The Associates of St. John Bosco is pleased to announce the National RISE (Renewal through Innovative Student Evangelization) Awards, an exciting initiative to foster innovation, reward creativity, and evangelize college campuses in the United States.

ASJB will award up to a total of $50,000 to Catholic Campus Ministries that plan and execute the most creative evangelization and outreach initiatives in order to reach Catholic college students and people of faith on their respective campuses.

About the RISE Awards

The RISE Awards are a bold initiative of the Associates of St. John Bosco, created to spark new and innovative evangelization efforts on college campuses nationwide. Many Catholic Campus Ministries (CCMs) have the passion and vision to reach students in creative ways, but often lack the resources to bring those ideas to life.

Through the RISE Awards, the Associates of St. John Bosco provides funding to campus ministries ready to think big, experiment, and reimagine how to share the Catholic faith with the next generation of college students. Our goal is simple: empower ministries to rise to the challenge of evangelization and ignite the Faith in college students, one soul at a time.

Application Guidelines

CCMs at colleges and universities in the United States are invited to apply for an award to help fund the execution of their most creative evangelization project during the 2026-2027 academic year to reach one of the following groups:

  • Freshmen

  • Fallen-away Catholics

  • The “Nones” (unaffiliated or disaffiliated people of faith)

  • Athletes

  • Other

Each CCM may only submit one application. Submissions will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. Excellent submissions may result in the request for additional information or an interview. ASJB reserves the right to award more or less than the amount requested or reject applications that are not consistent with the goals of this initiative. All complete submissions will receive a response on or about March 5, 2026.

RISE Award recipients will be asked to submit 1) a full project plan, 2) a comprehensive budget, and 3) a 5-10 minute video, which will be shared on the ASJB site to inspire other Catholic Campus Ministries to carry out these projects on their own campuses! By submitting an application, you agree to grant ASJB and others the use of your ideas under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

Application Timeline

  1. Submit an Application with your Idea and Simple Budget by the January 15, 2026 deadline.

  2. CCMs that advance to Round 2 will be notified by March 5, 2026 to submit their full Project Plan and detailed Budget by March 31, 2026.

  3. The top five CCMs will be notified in early April and must send at least one (and up to two) representative(s) to the Washington, D.C., area for a live in-person event where they will present their projects to a panel of judges. This will be held on June 18, 2026. ASJB will cover approved travel expenses (ex: airfare, hotel, local travel, etc.).

  4. RISE Awardees will be announced later in the summer. Within three months of carrying out the winning project, RISE Awardees must provide a revised Final Project Plan and Video Summary.

Note: All due dates are 11:59 PM ET.

FAQ

  • The world is your oyster! We cannot offer suggestions at this time as the goal of the project is ingenuity and zeal - get brainstorming and see what you come up with! Every campus is different and each ministry has different needs - allow this project to help fill the needs of your CCM and campus as a whole.

    • The project can last any length of time in the 2026-2027 school year.

    • The project could be anywhere from a few hours to lasting the whole year long.

    • The RISE Awardees will be announced during the summer of 2026.

    • If selected, you must send in a final single PDF with photocopied receipts of all the expenses for the project.

    • If the amount spent on the project comes under the budgeted amount by more than $500, you must return the remainder to ASJB at the same time that the final project plan and video are submitted.

    • All finalists will be asked to complete a Project Plan utilizing a provided template. Applicants will be selected from these finalists and provided funding to implement their ideas. All funded projects must document their project and within three months after the activity, provide ASJB with a final Project Plan (as implemented) and a 5-10 minute video on how the project was carried out and its impact.

    • Each RISE Award recipient must create a video to detail the success of the RISE Awards on their respective campus. The goal of this video is two-fold: 1) ASJB will share the video on its digital platforms to reach other campus ministries to inspire creativity in their outreach on their own campuses. 2) ASJB will share with its networks and donors how the award money was impactful for the specific campuses in leading souls to Christ.

    • The video should be 5-10 minutes long with a horizontal (landscape) orientation. While we don’t necessarily expect a professional video, we’re still looking for high quality video, photos, and audio to be included to be shared with ASJB’s networks and digital platforms. We’re looking for a creative, well-executed video.

    • The video style should include compilation or advertisement style content. We’re looking for something punchy and exciting to watch. The video can include clips of students talking, however, this should only be a short aspect of the video. 

    • Some prompts to think about for the video could include: 

      • How was the grant money impactful for your campus? 

      • What need did your campus have that this money helped fill? 

      • How can your specific creative campus outreach inspire other campuses to use ingenuity in their outreach to their campus?

      • How was your ministry affected by the call for creativity in campus outreach? 

    • We highly recommend documenting videos/photos throughout the planning and execution process of your project so you can easily have content to pull from for the video.

  • The application will open on September 15, 2025, and will close at 11:59 PM ET on January 15, 2026. The CCMs chosen for Round 2 will be notified by March 5, 2026, and will be asked to produce a comprehensive Project Plan by March 31, 2026.

    • The awarded money cannot be used to bring in another group to do evangelization for your CCM (ie: FOCUS, SPO, etc).

    • CCMs must use the money only for the project that they apply for. The money cannot be used for outside projects/purposes.

  • Replicability is one factor among many. It is not weighted as heavily as other qualities, such as effectiveness of the project (bringing souls to Christ), for example. What we mean by "replicable" is something closer to "repeatable" and/or "inspirational." For example, your ministry should ask itself, "Does this project inspire other Campus Ministries to think as creatively as this project?" "Does this project contain certain elements that are repeatable on other campuses?" etc.

  • ASJB will be holding three informational Zoom calls over the course of September and October. Please register and submit your questions in advance by filling out this form.

Congratulations to our 2025 RISE Award Recipients!