Senior Capstone
The senior class capstone offers a unique opportunity at GW to combine scholarly and community practice to make social change in the District through an experiential philanthropy project. Students partner with the Learning by Giving Foundation (LxG), which will provide the class in 2022 with an initial $7,000 for their giving project. Students decide together which social issue their philanthropy will address. Utilizing the knowledge from previous coursework, students research the selected social issue, raise additional funds, put out a call for grant proposals and select grant recipients among local nonprofit applicants.
Past capstone classes have addressed gender, inequity, education, criminal justice reform, and homelessness.
2021 Grant Awardees
The 2021 "GW Arc Foundation’s" mission was to support individuals experiencing homelessness in the Washington Metropolitan area (DMV) by providing funding to nonprofit organizations working to alleviate homelessness and its contributing factors. This year we received 22 outstanding applications from nonprofits, all of which were extremely impressive for the dedicated work they do.
Congratulations to New Endeavors by Women and Charlie's Place which were awarded grants this year.
Examples of Recent Philanthropy
- Spring 2020 Topic: Criminal Justice Reform
-
$11,500 awarded to U.S. Dream Academy, The National Re-entry Network and Free Minds Book Club
- Spring 2019 Topic: Education Assistance for Immigrants
-
$9,000 awarded to Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
"This is the best capstone experience possible and it has been so much fun going through this process with my classmates. I will always be grateful for getting this experience in philanthropy."
HSSJ Capstone Student
Class of 2020
