Seed to Harvest Community Grants

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About the Seed to Harvest Grant

Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Seed to Harvest Community Grant Series creates community-academic partnerships to reduce the cancer burden for all Virginians, particularly for the most vulnerable communities.

The Seed to Harvest Community Grant Series is designed to support community partners and non-profit organizations to reduce suffering from cancer for the over 4 million individuals from various racial, ethnic, geographical, and socio-economic backgrounds that make up Massey's catchment area. Our catchment spans nearly 19,000 square miles, totaling 66 contiguous localities in Virginia's central, eastern, and southern areas.

The funding offered across the Seed, Cultivate and Harvest awards is designed to support community partners and non-profit organizations in addressing person-centered care across the cancer continuum, from health promotion and prevention through survivorship. We aim to:

Foster in-depth community engagement, exchanging ideas for real-world applications to solve complex problems) and,
Trust-building by infusing the community's voice and priorities into Massey’s infrastructure instead of only offering sporadic community interactions.

Award Overview

Seed Grant

Seed Grants award $5,000 for one-year projects designed to support community partners and nonprofits in addressing person-centered cancer care across the continuum, from prevention through survivorship. We aim to foster deep community engagement and trust-building by infusing local voices and priorities into Massey’s core infrastructure rather than relying on sporadic interactions. Through these grants, partners receive direct support to exchange ideas, tackle complex health issues, and create real-world solutions that serve their communities.

Cultivate Grant

Cultivate Grants award $20,000 for one-year training initiatives designed to build community partners' capacity to co-lead research. Throughout the funding year, recipients acquire key skills including understanding research, identifying grant opportunities, and proposal writing, to prepare for independent and collaborative funding opportunities. Awardees are matched with a Massey investigator in their focus area to establish a community-academic partnership, working closely together to co-develop relationships and generate research questions for future joint proposals.

Harvest Grant

Harvest Grants award $20,000 for one-year research implementation projects designed to translate community-driven research questions into active studies. Throughout the funding year, community-academic partnerships leverage their established relationships to carry out collaborative research projects, collect pilot data, and evaluate outcomes across shared priority areas. By supporting joint leadership in project execution, data analysis, and dissemination, these grants prepare teams to successfully pursue larger, long-term external funding together.

Before Your Submission

We highly suggest reviewing all information below before starting your application. For questions or concerns, please reach out to Massey’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at engagemassey@vcu.edu with “Community Grant Question” in the subject line.

Apply now

Eligibility
All applicant organizations submitting a proposal to this funding opportunity must meet the following criteria:
- Are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
- Fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
- Are not a political or lobbying organization
- Address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
- Do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
- Organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the award in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective award (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate award grant, etc.)
- Organizations must agree to have a designated member of their team attend each training session, actively engage with the curriculum, and complete any required pre- and post-work (to include pre-scheduled ad hoc meetings with identified VCU Massey investigator partners). Funding is disbursed evenly on a quarterly basis as the learning series progresses, with grantees fulfilling the agreed upon terms and obligations.
- Are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
- Fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
- Are not a political or lobbying organization
- Address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
- Do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
- Organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the level in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective level (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate level grant, etc.)

Award Timeline

Seed	Cultivate	Harvest
September 15, 2026: Award open for submissions October 15, 2026: Tech assistance webinar via Zoom at 5pm. To register to attend, use this Zoom link. December 15, 2026: Proposals due by 11:59 PM in submission portal March 1, 2027: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period July 1, 2027: Funding begins December 31, 2027: Project midpoint report and check-in call to be scheduled June 30, 2028: Project end date, final report and check-in call to be scheduled	September 15, 2026: Award open for submissions October 15, 2026: Informational webinar via Zoom at 6pm. To register to attend, use this Zoom link. December 15, 2026: Application due by 11:59 PM in submission portal March 1, 2027: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period July 2027 - April 2028: Monthly Cultivate Learning Cohort Sessions held via Zoom. Dates and times to be determined. June 30, 2028: Curriculum ends	9/15/26: Award open for submissions 2/26/27: Proposals due by 11:59 PM in submission portal 4/1/27: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period 7/1/27: Funding begins 6/30/28: Project midpoint report and check-in call to be scheduled 6/30/29: Project end date, final report and check-in call to be scheduled

Budget Guidelines

Expenditures Allowed:

Personnel / Salary support for staff
Supplies and printing
Technical assistance
Patient support to address barriers to care
Community leader/stakeholder stipends if relevant to the project with a detailed justification
Domestic travel necessary to carry out proposed project based on institutional travel policies.
Meetings & Training expenses (e.g., audiovisual fees, written collateral)
Mileage (Driving expenses incurred. Rates of $0.70/mile based on current IRS mileage rates)

Expenditures NOT Allowed:

Vaccinations, screenings, diagnostic or treatment services, and equipment
Patient medical expenses (e.g. co-pays)
Therapeutic agents (prescription or non-prescription)
General equipment (e.g. furniture, phones, vehicles)
Construction or renovation of facilities
Manuscript publishing cost
Computer and equipment maintenance fees
Tuition
Travel and/or registration/related fees for conferences
Travel not essential to carrying out the proposed project.
Registration and travel cost for professional development or courses not related to this project
Purchasing and binding of periodicals and books
Dues and membership fees
Recruiting expenses
Administrative or institutional charges for services normally considered overhead (e.g., space rental, utilities, building maintenance)
Sub-contracts to any institutions not approved by Massey Cancer Center
Lobbying

Award Information and Terms
- The official start date of the award and the release of funds will begin after institutional compliance approvals by documentation of a statement of work.
- Acceptance of funds implies a firm commitment to provide a periodic virtual or in-person check ins, as well as, formal progress reports over the specified grant period.
- Funds will be divided into payments at intervals with distribution contingent on submission of a written progress report by the stated deadline. Grantees that do not submit written progress reports will jeopardize future Massey-supported awards.
- Massey expects that the grantee will completely utilize the full amount of funding during the term of the award. Time extensions to complete the awarded project are NOT permitted. All unspent funds at the end of the grant period will be returned to Massey.
- Projects must start within 60 days of receipt of the Notice of Award (NOA) and signed statements of work or funding may be rescinded.
- All project associated awards, publications, and presentations must acknowledge VCU Massey.
- Acceptance of funds post notice of award implies a firm commitment to provide the Massey joint project team access to meet the team and jointly give talks to the public.
- Upon successful completion of a funded project, applicants may be asked to nominate a representative from the organization to serve on the community review committee for future community grant cycles, to provide input on applications and selection of new recipients for the grant award they have previously received.
Review Panel and Criteria
The Community Engagement staff will review applications for eligibility. A review committee comprised of community partners and Massey Cancer Center investigators will review the applications for completeness, merit of the proposed plan and impact for the community. The review committee will operate as an independent volunteer body to provide recommendations about which SEED applications will move forward for funding (SEED) or full applications (CULTIVATE, HARVEST)

The review panel will use a standardized rubric to score:
- Merit of the proposed activities and project design to address the stated objectives
- Relevance of the project in relation to the assessment of need within the proposal
- Reasonableness of the budget and budget justification sections
- Rational of the project in how it will reach the proposed target audience
- Clearly defined project evaluation plan
- Potential for sustainability of the project
- Clear, direct, and explicitly stated connection to reducing the cancer burden on Virginians throughout the proposal
- Innovation
Barring disqualification for failure to meet standards set forth in this request for proposals document, the review panel’s collective decision will be the determining factor.
FAQs
The groups we work with on these grants vary. Projects are run by churches, community groups, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), free and charitable clinics, statewide nonprofits, and other local organizations.

To see some of our partners and their projects, check out the previous recipients by year on the Massey community engagement page.
This varies depending on the grant award.
- Seed grant award: This is designed for ideas community partners have related to cancer prevention, early detection, screening, survivorship, policy, or anything in between. It’s the beginning of planting a seed for what’s to come from a new or unique idea.
- Cultivate grant award: This award is to assist in the expansion of a program or project that already exists by helping to build capacity and cultivating deeper partnerships with the communities you serve and to partner with VCU Massey researchers/investigators that can help find long-term, evidence-based solutions.
- Harvest grant award: This award is for established programs or projects that are ready to move forward in combining the goals of Seed and Cultivate while collecting preliminary data that will be used to apply for larger research focused grants in the future.
Absolutely! In fact, the Seed award is designed for project ideas and relationships that are just getting started. As long as it has a cancer-focus aligned with Massey’s priorities and service area, we are happy to consider it. If you want to reach out before you submit, you can contact our team at engagemassey@vcu.edu. We love building relationships with partners doing great work, regardless of whether you apply.

For the Harvest award, the answer is still yes, but the project will need to have a more clearly defined connection to a Massey researcher/investigator’s field of study or expertise, in order to explore it for future research.
Applicant organizations submitting a Letter of Intent or proposal to the Seed, Cultivate or Harvest tiers of funding opportunity must meet the following criteria:
- address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
- fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
- are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
- are not a political or lobbying organization
- do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
- organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the award in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective award (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate award grant, etc)
For the Harvest award, these additional requirements apply:
- Harvest award applicants must be willing to co-develop their proposal with a VCU Massey investigator/researcher(s) in order to collaborate and identify topics for future community engaged research informed by their Cultivate or Harvest grant projects
- Harvest recipients will be expected to agree to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to outline expectations of the organizations project management team and the VCU Massey investigator/researcher during the course of the project
Please note: Applications are not accepted from non-501c private foundations, individuals, political, or lobbying organizations. Applicants requesting funds for event sponsorships, scholarships, publication of books, conferences, one-time events, dinners, fundraisers, capital campaigns, or endowment funds will not be considered.
Organizations with a current grant are eligible (and encouraged) to apply for the next award of funding once announced, so long as the current grant will be finished within 60 days of the date the new grant projects are scheduled to start. To see the expected start date of the new grant projects, please see the timeline information for the specific grant award you are considering applying for.

No. Successful proposals will be for projects that are ongoing for the entire duration of the grant cycle. Events can be part of those projects, but the most likely projects to be funded are those that have sustainable, ongoing efforts to lessen the cancer burden outside of a one-time event. Consider a series of impactful cancer-focused activities versus a single event.

That’s okay. In fact, many of Massey’s partners are focused on a large range of community-centered missions that are not cancer specific. However, the community grant project must have an explicit cancer-focus in line with Massey’s mission to reduce the cancer burden on Virginians to be considered for funding.
Massey staff and faculty review all submissions for technical requirements to be sure they follow the submission guidelines and can be considered for funding by VCU Massey.

Review panels of Massey’s affiliated community partners assess the final proposal applications for eligibility, completeness, and merit of the proposed plan according to a standardized scoring rubric. The review committee, under guidance from Massey staff, will operate as an independent volunteer body to provide their recommendations as to which proposals will move forward for funding consideration.

The review panel will use a standardized rubric to score:
- Merit of the proposed activities and project design to address the stated objectives
- Relevance of the project in relation to the assessment of need within the proposal
- Appropriateness of the budget and budget justification
- Rationale of the project in how it will reach the proposed target audience
- Clearly defined project evaluation plan
- Potential for sustainability of the project
- Clear, direct, and explicitly stated connection to cancer prevention and control throughout the proposal
- Innovation
Barring a proposal’s disqualification for failure to meet standards set forth in the request for proposals document, or misalignment with Massey’s objectives, the review panel’s collective decision will be the determining factor.

For Cultivate and Harvest award, Massey also determines whether projects are a match with internal researchers/investigators (along with their feasibility), since those projects require potential research questions to be explored.
Please reach out to Massey’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at engagemassey@vcu.edu with “Community Grant Question” in the subject line.

The Cultivate awards are training grants are meant to increase community partners’ ability to co-lead research. This means that recipients will be required to attend a series of 8 curriculum sessions hosted via Zoom, over the course of the 12 months of funding. Each session will be approximately 2 hours and cover a range of topics, from understanding basic cancer science and research, to identifying grant opportunities and grant-writing.

The goal of the Cultivate awards is helping participant organizations prepare to partner with Massey investigators to co-develop a partnership and collaboratively generate a list of research questions for future academic-community partnered research proposals, with funding that helps allow community partners to fully participate.
Contact

For more information, contact the Massey Community Outreach & Engagement grant administrator at engagemassey@vcu.edu or (804) 628-0896.

All applicant organizations submitting a proposal to this funding opportunity must meet the following criteria:

Are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
Fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
Are not a political or lobbying organization
Address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
Do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
Organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the award in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective award (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate award grant, etc.)

Organizations must agree to have a designated member of their team attend each training session, actively engage with the curriculum, and complete any required pre- and post-work (to include pre-scheduled ad hoc meetings with identified VCU Massey investigator partners). Funding is disbursed evenly on a quarterly basis as the learning series progresses, with grantees fulfilling the agreed upon terms and obligations.

Are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
Fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
Are not a political or lobbying organization
Address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
Do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
Organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the level in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective level (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate level grant, etc.)

Seed	Cultivate	Harvest
September 15, 2026: Award open for submissions October 15, 2026: Tech assistance webinar via Zoom at 5pm. To register to attend, use this Zoom link. December 15, 2026: Proposals due by 11:59 PM in submission portal March 1, 2027: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period July 1, 2027: Funding begins December 31, 2027: Project midpoint report and check-in call to be scheduled June 30, 2028: Project end date, final report and check-in call to be scheduled	September 15, 2026: Award open for submissions October 15, 2026: Informational webinar via Zoom at 6pm. To register to attend, use this Zoom link. December 15, 2026: Application due by 11:59 PM in submission portal March 1, 2027: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period July 2027 - April 2028: Monthly Cultivate Learning Cohort Sessions held via Zoom. Dates and times to be determined. June 30, 2028: Curriculum ends	9/15/26: Award open for submissions 2/26/27: Proposals due by 11:59 PM in submission portal 4/1/27: Applicants notified of selection via email April - May 2027: Planning and coordination period 7/1/27: Funding begins 6/30/28: Project midpoint report and check-in call to be scheduled 6/30/29: Project end date, final report and check-in call to be scheduled

Expenditures Allowed:

Personnel / Salary support for staff
Supplies and printing
Technical assistance
Patient support to address barriers to care
Community leader/stakeholder stipends if relevant to the project with a detailed justification
Domestic travel necessary to carry out proposed project based on institutional travel policies.
Meetings & Training expenses (e.g., audiovisual fees, written collateral)
Mileage (Driving expenses incurred. Rates of $0.70/mile based on current IRS mileage rates)

Expenditures NOT Allowed:

Vaccinations, screenings, diagnostic or treatment services, and equipment
Patient medical expenses (e.g. co-pays)
Therapeutic agents (prescription or non-prescription)
General equipment (e.g. furniture, phones, vehicles)
Construction or renovation of facilities
Manuscript publishing cost
Computer and equipment maintenance fees
Tuition
Travel and/or registration/related fees for conferences
Travel not essential to carrying out the proposed project.
Registration and travel cost for professional development or courses not related to this project
Purchasing and binding of periodicals and books
Dues and membership fees
Recruiting expenses
Administrative or institutional charges for services normally considered overhead (e.g., space rental, utilities, building maintenance)
Sub-contracts to any institutions not approved by Massey Cancer Center
Lobbying

The official start date of the award and the release of funds will begin after institutional compliance approvals by documentation of a statement of work.
Acceptance of funds implies a firm commitment to provide a periodic virtual or in-person check ins, as well as, formal progress reports over the specified grant period.
Funds will be divided into payments at intervals with distribution contingent on submission of a written progress report by the stated deadline. Grantees that do not submit written progress reports will jeopardize future Massey-supported awards.
Massey expects that the grantee will completely utilize the full amount of funding during the term of the award. Time extensions to complete the awarded project are NOT permitted. All unspent funds at the end of the grant period will be returned to Massey.
Projects must start within 60 days of receipt of the Notice of Award (NOA) and signed statements of work or funding may be rescinded.
All project associated awards, publications, and presentations must acknowledge VCU Massey.
Acceptance of funds post notice of award implies a firm commitment to provide the Massey joint project team access to meet the team and jointly give talks to the public.
Upon successful completion of a funded project, applicants may be asked to nominate a representative from the organization to serve on the community review committee for future community grant cycles, to provide input on applications and selection of new recipients for the grant award they have previously received.

The Community Engagement staff will review applications for eligibility. A review committee comprised of community partners and Massey Cancer Center investigators will review the applications for completeness, merit of the proposed plan and impact for the community. The review committee will operate as an independent volunteer body to provide recommendations about which SEED applications will move forward for funding (SEED) or full applications (CULTIVATE, HARVEST)

The review panel will use a standardized rubric to score:

Merit of the proposed activities and project design to address the stated objectives
Relevance of the project in relation to the assessment of need within the proposal
Reasonableness of the budget and budget justification sections
Rational of the project in how it will reach the proposed target audience
Clearly defined project evaluation plan
Potential for sustainability of the project
Clear, direct, and explicitly stated connection to reducing the cancer burden on Virginians throughout the proposal
Innovation

Barring disqualification for failure to meet standards set forth in this request for proposals document, the review panel’s collective decision will be the determining factor.

The groups we work with on these grants vary. Projects are run by churches, community groups, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), free and charitable clinics, statewide nonprofits, and other local organizations.

To see some of our partners and their projects, check out the previous recipients by year on the Massey community engagement page.

This varies depending on the grant award.

Seed grant award: This is designed for ideas community partners have related to cancer prevention, early detection, screening, survivorship, policy, or anything in between. It’s the beginning of planting a seed for what’s to come from a new or unique idea.
Cultivate grant award: This award is to assist in the expansion of a program or project that already exists by helping to build capacity and cultivating deeper partnerships with the communities you serve and to partner with VCU Massey researchers/investigators that can help find long-term, evidence-based solutions.
Harvest grant award: This award is for established programs or projects that are ready to move forward in combining the goals of Seed and Cultivate while collecting preliminary data that will be used to apply for larger research focused grants in the future.

Absolutely! In fact, the Seed award is designed for project ideas and relationships that are just getting started. As long as it has a cancer-focus aligned with Massey’s priorities and service area, we are happy to consider it. If you want to reach out before you submit, you can contact our team at engagemassey@vcu.edu. We love building relationships with partners doing great work, regardless of whether you apply.

For the Harvest award, the answer is still yes, but the project will need to have a more clearly defined connection to a Massey researcher/investigator’s field of study or expertise, in order to explore it for future research.

Applicant organizations submitting a Letter of Intent or proposal to the Seed, Cultivate or Harvest tiers of funding opportunity must meet the following criteria:

address emerging ideas in performance improvement, capacity building, and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection, and/or health equity
fully or partially serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
are in the state of Virginia and are recognized by the IRS as a non-profit, being either a government agency, a recognized house of worship, or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation; including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, or service providers
are not a political or lobbying organization
do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or disability
organization is not a previous VCU Massey grant recipient at the award in which they are currently applying, neither has anyone named in the proposal managed a previous VCU Massey community grant funded project at that respective award (i.e., Seed grant recipients cannot apply for an additional Seed grant, Cultivate cannot apply for additional Cultivate award grant, etc)

For the Harvest award, these additional requirements apply:

Harvest award applicants must be willing to co-develop their proposal with a VCU Massey investigator/researcher(s) in order to collaborate and identify topics for future community engaged research informed by their Cultivate or Harvest grant projects
Harvest recipients will be expected to agree to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to outline expectations of the organizations project management team and the VCU Massey investigator/researcher during the course of the project

Please note: Applications are not accepted from non-501c private foundations, individuals, political, or lobbying organizations. Applicants requesting funds for event sponsorships, scholarships, publication of books, conferences, one-time events, dinners, fundraisers, capital campaigns, or endowment funds will not be considered.

Organizations with a current grant are eligible (and encouraged) to apply for the next award of funding once announced, so long as the current grant will be finished within 60 days of the date the new grant projects are scheduled to start. To see the expected start date of the new grant projects, please see the timeline information for the specific grant award you are considering applying for.

No. Successful proposals will be for projects that are ongoing for the entire duration of the grant cycle. Events can be part of those projects, but the most likely projects to be funded are those that have sustainable, ongoing efforts to lessen the cancer burden outside of a one-time event. Consider a series of impactful cancer-focused activities versus a single event.

That’s okay. In fact, many of Massey’s partners are focused on a large range of community-centered missions that are not cancer specific. However, the community grant project must have an explicit cancer-focus in line with Massey’s mission to reduce the cancer burden on Virginians to be considered for funding.

Massey staff and faculty review all submissions for technical requirements to be sure they follow the submission guidelines and can be considered for funding by VCU Massey.

Review panels of Massey’s affiliated community partners assess the final proposal applications for eligibility, completeness, and merit of the proposed plan according to a standardized scoring rubric. The review committee, under guidance from Massey staff, will operate as an independent volunteer body to provide their recommendations as to which proposals will move forward for funding consideration.

The review panel will use a standardized rubric to score:

Merit of the proposed activities and project design to address the stated objectives
Relevance of the project in relation to the assessment of need within the proposal
Appropriateness of the budget and budget justification
Rationale of the project in how it will reach the proposed target audience
Clearly defined project evaluation plan
Potential for sustainability of the project
Clear, direct, and explicitly stated connection to cancer prevention and control throughout the proposal
Innovation

Barring a proposal’s disqualification for failure to meet standards set forth in the request for proposals document, or misalignment with Massey’s objectives, the review panel’s collective decision will be the determining factor.

For Cultivate and Harvest award, Massey also determines whether projects are a match with internal researchers/investigators (along with their feasibility), since those projects require potential research questions to be explored.

Please reach out to Massey’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at engagemassey@vcu.edu with “Community Grant Question” in the subject line.

The Cultivate awards are training grants are meant to increase community partners’ ability to co-lead research. This means that recipients will be required to attend a series of 8 curriculum sessions hosted via Zoom, over the course of the 12 months of funding. Each session will be approximately 2 hours and cover a range of topics, from understanding basic cancer science and research, to identifying grant opportunities and grant-writing.

The goal of the Cultivate awards is helping participant organizations prepare to partner with Massey investigators to co-develop a partnership and collaboratively generate a list of research questions for future academic-community partnered research proposals, with funding that helps allow community partners to fully participate.

For more information, contact the Massey Community Outreach & Engagement grant administrator at engagemassey@vcu.edu or (804) 628-0896.