Community Excellence Grants

Thanks to an outstanding investment by philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott, the Community Excellent Grant Program at Pasadena City College helps elevate exceptional ideas that advance PCC’s mission, vision, and values.

PCC has established a reputation as an innovator and creative space for educating students. Our faculty, staff, and students uncover new ideas and best practices, and we make a practice of disseminating these to our colleagues and peer institutions. This grant program supercharges these innate qualities of our culture, providing seed funding and experimentation space to nurture, test, and scale up new projects and approaches to educating.

This grant program aims to find the best and most impactful ideas within our diverse community and give them resources and energy to take root and grow. Programs funded with a Community Excellence Grant will be:

  • In service to PCC’s students, faculty, and staff;
  • Avenues for deepened connections between the college and communities across our district;
  • Spaces for intentional enhancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion;
  • Seen as signature demonstrations of PCC’s approach to education, pedagogy, and/or community college administration;
  • Expected to demonstrate results within one year of grant award;
  • Designed to maximize the impact of a one-time grant through this program;
  • Operated in accordance with PCC’s board policies and administrative procedures.

The Community Excellence Fund provides approximately $1 million in funding for this program each year. Grants are made annually with a maximum of two years to successfully complete the project.  A final report/presentation will be required upon completion.

Grantees for the 24.26 Cycle have been announced and notified.  A timeline for the 2025-2027 Cycle will be available in early September 2026.  All grants from the 22.24 cycle are now closed unless a modification was approved.  

Community Excellence Grant FAQ's

This grant program aims to find the best and most impactful ideas within our diverse community and give them resources and energy to take root and grow. Programs funded with a Community Excellence Grant will be:

  • In service to PCC’s students, faculty, and staff;
  • Avenues for deepened connections between the college and communities across our district;
  • Spaces for intentional enhancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion;
  • Seen as signature demonstrations of PCC’s approach to education, pedagogy, and/or community college administration;
  • Expected to demonstrate results within one year of grant award;
  • Designed to maximize the impact of a one-time grant through this program;
  • Operated in accordance with PCC’s board policies and administrative procedures.

There may be up to $1 million allocated annually to outstanding new programs and initiatives through this program.  

Think big!  We are looking to fund creative and exciting new initiatives.  There has been no cap determined as of yet.

The timeline for the 25.27 Cycle will be announced sometime in September 2024.

We fund programs for a two-year grant period.  Projects funded on July 1st, 2023 must be completed by June 30, 2025.  Projects funded on July 1st, 2024 must be completed by June 30, 2026. 
  • We are not funding upgrades to an individual’s equipment, funding individual travel, or granting individual stipends.
  • The grant program was not designed to supplant funding, but rather enhance it.
  • We will not fund anything which violates or is in conflict with district policies.
  • Original, innovative, exciting, different, unique….as it pertains to student success!
  • Details, details, details!  
  • A realistic spending plan
  • Think strategically!  
  • What CAN you do if awarded this funding as opposed to what you won’t be able to do if you don’t have the funding
  • If you are not fully funded, what is your Plan “B”?
Grant Application Questions for the next cycle (2025.2027) are being updated by the CEG Committee and will be shared sometime in October of 2024.

Yes!  You can upload up to two files (PDF's, Word Docs, Excel Docs) and two images.

Contact Kris McPeak at kmmcpeak@pasadena.edu to request a Grant Modification Request Form.  Completed requests are forwarded to the selection committee for review.  Submitting a request does not guarantee either an extension or additional funding, but the committee did identify a need to provide this option for grantees.

 The PCC Foundation uses Blackbaud Award Management for the application and review of Grant Applications.  A link will be shared closer to the opening of the application process.

 YES.   There's an entire playlist of Grant Workshops on our YouTube Channel - which you can find HERE.  We will update this page as new workshops are added.  

Please reach out to Kris McPeak at kmmcpeak@pasadena.edu or you can call her at x7078.