Advancing Innovation

Higher Education

Through its higher education work to advance innovation, The Duke Endowment values successful models and proven programs. When they exist, our primary investment path is to support programs that use high-achieving approaches. When successful models are lacking, we pursue investment to advance innovation.

We define "advancing innovation" as developing and testing new approaches to outperform existing practices. The critical factor is improving performance.

We support two approaches to innovation:

• Pilots an innovation for the first time. In these cases, we prefer to test new approaches on a small scale to study key assumptions without major cost. These may function as beta tests for larger programs to follow.
• Builds on some measure of an existing program's demonstrated success.

Downloads

Application Documents --  to be submitted

If you try to edit your answers in any of the forms, you'll find that you cannot delete individual words or sentences. If you need to edit large sections, we recommend that you create a Word document, copy your answer into that document and make changes there. You can then paste back into the original form.

• Application: Share how your program will advance innovation.
• Budget Form: Itemize your revenue sources and related expenses for the project.

In addition to the application and budget form, grantees are requested to submit:

• Brief cover letter with President's signature--acknowledges that the information included in the application is complete and accurate
• Any supplemental materials that you feel may be helpful to the Endowment in evaluating your request

Application Resources -- for reference

• User Guide: Understand Endowment objectives and effectively frame your application.
• Sample Application and Budget: Structure your application and budget information on this example, which is mirrored in the user guide.
• Grantmaking strategy overview: Learn about The Duke Endowments funding strategies.

Reporting Documents for Active Grants -- to be submitted

If you try to edit your answers in any of the forms, you'll find that you cannot delete individual words or sentences. If you need to edit large sections, we recommend that you create a Word document, copy your answer into that document and make changes there. You can then paste back into the original form.

• Annual Reports:
  • Report Form: Report on annual results, challenges and anticipated outcomes.
  • Budget Form: Report on annual revenue and related expenses.
• Final Reports:
  • Report Form: Report on project results, challenges and lessons learned.
  • Budget Form: Report on final revenue and related expenses.