-consists of seven sections and can be accessed in the portal. An Proposal Review is provided in this RFP.
- Organization Information
- Program Design
- Essentials-COSI’s minimum eligibility requirements and any criteria set by the organization that a student must meet to receive a scholarship.
- Pick The Focus- Identify any of the grant priorities you intend to support and the credential type.
- Pick The Grant Timeline- identify the grant term, including start term, length, and first semester funds will be disbursed.
- Scholarship Design- Identify Scholarship type
- Scholarship Disbursement & Payment Schedule
- Scholarship Disbursement – Share plan to disburse funds for each year of the grant term.
- Payment Schedule - outline of the expected (1) incoming funds received by the applicant as new matching funds; (2) payments from the State in the template provided in the online system.
- Reporting Deadlines – Determine your reporting deadlines based on when you distribute scholarships
- Narrative: Detail your strategies in each of the following areas. This section will be graded on a scale.
- Program Focus
- Program Goals
- Student Support
- Matching Funds
Reporting Requirements-acknowledgement and commitment to reporting requirements
Assurances- certify acknowledgment of assurances.
Letter(s) of Support or Resolution (Optional)- Share support from industry partner or organizations.
- Proposal Submission
COSI encourages applicants to familiarize themselves with the requirements, process, proposal process, and attend the informational webinars and proposal support sessions outlined in the Timeline section.
Late or incomplete proposals will not be accepted.
Please do not contact individual staff; instead, please review the proposal the informational webinar and attend proposal support opportunities for information and questions. See timeline for dates.
Access the FAQ document and submit questions to cosi.info@dhe.state.co.us.
Proposals are accepted via the COSI portal.
Complete the portal registration at any time. For support contact: Marie Snow at marie.snow@dhe.state.co.us.
If the organization has a SurveyMonkey Apply account, please use that account to apply.
All proposals submitted to the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative and the Colorado Department of Higher Education are public records and should not contain confidential data. CDHE is subject to the Colorado Open Records Act and must release full proposals when requested.
- Proposal Review
Proposal Evaluation
Career Launch Proposals will be evaluated using the scoring rubric.
Career Launch Scholarship Grant proposals will be reviewed using the process defined in Rule 2.03.
Career Launch proposals are competitive and will be reviewed by the COSI staff, the cross-department team, and the COSI Advisory Board.
COSI staff will review to ensure the proposals contain all components required by the request for proposal and align with COSI strategic plan and goals.
The cross-department team will present final recommendations to the COSI Advisory Board.
The COSI Advisory Board will make final decisions regarding grant recipients and award amounts.
If the organization is a current or prior grantee, the Board will consider the organization’s successful completion or progress toward the identified goals and outcomes in their review.
In the event the total amount requested by competitive proposals exceeds the available funds, COSI staff will use a normalization scoring process to determine the maximum amount each applicant can receive. This will be presented to the COSI Board, with the Board having the authority to make the final decision.
Proposal Review Process
After the initial proposal deadline, COSI will offer Technical Assistance (TA Support). During this process, COSI Staff will review all proposals and reach out to the applicant contact with questions and suggested edits. This process allows COSI to make sure that your proposal addresses all the questions properly before it is scored.
Please consider the following;
- All proposals must be complete. COSI will not review or move any proposals forward that are not fully completed.
- Applicants with have a second deadline in which their proposals will be opened back up for edits.
- It will be the applicant’s responsibility to go back into the proposal portal and make edits.
- Applicants that do not make edits by the deadline will be moved on to scoring as is.
- Timeline
Please carefully review the proposal timeline as late submissions and incomplete proposals will not be accepted.
Proposal Task
Deadline
RFP Released August 5, 2024
Proposal Portal Opens August 5, 2024
Initial Proposal Due
Proposals must be complete
September 15, 2024
TA Support
COSI Staff will review and make recommendations
September 16, 2024 – September 27, 2024
Proposals Edits Due October 6, 2024
COSI Board Meeting
Board meets to review and select awardees
December 12, 2024
Grant Award Notification
Applicants are notified of the Board’s decision
December 18, 2024
- Proposal Support Sessions
View the Proposal Informational Webinar which is a recorded session that walks you through the grant and proposal process. COSI staff will also be available to answer your questions in our series of Proposal Support Sessions listed in the table below.
Date
Zoom Details
August 8, 2024, at 1:00 pm,
Proposal Support Session, please view the Informational Webinar above before attending the support session
Registration August 29, 2024, at 9 am,
Proposal Support Session, please view the Informational Webinar above before attending the support session
September 12, 2024, at 9 am,
Proposal Support Session, please view the Informational Webinar above before attending the support session
Registration