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Submit to 2025 Magic Grant Call for Proposals

The Magic Grant Program

The David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation is a joint effort between Stanford’s School of Engineering and Columbia Journalism School. Each year, the Brown Institute awards close to $1M in grants to help you “follow your passion and experiment with new approaches to storytelling,” to paraphrase Helen Gurley Brown.  

Our Magic Grants are a unique blend of technology and media — grantees develop new ways to find and tell stories.

A Magic Grant offers:

  • Financial support (salaries) for you and your team for up to a year — through post-graduate fellowships at Columbia and research positions at Stanford
  • Project funding for production, prototyping, software, services, and equipment
  • Professional development opportunities, including training in entrepreneurship and other specialized skills

The Magic Grant program provides year-long funding awards of up to $150,000 ($300,000 for teams with members of both the Columbia and Stanford communities and their collaborators). In addition to funding, grantees have access to a distinguished advisory and mentoring group and an extensive and inspiring alumni network.

Magic Grant Timeline

  • Proposal submission deadline: April 3, 2025
  • Announcement of finalists: April 18, 2025
  • Presentation/Q&A by Stanford finalists (virtual): April 28, 2025
  • Presentation/Q&A by Columbia finalists (virtual): April 29, 2025
  • Announcement of winners: April 30, 2025

Magic Grant Evaluation and Requirements

Magic Grant proposals are evaluated on: 1) the originality of the project; 2) its potential for impact; 3) the strength of the team; and 4) the timeline outlined to complete the work. Each of these areas should be clearly addressed in the proposal.

Precisely who is eligible to receive funding under a Magic Grant varies by campus; please carefully review our eligibility criteria before applying. The Institute will give special consideration to “bicoastal” proposals, those having team members or collaborators from both institutions.

Magic Grant recipients are expected to carry out their work in residence at the Brown Institute, either at Columbia or at Stanford, and participate in the Institute’s activities. Attendance at quarterly “All-Hands” review meetings held virtually is mandatory. In addition, grantees attend an annual retreat, held either in New York or California. For these meetings, the Brown Institute will cover lodging and travel costs.

Magic Grant Proposal

  • Project Summary: In one sentence, tell us what you intend to do with your Magic Grant.
  • Project Description: Please provide your project in more detail, highlighting the specific outcomes and deliverables you hope to achieve.
  • Timeline: Provide a timeline for your funding period, detailing specific milestones of your project.
  • Innovation/Originality: The Brown Institute’s mission calls for broadening opportunities and expanding participation in Engineering and Journalism. And the Institute values a broad range of perspectives, ideas, and experiences. How does your proposed project compare to similar work in your field? What similarities does it share, and in what ways does your project take a fresh or innovative approach? Framed another way, how does your team and project bring forward new perspectives, voices, or stories that have been left out or unexplored? In your answer, be sure to address what exists that is most similar.
  • Success/Impact: Please describe the anticipated impact of your project, focusing on both its immediate outcomes and its long-term contributions to the field or community it addresses. How do you plan to measure and evaluate this impact over time? Propose one or more measures that will guide discussions about how you’re doing, identifying where things are going great and where we could be of help. List not more than three measures for your project.
  • Challenges and Risks: Explain any potential challenges or obstacles in achieving success with your project and how you intend to address them. Also reference any risks or unintended consequences that might stem from your work.
  • Entrepreneurship: The Brown Institute is especially interested in supporting projects that can have extended impact beyond the year of the grant as commercial or non-profit entrepreneurial ventures that allow the public to benefit from the work. Describe the entrepreneurial venture your project might lead to and the kind of extended impact such a venture would enable. (Not Required)

Team

  • Team Members: Name/Email/Role on Project
  • Resume: Résumé/CV of each team member
  • Transcripts: Most recent transcript(s) of each individual on the team. Transcript requirements vary by campus — please consult our FAQ page for more information.
  • Faculty Involvement (for Stanford): Name and description of how faculty will be involved in supporting the project.

Additional Documents

  • Optional Support Material: You may submit a PDF document of up to 1 page in length to accompany your proposal. You may use this document to provide illustrations, images and photographs to accompany your proposal.
  • Letters of Support: Two letters of support that assess the importance of the project and its chances of success (for Columbia applicants).
  • Budget: A budget for 12 months not exceeding a total of $150,000. The budget can include financial support of the team members (e.g. tuition remission and salary in accordance with University guidelines); cost for specialized hardware, software, and materials; travel, services; etc. and should follow the rules of the respective university. Each line item must be justified. Columbia applicants must use the budget template provided here. Stanford applicants should use the budget template provided here. Budgets will be evaluated on the scale and scope of the project and team personnel. When awarding Magic Grants, the Brown Institute may adjust budgets according to review committee recommendations and available funds.

Additional Information and Questions

The full Magic Grant Call for Proposals can be found at brown.columbia.edu/propose or brown.stanford.edu/propose. Questions about the process and eligibility requirements can be found under the Propose menu item of our site.