Dickinson College
IN-3: Innovation 3

The Idea Fund’s mission “is to provide money to support student-innovators who design projects to enhance the social and environmental atmosphere of Dickinson College. Having access to monetary resources enables and encourages creative and entrepreneurial activity and helps realize and engage our commitment to a useful education in the liberal arts.” The Idea Fund was a student-inspired and led initiative that works off a revolving loan fund platform, where loans given to student projects help to reduce a school’s carbon footprint and provide monetary returns that both pay off the project and provide future savings to the school. However, this fund seeks to go a step further and provide funds not only for projects which can repay themselves in the long run, but ones which provide substantial non-monetary returns for the Dickinson community. Unlike most other funds, we seek to target not only environmental sustainability initiatives, but socially beneficial ventures as well. After a strategic plan was drawn up by the student in the Spring of 2011 at the request of the President’s Office, an angel investor provided $15000 for the initial pool of money. A separate $1500 was provided for a Bike Kitchen as a pilot project, which will be a facility run by students that offers hands-on skill training in bicycle maintenance and repairs.