Ready to volunteer? Great! If you need to find an opportunity, just click on the Opportunites link to the left to see what's available. There, you can search by school or find other general community volunteer opportunities. If you find a project - or have a project of your own - that is going to cost money, your probably wondering if you and your team can get Campus Connection dollars. Well, we’re working on having all the colleges and universities affiliated with the Rochester Area Colleges Students Activities Consortium be eligible. As of now, students of Finger Lakes Community College, Monroe Community College, Nazareth College, Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. John Fisher College, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo and the University of Rochester are eligible. If your school isn’t listed here, it might be a good idea to bug someone in your campus office of student affairs or whoever is in charge of volunteering. We’d love to have as many area schools as possible be part of Campus Connection.

You won't need to fill out an application if your project doesn't require cash. But if it does, remember to plan ahead - and read all the information below. We review applications every 3-4 weeks, so it may take up to 5-6 weeks from the date you apply to get the money. If funds for your project are approved, we’ll send an e-mail to you and your school’s Campus Connection leader. The money is actually sent to your leader, who will take care of giving it to you.

• Grant projects need to be done at or with the support of any qualified (501c3) not-for-profit agency in United Way's seven-county region. That means Eastern Orleans, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
• Students and the host not-for-profit organization must work together to develop the project – including a work plan and shopping list for the project.
• Mini-grants are intended cover the "hard costs" of projects - like paint, building materials, supplies etc. – you know, things that otherwise would be out of pocket expenses.
• Work together! You’ll need to work with your campus leader at school on this project (click on Leader of your Pack to see who that is). This means you must be a recognized group or organization within your school, and you’ve got to be working on a a project that everyone agrees on.
• Applications for new community service projects, and those that are done collaboratively with other area college students, will be given greater consideration (this means you can set aside your rivalries for a day and team up!)

• Save your receipts for all materials purchases. Your staff leader will be collecting them.
• Assign a designated picture-taker! In order to make Campus Connection a success, it's important to show off what you’ve accomplished.

It doesn't matter if you get a grant or not - we'd love to have you post about your volunteer experience on our site! It helps spread the word and encourage others to check out the site and get connected with our community. We promise, it's a easier than your last college essay. A LOT easier.

• First, if you completed a project that you received a grant for, make sure to get a signed note from the agency where you did the project – just for our files. Once you have it, it goes to your staff leader.
• No matter what the project, upload a picture to the Show & Tell page of this site – so you can show everyone what great things you accomplished – and about your overall experience!

(And remember to send your parents a link. They love it when you show initiative and responsibility!)

Materials purchased with Campus Connection grant money becomes property of your school. Students and leaders may decide to keep the items for use in future volunteer projects. Or, if you wish, you can donate the items to the agency that you did work at. We trust you will make the best decision together.