Opportunities for Faculty and Staff
For faculty, academic program staff and RISD graduate students, the Center for Community Partnerships (CCP) supports your efforts in doing community-engaged work. Our team is here to help you integrate equitable engagement experiences into your courses, studio spaces, research and programs.
Available grants
See below to learn about our Engaged Opportunity Grants, which provide support for a wide range of community-engaged learning projects.
Community Knowledge Fund
Available to: faculty and staff
Funding range: $100–500
The RISD Community Knowledge Fund provides compensation to community partners who bring their expertise and experience to our campus through educational opportunities or curricular engagements.
The fund is designed to create more equitable opportunities for knowledge sharing and learning, critical reflection, and relationship building with community partners.
The next application will open January 2023
Community Collaboration Grant
Available to: faculty and staff
Funding: $10,000 maximum
Purpose
Collaboration grants are one-time proof-of-concept practitioner grants that support projects and partnerships that: allow for RISD faculty and staff to learn from and build trust with communities; advance the sharing of knowledge around sustainability, social justice and innovation; collaboratively enhance capacity; and strengthen partnerships with community groups. The source of the grants are donations.
Selection criteria
The next application will open January 2023. CCP’s advisory board members and staff will review proposals, with selections being made by applying the following criteria, as appropriate:
- Contribution to RISD’s goal of participation in high-quality community-engaged learning opportunities
- Evidence of community-identified and/or project need
- Feasibility of addressing specific need in partnership with the community/partner
- Prospect for sustaining the community-engaged learning beyond the life of the grant
Expectations and deliverables
Grantees must submit an end-of-project report using the template provided. As appropriate, reporting may include feedback from community partners.
Grantees will provide documentation and evaluation of outcomes. Grantees may use an assessment tool of their own devising.
If applicable, grantees will also provide documentation and evaluation of the partnership, including community partner voice and feedback. Grantees may use a Partnership Assessment Tool.
Additional follow-up may be requested depending on the nature of the funding request.
The next application will open January 2023
GivePulse Network
Our online hub for community engagement

By connecting members of our campus community with nearby groups, organizations and service opportunities, the GivePulse community engagement platform helps facilitate many ways to do engaged work at and around RISD.
If you want to promote or are looking for community involvement opportunities, GivePulse makes discovery easier. By creating a GivePulse profile, you’ll stay connected and aware of upcoming, ongoing and recurring community-based initiatives across and beyond our campus.
Academic resources
For scholars and practitioners interested in engaged work, the resources listed below offer vital support for successfully working collaboratively in community contexts.
Is there a resource you want to see here? Email community@risd.edu.
Organizations
Campus Compact
Campus Compact supports engaged faculty (and professional staff who support them) with training, resources and opportunities.
Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD)
AICAD is a consortium of 42 top nonprofit independent art and design colleges in the US and Canada.
Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (AICU) Rhode Island
AICU Rhode Island actively engages with partners across New England and at the national level in order to provide federal- and state-level policy and program leadership on higher education issues.
International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement
The only international organization whose expressed primary purpose is to cultivate, encourage and present research across all engagement forms and educational levels.
Civic engagement
Civic Prompts: Making Civic Learning Routine across the Disciplines
The Association of American Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) new online publication addresses how to infuse civic learning and democratic engagement across all majors. Explore the public purposes of the major, reformulate projects and assignments to raise civic inquiries, and design pedagogies that encourage students to turn knowledge into action.
Civic Prompts in the Major: Disciplinary Knowledge, Democratic Culture, and the Public Good
Designed primarily for faculty and departmental chairs, this webinar is part of AAC&U’s larger project on civic learning in the major by design.
GlobalSL.org
GlobalSL.org amasses evidence-based tools and peer-reviewed research to advance best practices in global learning, community-university partnership and sustainable development.
Publications and journals
Let us amplify your work
Real, impactful community engagement is a core RISD value that runs through so much of what our faculty, staff and students do here. If you’ve led or been involved in a studio, research project or other engaged community collaboration, take a moment to tell us your story and we’ll help spread the word.
Campus partners

CSI is an on-campus hub for students to discover opportunities to grow as critical thinkers and global citizens. In advancing this mission, it creates and supports campus activities, student government, leadership development and service/experiential learning.

ISE promotes cultural awareness, dialogue, and interaction on campus while serving as a hands-on resource for specific RISD communities. Working closely with faculty, staff and administrators, it provides leadership and advises students in a wide range of academic, social, cultural and financial areas related to the college experience.

The Center for SEI guides and coordinates institutional efforts to make our community more diverse and welcoming of differences, and helps ensure that all students, faculty and staff have the access, opportunity and support they need to benefit fully from their experiences at RISD.

Recognizing the critical role of discovery and experimentation in art and design, RISD Research sustains the college’s culture of inquiry through research initiatives, programming, training and support for publication, and by encouraging faculty-student collaboration.

The Teaching and Learning Lab offers faculty interactive workshops and development opportunities that support the creation of inclusive and innovative curricula and pedagogies. In supporting the exchange of innovative classroom practices, cross-institutional dialogue and more, the lab promotes at RISD a culture of reflective teaching and ongoing faculty development.

RISD Careers educates and advises all students and alumni on translating their education and creativity into fulfilling professional experiences. With deep respect for individual differences and for each person’s unique aspirations and goals, our career center oversees robust annual programming and offers students individualized guidance throughout their studies.

Student Employment guides all aspects of on-campus employment and off-campus work study, creating opportunities for students to support their academic career while gaining important on-the-job experience and skills.

As the only comprehensive art museum in southeastern New England, the RISD Museum is a vital resource for RISD and the surrounding area. It offers a varied program of exhibitions, lectures, tours, workshops and publications, and connects communities around an appreciation for the broad cultural significance of art and design.

Comprised of annually elected RISD staff members, the Staff Council fosters a spirit of unified community on campus, advocates for a working environment that helps all staff members reach their full potential, and serves as a conduit for the exchange of information between staff and senior administration.