Vincentian Endowment Fund Grant

Click here to learn more about the Principal VEF Grant application process, timeline, and guidelines.

Principal VEF Grants are typically for proposals seeking funding over $2,000, but typically do not exceed $5,000 per year. In some rare instances, multi-year grants have been awarded for as much as $15,000.

Principal VEF Grant applications are only accepted in Winter Quarter of each Academic Year. If awarded, the grant dollars will not be available for use until the beginning of the next Academic Year on July 1. For example, applications awarded in Winter Quarter will be able to spend dollars starting on July 1.

Click here to learn more about the Discretionary VEF Grant application process, timeline, and guidelines.

Discretionary VEF Grants are for proposals up to $2,000.

Discretionary VEF Grant applications are accepted throughout the academic year and generally will not be permitted to span multiple Academic Years. Any dollars awarded in a given Academic Year, must be spent by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. For example, if applying for a Discretionary VEF Grant in the Fall, the project must be completed in full by June 30 of the following calendar year. If applying in the winter or spring, generally all funds must be expended that same fiscal year before June 30th.

Click here to submit your VEF Final Report.

After the completion of a Principal or Discretionary VEF Grant, the Division of Mission and Ministry expects the recipients to submit a Final Report describing the outcomes of their project and an accounting of the program expenses. Failure to submit a Final Report will disqualify recipients from future VEF Grant funding.

This endowment fund was established in 1992 by a gift from the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers who sponsor the university. Through this gift, the Vincentian Community wished to communicate several of its fundamental convictions. First, it is impossible to view the Vincentian identity of the university independently from its Catholic identity. Second, consonant with its Catholic and Vincentian values, DePaul has developed its sense of being an urban university with a deep educational involvement in the life of the city, the nation, and the world. The university’s Catholic and Vincentian values also have contributed to many of the most notable aspects of the university’s institutional culture, such as its commitment to access and attainment, academic entrepreneurship, service, personalism and diversity. Third, in order for these values to continue to inform the life of the university, the university community must participate in an ongoing study, dialogue, and praxis concerning these values and this identity.

In 2002, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Vincentian Endowment Fund (VEF), the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers gave additional gifts to the original endowment in order to ensure adequate funding for service grants that involve faculty, staff, and students in community service projects, especially those that directly impact those who are most in need. These gifts were given in honor of Blessed Frederic Ozanam, a university professor and co-founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

The endowment thus seeks to assist the university in developing its understanding of how, as a university informed by the vision of Vincent de Paul, it is to be an inclusive, diverse, and welcoming institution that treasures its Catholic identity. This assistance will be achieved through funding grant projects that directly enhance the identity of DePaul University as a Catholic, Vincentian, and urban university with special attention to the Catholic and Vincentian aspects of this identity