Dell YouthConnect Application

We live in a global economy that is more connected than ever before. Education has changed with this, moving from a focus on core subjects and formal classrooms to applied learning that actively uses technology to enhance the learning experience. Learning now happens everywhere — at home, at school and in the community. Dell believes we are obligated to make technology easily accessible and provide the tools to use it.

We want to prepare young people for success personally and professionally through information and communications technology. Access to these tools — and knowing how to use them — provides new opportunities.

Application Process

Thank you for your interest in becoming a partner with Dell. The application process for 2012 has closed. Our next application cycle will begin in the first quarter of 2013. Please bookmark this page for further updates.

Impact

An effective recipient will submit an application that has a program that focuses on preparing youth for success in a highly globalized, technological society at school, work and life through the development of information and communication technology (ICT) skills.

We will accomplish this by:

• Access: Getting Dell technology/solutions into the hands of the most needy youth to serve as a catalyst for lifelong learning and job/career readiness. Any Dell technology, solution or service may be used to accomplish the work of your program. Strong consideration will be provided to organizations who request more than half of their funding for Dell technology.
• Innovation: When possible, focusing on breakthrough educational programs that advance next-generation learning capabilities.
• Learning: Providing opportunities to help the most needy youth have access to learning opportunities to acquire, understand and apply ICT skills. ICT skills are defined as:
  • Critical thinking and problem solving
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Technology literacy

Criteria

The following criteria will be considered in the selection process:

• Program funding and all funding and/or in-kind contributions must be for direct programs (see exclusion list below). There is a minimum request of $25,000 and a maximum of $250,000.
• Programs must focus on an underserved community (such as gender, ethnicity, culture, disability) as 70 percent of their total population. An underserved population refers to populations that are disadvantaged because of ability to pay, ability to access technology or other disparities for reasons of race, culture, disability, language group, gender or social status.
• Programs must serve the most needy.

  Organization must provide youth up to 23 years of age with direct programs and services. Programs for educators to increase their effectiveness in teaching and leveraging technology can be considered when at least 70 percent of their student population is aged 23 or younger.

• Organization must be in an urban area near significant Dell population for employee engagement. Program must exclusively leverage Dell technology, services and/or technology solutions or Dell Next Generation Learning solutions, including instructional technology (Connected Classroom), professional learning, Assistive Technology solutions and more.
• Communities with a significant Dell presence include (as of 2012): Atlanta, Ga.; Buffalo Grove/Bowling Green/Peoria, Ill.; Austin/Round Rock, Tex.; Eden Prairie, Minn.; Fremont, Calif.; Lincoln, Neb.; Nashua, N.H.; Nashville, Tenn.; Plano, Tex; Providence, RI; Santa Clara, Calif.; Oklahoma City; Fairfax/Reston, Va.; Silicon Valley; and Washington, DC. Note: Any organization from any community may apply but will need to demonstrate a strong commitment and success regarding employee engagement.
• Funding requests cannot exceed 20 percent of an organization's total annual operating budget.
• Grants must remain under the financial control of the applying organization and cannot be re-granted in any way to any other charitable organization.
• These are single-year partnership grants for the Fall 2012 through Summer 2013 school year and require two reports (midyear and final), which are meant to measure success to objectives.
• Selected recipients will need to assign an English-speaking program manager to work with the Dell Regional Giving Manager.
• All applications and supporting materials must be in English.

Dell Giving Grants do not extend to:

• Any organization that is not a 501(c)3 public charity, including any other 501c status or entities with a 170 status
• Individuals
• Academic or research projects
• Fund-raising activities, such as galas, benefits and dinners
• Goodwill advertising, souvenir journals
• Special events such as conferences, symposia
• Public schools or school systems, fund-raisers, scholarships or stipends (unless applying through qualified 501c3)
• Private foundations or donor-advised funds
• Colleges/universities (unless applying through qualified 501c3)
• Building costs and upkeep
• Capital campaigns, endowments and annual general operations
• Sponsorships, marketing opportunities or event fund-raisers
• Sports events and organizations
• Political activities, causes, candidates, organizations, campaigns and lobbying efforts
• Proposals that fall outside of our stated funding area
• Multiyear grants
• Programs proposed by religious, political or sectarian organizations. Faith-based programs may be eligible if beneficiaries are not encouraged to learn about, adhere to or convert to doctrine, and only if the organization can verify through readily available public documents that the program:
  • Is open to people of any faith or no faith
  • Does not subject participants to proselytizing
  • Requires no participation in religious activities
• Organizations trading for profit or intending to redistribute grant awards
• Organizations that advocate, support or practice activities inconsistent with Dell nondiscrimination policies, whether based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability age or status as a protected veteran

Skills

Dell YouthConnect recipients will prioritize the following skills in the development and execution of their programs:

Skill	Description	Activities for Measurement
Creativity and Innovation	Creativity and innovation help drive the development of practical, analytical, creative analysis. Successful individuals are those who have "creative skills, to produce a vision for how they intend to make the world a better place for everyone; analytical intellectual skills, to assess their vision and those of others; practical intellectual skills, to carry out their vision and persuade people of its value." (Need to attribute quote to Robert Sternberg). Creativity thrives on freedom and friction and diversity to spark new ideas and gain new perspectives. Innovation keeps the creative spark alive and makes it useful for the wider world by drawing on practical sorts of expertise, such as replication and distribution of and dissemination of information about the object of creation.	Think Creatively Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming) Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts) Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts Work Creatively With Others Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real-world limits to adopting new ideas Implement Innovations   Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur
Communication and Collaboration	Expressing thoughts clearly, crisply articulating opinions, communicating coherent instructions, motivating others through powerful speech — these skills have always been valued in the workplace and in public life. Communication competencies, such as clearly articulating ideas through speaking and writing are related to collaboration skills, such as working effectively with diverse teams, making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal and assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work. (Attribution)	Communicate Clearly Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions Use communication for a range of purposes (such as to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade) Use multiple media and technologies and know-how to judge their effectiveness before assessing their impact as well Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multilingual) Collaborate with Others Demonstrate the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving	To successfully solve a problem, we must first be able to formulate it as a problem — understand what makes up its essential elements. Thus, the key lies in critical-thinking skills. Critical thinking and problem solving draws on a classic learning model, known as the Blooms taxonomy, which classifies intellectual activity into six levels of successively greater cognitive complexity: knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Problem solving is generally understood to be the process of applying scientific and engineering methods of defining and describing a problem, generating potential solutions, and implementing, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the selected intervention.	Reason Effectively Use various types of reasoning (both inductive, deductive) as appropriate to the situation Use Systems Thinking Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems Make Judgments and Decisions Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs Analyze and evaluate major alternative points of view Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes Solve Problems Solve different kinds of nonfamiliar problems in both conventional and innovative ways Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions
Technology Literacy	People in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by various characteristics, including: 1) access to an abundance of information, 2) rapid changes in technology tools and 3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to technology literacy. It's important, though, to realize that this does not mean teaching technology for its own sake — but rather applying appropriate technologies to instructional tasks to enrich the learning of both traditional and 21st century content. ICT literacy depends on the skillful use of information resources, but it is also built around a deep understanding of the "grammar" of technology. Just as a traditionally literate person can fluently incorporate a new vocabulary into her speech, so can an ICT-literate person fluidly master new technologies to enhance her work and personal life.	Information Literacy Access and Evaluate Information Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources) Evaluate information critically and competently Use and Manage Information Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand Manage the flow of information from a wide variety of sources Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information Media Literacy Analyze Media Understand both how and why media messages are constructed, and for what purposes Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of media Create Media Products Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions Understand and effectively utilize the most appropriate expressions and interpretations in diverse, multicultural environments Literacy Apply Technology Effectively Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information Use digital technologies (computers, PDAs, media players, GPS); communication/networking tools; and social networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information to successfully function in a knowledge economy Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information technologies

Application

You will need the following information to fill out the application.

General information about your organization includes:

• Name:
• Address:
• Executive Director and Grant Coordinator:
• Name and Contacts of Organization:
• Main Phone:
• Organization Website Address:
• Mission Statement:
• Date Founded:
• Evidence of the Impact of Your Organization (250 words maximum):
• EIN #:
• Have you received previous funding from Dell? If yes, please explain.

You will also be asked some general questions that include:

• Program Title:
• Program Start Date:
• Program End Date:
• Describe Your Program:
• Grant Funding Requested:
• Are you interested in receiving any portion of the Dell Grant in technology/solutions? If yes, please describe the Dell technology and/or Dell solution or service you are countering for this program.
• "Elevator pitch" of your program in 100 words or less.
• What is the learning opportunity your program is addressing?
• How does your program address the learning opportunity?
• How does this program align to Dell's funding area of: Preparing youth for success in a highly globalized, technological society at school, work and life through the development of ICT skills (200 words or less)?
• Which populations does this program serve (include county and city names)?
• How many children do you anticipate the program will impact?
• Please describe how this program serves the most needy and/or underserved community.
• Please describe your program's logic model — that is, provide information that describes through words or images how your program works — how it is expected to work, what activities need to come before others and desired.
• Be as specific as possible. Express your information in a SMART manner — specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and within a specific time frame.
• Why is your organization the most qualified to achieve your proposed outcomes and impact?
• How do you plan to measure your success?
• How do you envision engaging Dell team members with your organization and this program?
• Do you currently have any Dell team members engaged with your organization? If so, please list their names and titles.