Davis Projects for Peace 2026: US$10,000 Grants for Student-Designed Grassroots Peace Projects at Partner Institutions

Davis Projects for Peace 2026: US$10,000 Grants for Student-Designed Grassroots Peace Projects at Partner Institutions

Davis Projects for Peace is one of the few funding programs that hands a student US$10,000 and asks a simple, demanding question in return: what would you do with a summer to build peace? The grant does not fund tuition, research fellowships, or established nonprofits. It funds an idea that a student designs, owns, and carries out — a concrete, grassroots project meant to address the roots of conflict somewhere in the world. This guide explains what the program provides, who can apply, how the campus-based application process actually works, and how to prepare a proposal that stands a real chance. Where facts are firm, they are stated plainly. Where dates or details vary by campus and cannot be confirmed in general, that is stated too, rather than guessed.

One point is worth making up front because it shapes everything else: you cannot apply to Davis Projects for Peace directly. The program runs through participating colleges and universities, and each campus selects the project (or projects) it will forward. If your school does not take part, you are not eligible through this route. That single fact determines whether this opportunity is open to you at all, so confirm your institution’s participation before you invest time in a proposal.

Key Details at a Glance

The single most important cell in that table is the application route. Everything about how you approach this grant follows from the fact that your campus is the gatekeeper.

What the Program Offers

The core benefit is straightforward: US$10,000 to fund a grassroots project that promotes peace, carried out over the summer. That figure has been the program’s signature grant amount for years, and it is enough to make a genuine, self-contained project possible — a workshop series, a community facility, a training program, a reconciliation effort, an economic-empowerment initiative, or any number of other formats — provided the budget is realistic and the plan is well scoped.

The program was founded in 2007 by Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who marked her 100th birthday by committing to fund 100 student projects for peace, one summer at a time. What began as a single-year gesture grew into an enduring program that has supported thousands of student projects across a wide range of countries since its start. Today the program is administered through Middlebury College, and the official davisprojectsforpeace.org address now points to Middlebury’s Projects for Peace pages.

Beyond the money, being selected carries weight. A Davis Projects for Peace grant is a competitive, name-recognized award that signals to future employers, graduate programs, and funders that a student conceived and executed a real initiative with measurable aims. For many recipients, the summer project becomes the foundation of a longer commitment — a nonprofit, a career in development or peacebuilding, or an ongoing community relationship — rather than a one-time activity.

Who It’s For

Davis Projects for Peace is built for students who have a specific, actionable idea for building peace and the drive to run it themselves over a single summer. It is not a research grant, a study-abroad scholarship, or a general travel fund. The program looks for grassroots work: projects that engage a community directly and aim at the causes or consequences of conflict, division, injustice, or instability.

“Peace” is interpreted broadly. Projects have addressed conflict resolution and reconciliation, but also the conditions that undermine peace — poverty, lack of education, poor health, environmental stress, and social exclusion. A project teaching vocational skills to displaced young people, one building trust between divided communities, and one improving access to clean water in a fragile region can all fit, so long as the connection to peace is clear and the student can explain it.

The strongest candidates tend to share a few traits: a real relationship to the community or issue they want to serve (often through prior volunteering, family ties, or study), a project that is genuinely their own design rather than a placement inside someone else’s organization, and a plan that one motivated student can realistically deliver in a few summer months on a US$10,000 budget. If you are looking for funding to join an existing internship or to conduct academic research, this is the wrong fit.

Eligibility Requirements

Eligibility for Davis Projects for Peace depends first and foremost on where you study. The confirmed criteria are:

• You must attend a participating institution. The program operates through a network of colleges and universities. If your school is not in the network, you cannot access the grant through this program. This is the threshold requirement, and it is non-negotiable.
• Primarily undergraduates. The program is aimed mainly at undergraduate students, and it explicitly welcomes graduating seniors who will carry out their project during the summer after they graduate. Some campuses also extend nominations to graduate students; whether graduate students are eligible at your school is a campus-level decision, so confirm it locally.
• U.S. and international students. At participating institutions, both domestic and international students are generally eligible to apply. Your nationality is not the barrier; your enrollment at a participating school is what matters.
• Any major, any year. Applicants are not restricted by field of study. The program has funded students from across the disciplines.
• A qualifying project. You must propose a self-designed, grassroots project that promotes peace and can be implemented over the summer.

Because the program is administered campus by campus, individual schools may layer on their own conditions — for example, requiring that you be returning to the institution the following year, or restricting the number of applicants they will consider. Always read your own campus’s stated rules alongside the program’s general criteria.

How the Application Process Works

This is where Davis Projects for Peace differs from most grants, so it is worth being precise. You do not submit an application to the program. You submit it to your campus, and your campus decides which project (or projects) to advance.

The typical flow looks like this:

1. Find your campus liaison or office. Each participating institution designates a coordinator — often housed in a fellowships office, a center for civic engagement, a chaplain’s office, or a global/international programs office. This person or office manages the program locally.
2. Submit your proposal to the campus by its internal deadline. Your school runs its own competition. You will prepare a project proposal and budget and submit them according to your campus’s instructions and timeline.
3. Campus selection. A committee at your institution reviews the proposals it receives and selects the one (or, at some schools, more than one) it will nominate for funding.
4. Program-level confirmation. The selected project(s) are forwarded to the program, which confirms funding.
5. Implementation over the summer. Grantees carry out their projects, typically during the summer months, and are generally expected to report on outcomes afterward.

Practically, this means your first move is not writing a proposal — it is contacting the right office on your own campus to learn whether the school participates, who runs the local competition, what the internal deadline is, and what format the proposal must take. Skipping this step is the most common way strong ideas never get funded.

Timeline and Deadlines

There is no single, program-wide deadline that applies to every student, and it would be misleading to publish one. Because each campus runs its own competition, deadlines vary from school to school.

What can be said generally is that campuses typically set their internal deadlines in the late fall to winter for projects to be carried out the following summer. For a summer 2026 project, many institutions set campus deadlines in the period roughly spanning late 2025 into January 2026 — for example, several schools have historically used early-to-mid January dates. These are campus-specific, they change year to year, and they are not something you should assume. The only reliable deadline is the one your own institution publishes for the cycle you are applying to.

If you are reading this and your campus deadline for the coming summer has already passed, the productive move is to prepare now for the next cycle: identify your campus contact, study past funded projects, and begin scoping an idea so you can submit early when the next internal window opens.

What You Need to Apply

While each campus sets its own exact requirements, the two central pieces are consistent across the program:

• A project proposal. This is the heart of the application. It should describe the problem you are addressing, why it matters for peace, exactly what you will do, where and when you will do it, who you will work with, and what outcomes you expect. Reviewers want a concrete plan, not a statement of good intentions.
• A budget. You must show how the US$10,000 will be spent. A credible budget itemizes costs — travel, materials, local partners, stipends where appropriate, communications — and adds up to a realistic total. Budgets that are vague, padded, or clearly unworkable undermine otherwise good ideas.

Campuses commonly ask for additional materials as well, which may include a personal statement or background section explaining your connection to the community and your capacity to carry out the work, a timeline, letters or evidence of local partnerships, and sometimes a short interview with the selection committee. Because the specific forms and supporting documents are set locally, treat your campus’s instructions as the authoritative checklist and prepare exactly what it asks for.

How to Prepare a Strong Proposal

The projects that get funded tend to do several things well.

Make the peace connection explicit. Reviewers read the word “peace” carefully. Whatever your project’s activity, state clearly how it addresses conflict, division, injustice, or a condition that undermines peace. Do not leave the reader to infer it.

Design something you can actually finish in one summer. A US$10,000 project run by one student over a few months has natural limits. Ambitious framing is fine; an unrealistic scope is not. Show that you have thought through logistics, timing, and what “done” looks like.

Ground it in a real relationship. The most persuasive proposals come from students who already know the community or issue — through prior work, personal ties, or sustained study — and who have local partners committed to the effort. This signals that the project will not collapse the moment you arrive on the ground.

Build a budget that a skeptical reader trusts. Itemize costs, justify each line, and make the total add up to US$10,000 in a way that is clearly deliverable. A tight, honest budget is itself evidence that you can run the project.

Define outcomes you can point to afterward. Say what change the project is meant to produce and how you will know whether it worked. Grantees are generally expected to report back, so plan from the start for how you will document impact.

Start early and get feedback. Because your campus committee is the real audience, ask your campus liaison what has succeeded before, and have advisors or mentors read a draft. Submitting a polished proposal well ahead of the internal deadline beats rushing one at the last minute.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming you apply directly to the program. You do not. If you skip your campus office, your application does not exist. Find the liaison first.
• Not confirming your school participates. If your institution is not in the network, this route is closed to you. Verify participation before anything else.
• A weak or unrealistic budget. Vague or inflated numbers are a fast way to lose a committee’s confidence. Itemize and justify.
• A fuzzy link to peace. A worthy service project with no clear connection to peacebuilding is a poor fit for this specific grant.
• Over-scoping. Proposals that could not plausibly be completed in one summer by one student, on US$10,000, get discounted.
• Missing the campus deadline. The internal deadline is the one that matters, and it is often earlier than students expect — frequently in the late fall or winter before the summer of implementation.
• No local partners. Projects that depend entirely on the student, with no on-the-ground collaborators, read as fragile.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the grant? US$10,000 per funded project.

What does it fund? A student-designed grassroots project that promotes peace, carried out over the summer. It is not a research grant or a general scholarship.

Can I apply directly to Davis Projects for Peace? No. You apply through your own participating college or university, which selects and nominates projects. Students do not apply directly to the program.

Who is eligible? Students at participating institutions — primarily undergraduates, including graduating seniors who will carry out the project the summer after graduation. Some campuses also nominate graduate students. Both U.S. and international students at participating schools are generally eligible. Eligibility depends on your institution being part of the network.

Where can my project take place? Anywhere in the world. Projects have been carried out both in the United States and internationally.

What is the deadline? There is no single program-wide deadline. Each campus sets its own internal deadline, typically in the late fall to winter for the following summer. Confirm the exact date with your own campus office.

What do I need to submit? At minimum, a project proposal and a budget, plus whatever additional materials your campus requires. Check your campus’s specific instructions.

Who runs the program? It was founded in 2007 by Kathryn Wasserman Davis and is administered through Middlebury College. The official davisprojectsforpeace.org address now points to Middlebury’s program pages.

Official Links and Next Steps

The reliable starting point for the program is its official site:

• Official site: https://www.davisprojectsforpeace.org/ (redirects to https://www.middlebury.edu/projects-for-peace)

But the most important link for you is not on that site — it is your own campus’s Projects for Peace page and the contact for the office that runs the local competition. Because the program is administered institution by institution, your campus liaison holds the details that actually govern your application: whether your school participates, who reviews proposals, what the internal deadline is, and exactly what to submit.

If you are a student at a participating institution with a concrete idea for building peace, the next step is to contact that office now, ask about the current cycle’s timeline, study projects your school has funded before, and begin drafting a proposal and budget you can hand in early. The students who win this grant are almost always the ones who started the conversation with their campus long before the deadline and arrived with a specific, deliverable plan and a genuine connection to the community they hope to serve.