The Morgridge Center for Public Service offers a wide choice of giving opportunities. Wherever you designate your gift, you will help develop leadership skills, advance learning, strengthen campus and community partnerships and most important, visibly demonstrate the university’s tradition of service, inclusion and equity.
Explore specific ways that you can support the Morgridge Center for Public Service below by clicking on a header. To learn more about giving opportunities, contact Morgridge Center Faculty Director Kathy Cramer at kathy.cramer@wisc.edu or 608-262-0787.
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Program Creation, Innovation and Expansion
Your gifts enable us to grow and sustain our successful on-going programs and to create programs that match the ideas, needs and assets of our community partners with the ideas, needs and assets of the Morgridge Center.
Practitioners in Residence
The Morgridge Center for Public Service constantly strives to combine resources with assets in the community to improve the quality of life in the Madison area for all in the spirit of equity and inclusion. Your support will enable us to invite staff members from partner organizations to join the Morgridge Center staff for a semester, bringing their perspective and knowledge to campus, and accessing university experience and expertise.
Student Intern Program
Student interns play a crucial role in the day-to-day operations of the Morgridge Center. And their positions are shaped not just around what they offer the Morgridge Center but how they can built relevant skills for their future careers. Support will allow the Morgridge Center to continue to support these students with paid opportunities to gain valuable experience working in a variety of jobs while also contributing to the Center’s mission.
The Philanthropy Lab
In 2016, UW-Madison joined Harvard, Northwestern University, Stanford University, UCLA, the University of Michigan and other world-class higher education institutions in partnering with the nonprofit Philanthropy Lab to offer an undergraduate course in this exciting new area of study. The primary goal of the hands-on learning course is to ignite students’ interest and participation in philanthropy by giving them the tangible responsibility of directing real money (at least $50,000 per semester) to nonprofit organizations while earning course credit.
Gifts will provide funds for students to manage and distribute to nonprofits under the supervision of the course instructor. The resulting three-fold impact will benefit students, the university and the local community.
For specific information on how you can invest in any of these opportunities, please contact: Kathy Cramer, Morgridge Center Faculty Director
kathy.cramer@wisc.edu | 608-262-0787
Volunteer Experience: Service Beyond Coursework
Many promising UW-Madison students are highly motivated to put their educations to use in service to others. By helping others, they enrich their own Wisconsin Experience. Morgridge Center “alumni” are well-prepared to be active, involved global citizens. Students gain real world experience in critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork.
Adopt a Badger Volunteer
Badger Volunteers is a semester-long program that pairs teams of students with community organizations (schools, nonprofits, municipalities) to volunteer 1-4 hours each week with the same organization. The program is designed to foster meaningful and consistent connections between community partners and students over the course of an entire semester. The Badger Volunteers program provides logistical support, transportation, training and education sessions for student volunteers in the program.
Badger Volunteers Intern Program
Badger Volunteers also are valuable staff members often working in areas related to their majors including operations, development, educational programming or community development.
Transportation Options
Working in the community requires travel. Transportation support enables Badger Volunteers and course-based service learning students to travel to and from their work locations safely and cost-effectively. Gifts provide assistance for bike, bus, carshare or cab transportation. Reliable transportation makes volunteer opportunities more accessible to students and brings the skills, talents and enthusiasm of students to the organizations.
Badger Volunteers Project Assistant
Supporting a Badger Volunteers Project Assistant position to work with all aspects of the program including evaluation and assessment.
For specific information on how you can invest in any of these opportunities, please contact: Kathy Cramer, Morgridge Center Faculty Director
kathy.cramer@wisc.edu | 608-262-0787
Community-Engaged Scholarship: Service Through Coursework
Support learning through service as part of coursework.
Wisconsin Idea Fellowships for Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Wisconsin Idea Fellowships currently are awarded annually to undergraduate students for projects implemented to solve issues identified by local or global communities. We hope to expand to graduate students
in the future. Fellowships are awarded to projects designed by a student (or group of students) in collaboration with a community organization and a UW-Madison faculty or academic staff member. Students receive a stipend as well as additional implementation funds.
Wisconsin Community Fellowships
The Wisconsin Community Fellowships (WCF) provide resources to support UW-Madison student projects aimed at public engagement over the summer in a Wisconsin community to which the student has a personal connection.
New Service-Learning Course Development Grants
In 2015-16, the Morgridge Center supported 123 service-learning courses in 46 departments among 13 schools and colleges enrolling more than 3,400 undergraduate and graduate students. There is strong demand among passionate faculty and eager students to grow this menu of course offerings. The university is committed to enhancing academic excellence through these high impact learning options. Course grants provide funds to develop new courses, stipends for community partners and the ability to hire students to support the extra demands of service-learning courses.
Grant Writer Position
A full-time professional grant writer will help Morgridge Center for Public Service access additional funding and successfully coach graduate students and faculty through the grant application processes.
For specific information on how you can invest in any of these opportunities, please contact: Kathy Cramer, Morgridge Center Faculty Director
kathy.cramer@wisc.edu | 608-262-0787
A Network of Campus and Community Partners
Recognition awards, presented annually, honor faculty and staff whose dedication of time and expertise make the Morgridge Center for Public Service a national model. Awards also provide funding for recipients to advance their work and may be used as seed money to attract additional research grants.
Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award
The Morgridge Center for Public Service will join the 60+ year tradition of honoring outstanding educators with teaching awards. Recipients are selected for their enthusiasm, creativity, commitment and ability to inspire and motivate students through community-based learning courses, and participation in academically rigorous community-based research.
Academic and University Staff Distinguished Service Award
Academic and university staff employees make essential contributions to campus/community partnerships. They teach classes, conduct community-based research, participate in outreach and service programs and help administer programs for students and instructors.
Faculty Incentives Program
Incentive grants enable faculty to pursue advanced community-engaged research.
Faculty Fellows Program for Early-Career Faculty
The Faculty Fellows Program provides an incentive for early-career faculty to particpate community-engaged learning and create service learning courses. Each year, the Morgridge Center will select early-career faculty to engage in seminars on community-engaged learning best practices and give them a small grant to help implement a course.
Graduate Student Project Assistantship
The Graduate Student Project Assistant trains faculty, liases with community partners, analyzes data and works directly with students taking service learning courses. Graduate students receive a monthly stipend, tuition remission and are eligible for health insurance.
New Outreach Community of Practice Hire
The UW-Madison Community Partnerships and Outreach (CPO) unites faculty and staff who share a vision of the Wisconsin Idea. The CPO network recognizes community members as full partners essential to the collaborative work that transforms both our community and institution for the public good. Creation of a position to coordinate communication and activities will help make this campus-wide network more efficient and effective.
For specific information on how you can invest in any of these opportunities, please contact: Kathy Cramer, Morgridge Center Faculty Director
kathy.cramer@wisc.edu | 608-262-0787
Area of Greatest Need
You may choose to make a discretionary gift to the area of greatest impact. These gifts allow the Morgridge Center for Public Service Director to tap funds for exceptional purposes or unanticipated needs.
For specific information on how you can invest in this opportunity, please contact: Kathy Cramer, Morgridge Center Faculty Director
kathy.cramer@wisc.edu | 608-262-0787
