Believe In Students Inc

Great lakes consortium - the great lakes fast fund consortium is made up of six fast fund sites in illinois and wisconsin who have formed a collaboration to pursue systemic change. Believe in students has led this group to run a paid student fellowship to train and support impacted students to serve as leaders in this work, and organize faculty, staff, and students to advocate for campus policy and practice changes. In 2024, the organization supported 22 student fellows (10 in spring, 12 in fall) as they developed skills; built relationships among faculty, staff, and students; and created coalitions among other student groups.

Fast fund network - the fast fund is the organization's flagship program, where small-dollar, flexible emergency aid grants are provided to students to address immediate basic needs challenges that threaten their ability to stay in school. The organization does this by organizing a network of faculty on campuses across the country who serve as volunteer program leaders to engage faculty, staff, and impacted students in addressing student basic needs insecurity, including disseminating emergency grants from funds raised through bis and others. In 2024, bis coordinated and supported 30 fast fund leaders across the country to raise and distribute $771,545 to 2,384 students. This is a 21% increase in students served, and a 43% increase in funds distributed over the prior year. The organization has made investments in improving the infrastructure of supports it provides to the volunteer fast fund leaders, focused on increasing efficiency for volunteer leaders and improving their ability to raise local funds.

Gather food hall is a social enterprise to combat food insecurity among college students by utilizing a pay-what-you-can model that provides vouchers for students who need extra support and helping the community better understand these issues. Bis has been working with a group of partners to identify people who would own and operate the food hall, while the organization would focus on the social mission of addressing college food insecurity as a nonprofit partner to the effort. 2024 was a milestone year, as an agreement was reached for the food hall to be built by brandywine realty and operated by hospitality hq, brought together a series of partners to help learn from past failures in models like this, and generate a concept that can be sustainable while addressing the social good. The organization began focusing on establishing the program of providing meals, the educational campaign to educate gather's patrons about these issues, and raising funds to support student meals.