Receiving a financial award from the THINK, DO, THRIVE Grant Program provides a valuable learning and life-skills opportunity to develop and experience a number of critical professional practices. These include venture planning and management, budget ownership and management, fiscal responsibility and professional reporting.
Previous awardees of the Student Entrepreneurship Fund and Student Project Fund, through Sears think[box], are encouraged to apply.
Eligibility for the DO Grant
To be considered for the DO Grant applicants must be full-time CWRU undergraduate students (at least 12 credit hours) or full-time CWRU graduate students (at least 9 credit hours or one credit hour of thesis).
Students applying to this grant should already have a prototype, MVP, or solid proof of concept with a clear connection to entrepreneurship and/or pursuing business formation.
Application Timeframe
Applications are reviewed and approved on a rolling basis. We are unable to provide advance notice of the grant’s depletion, so we recommend submitting applications promptly.
The DO Grant application will be open twice during the 2024-25 academic year.
Round 1 Application Opens: September 1, 2024 at 9 a.m.
Round 1 Application Closes: October 31, 2024 at 5 p.m., or when funds run out
Round 2 Application Opens: January 1, 2025 at 9 a.m.
Round 2 Application Closes: February 28, 2025 at 5 p.m., or when funds run out
Reminder: The application will close on at 5:00 PM, respectively, during each phase of funding or when the grant runs out.
How Grants Are Awarded and Used
To receive an award, the scope of the proposed business model must be able to report realistic and achievable deliverables before the reporting deadlines detailed on this page.
The maximum amount of funding available per project is $1000 for individuals and $2,500 for teams to cover costs such as:
- Material costs
- Subscriptions (Canva, ChatGPT, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.)
- Professional goods and services
- Domain purchase
- Web design
- Market research
- Legal
- Program development services
- Etc.
- Micro-internships for student work (under $100/student)
- Micro-internships should be part-time, limited scope
- Maximum $300 can be used toward micro-internships
- Travel and Competitions
- Requires pre-approval
- Travel specific to trade shows and customer discovery
- Must be a competitor in competitions
Funds may be used to pay for external support in these areas that cannot be performed at think[box].
Please note that funding will NOT be awarded to support any of the following:
- Food, drinks, or entertainment
- Funding for academic conferences
- Expenses that do not appear on an approved budget
Review Criteria
The review committee for the DO Grant considers all proposals and notifies applicants by email as to the status of their application(s). Proposals are considered based on the following criteria:
- Business ideas presented in application must have a clear connection to entrepreneurship, innovation, functionality, and/or creativity that supports your professional, technical, or social skill set development.
- Does the business idea involve a creative aspect, a challenging or educational aspect, or a new idea or process?
- SMART Goals: Have you or your team selected goals for your business idea that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound)?
- Feasibility: Can you or your team realistically reach the goals you set out given your existing skill set(s)
- Monetary Feasibility: Is the requested funding appropriate for your business idea goals?
Review Committee
Please direct all questions regarding the grant to Brittain Elswick (bxe88@case.edu).
- Celeste Blau, Assistant Director of xLab, Weatherhead School of Management
- Anthony Peebles, Director, National Development and Diversity Initiatives, CWRU
- Alison King, Mentoring Program Director, JumpStart
- Tyler Fond, Assistant Director, Sears think[box]
- Kim Fleddermann, Business Development Manager, Great Lakes Energy Institute
- Sophia Ciancone, Internal Communications Manager, Case School of Engineering
Fund Disbursement
If you are selected to receive support from the DO Grant, you will be required to sign an agreement indicating acceptance of the terms outlined for the DO Grant AND meet with the grant manager before you receive the award.
At that point, you will receive payment of 100% of the total award value, with the understanding that you are required to complete the requirements of funding in addition to the final report. When the final report is due, you will be contacted to arrange the return of unspent or undocumented funds to LaunchNET.
Fund Administration
If you are awarded funds, you are fully responsible for their use and management. You are expected to keep accurate financial records and a summary of transactions, and must scan receipts to include in your project’s final report. Please be aware that monetary awards of $600 or more are taxable and, if you receive an award higher than this amount, you will be issued a Form 1099 at the end of the calendar year. Please consult a tax professional if you have questions.
Participation Requirements
Continuous learning and building robust networks is the key to success for those who are pursuing entrepreneurship as an interest or as a career path. This is why our grant program requires recipients to participate in a minimum of two programs within the grant cycle.
If you've received financial support from the fund, you are required to attend 2 programs during the academic year AND must submit a final report by the date enumerated in the DO Grant Agreement.
- Students are required to choose 2 LaunchNET program opportunities from the list below.
- 3 one-on-one advising sessions with LaunchNET, Cray Center, or Veale Institute staff
- Moderate a speaker
- Apply to the Morganthaler Pavey Startup Competition (not required to be a finalist)
- Speed Mentoring at Innovation Week
- Any external program from the NEO entrepreneurship ecosystem (I-corps, VentureWell, JumpStart, etc.)
- AND Application Info Session (optional but preferred)
- Additionally, students awarded funding are required to create 1 post on LinkedIn regarding their microgrant experience. (Required to tag both: Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship and Burton D. Morgan Foundation).
- You must submit a final report by May 1, 2025. The final report must include:
- A description of the completed project
- Photos, drawings, and/or renderings of the final project
- Results from any competition(s) or presentations
- A completed Expense Report, following the Expense Report Instructions, of venture purchases to date
- Scans of all receipts indicated on the spreadsheet
Commitment to Inclusivity
To advance our commitment to equity and inclusion within innovation and entrepreneurship, we are acknowledging diversity, equity, and inclusion in our grant process. We are committing a portion of these funds to broaden the participation of traditionally underrepresented, underestimated, and emerging groups such as women, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous people from all backgrounds.