The STOMP Grant Challenge

STOMP at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO) was originally funded in 2001 by a generous grant from the LLL foundation for 3 years. STOMP also received a small grant from UCCPS in 2002 to further support the program. One of the charges of the LLL foundation was for STOMP to look at sustainability and dissemination. For sustainability, the program focused on how student outreach could be run as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. STOMP fellows are paid $10/hour and with the proper support materials and training each fellow costs just under $1,000 per semester in the classroom. This low cost means the Tufts University program can sustain a large number of fellows on a small budget and that new programs can get started for as little as $10,000. In addition, STOMP at Tufts University took the initiative to use excess resources (LEGO materials and student labor) to run workshops that would generate funds to help sustain the program.

The LLL Foundation was pleased with the success of STOMP and was interested in working with Tufts University to fund STOMP for an additional 10 years. STOMP was issued a $200,000 challenge grant ($150,000 from the LLL foundation and $50,000 from an anonymous donor), which they pledged to donate a total of $200,000 if Tufts University Development could match the funding. The $400,000 in combined funding would fund not only STOMP at Tufts University but also 10 STOMP programs at other universities.

As of May 2008, Tufts University Development has secured over 92% of the needed funding to meet the challenge and expects to complete the challenge in fiscal year 2008.