Grants

Kappa Alpha Theta is excited to introduce a new program, open to all alumnae members, that will be delivered in a hybrid model, both in-person and online. The experience will include a day of hands-on, in-person volunteering as well as reflection opportunities that will develop participants’ emotional intelligence and leadership skills. The program will focus on teaching participants to apply their experience to their personal and professional lives, regardless of their job, role, or position.

Documenting Theta history within broader social and historical contexts, the Fraternity’s archival collection enriches the study of women’s history through its exploration of the culture and values of college women and college-educated women. Theta Foundation grant funding supports the staff archivist’s efforts to bring awareness to the general public about the Fraternity’s collection through membership in professional associations and organizations, including the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), and the Indiana Historical Society (IHS).

Theta Foundation grant funding also supports a summer archives intern, whose work focuses primarily on processing a collection of letters received by one of Bettie Locke Hamilton’s daughters, organizing Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation’s historical records, and creating a digital tour of the Heritage Museum at Theta Headquarters.

ELCs are recent college graduates who provide customized education and leadership development support and resources for students to enhance and add value to their college experience. Their visits are specifically planned to address topics like leadership training, coaching, goal setting, professional development, scholarship, inclusion and belonging, career planning, and wellness. They provide knowledge and skills by distributing information and guidance, facilitating educational and leadership programming, and offering individual coaching and support. ELCs aim to leave members with transferable skills that can help them in the various roles they have as students, whether that be as aspiring leaders at their places of work, within their student organizations, or throughout their lives in general.

Theta Foundation is proud to support the Emerging Leaders Institute, a three-day, in-person event that provides leadership education and development to undergraduate members with an emphasis on emerging leaders. Event that provides leadership education and development to undergraduate members with an emphasis on emerging leaders. Using the relational leadership model, curriculum focuses on understanding leadership as a relational process. Participants get the opportunity to learn and practice leadership concepts, engage with other students, and access professional facilitators to support, challenge, and aid in their reflection. This year, the institute took place over a long weekend at Colorado State University.

The purpose of this program is to offer an educational and professional development opportunity for all Theta staff, including Fraternity, Foundation, and Housing Corporation staff. Designed to be educational in nature, the training serves staff in a variety of different roles. Previously, this programming has covered topics such as customer service and giving and receiving feedback.

Kappa Alpha Theta is committed to offering as many leadership capacity-building opportunities for members as possible. This includes the Leadership Academy, which provides leadership education for newly elected officers. The goals of the academy, hosted over a long weekend, are for participants to be able to identify their personal strengths, apply those strengths to leadership situations, identify strategies to improve inclusion, equity, and belonging in an organization, and demonstrate the ability to create healthy organizational culture.

The Leadership Certificate Program (LCP) is a cohort-based program geared toward third- and fourth-year students seeking to learn and apply leadership skills with an emphasis on career readiness. The program empowers participants to incorporate the foundations of personal strengths and emotionally intelligent leadership into their continued growth and development plans as they prepare for life after college.

Kappa Alpha Theta makes leadership education available to all members, from collegians to alumnae, primarily through online platforms. Participants have the opportunity to learn and practice leadership concepts, engage with other participants, and have access to professional facilitators to support, challenge, and aid in reflection. The primary focus of this readily accessible programming is personal strengths, with an emphasis on emotionally intelligent leadership and career readiness.

Organizational assessment is common among many businesses and higher education institutions to improve outcomes. Access to quality assessment is imperative to the progress of Theta’s educational and leadership programs and initiatives. Without it, the Fraternity lacks important information to make necessary decisions about program offerings and curriculum. Theta Foundation supports a portion of the annual survey distributed to all undergraduate members which will give the Fraternity actionable data to continue improving upon its programs.

Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation has enjoyed a long history of involvement with Heartspring, formerly known as the Institute of Logopedics, located in Wichita, Kansas. The Institute of Logopedics was Theta’s national philanthropy for 49 years, until 1989 when National CASA/GAL was adopted.

Heartspring’s mission is to be a leader and innovator in providing clinically supported services through education and therapies for children with special needs to empower them to learn and grow on a path to a more independent life. Theta Foundation awards an annual grant to Heartspring through an endowed fund from combined bequests by Marguerite Marshall, Rho/Nebraska, and Martha Wilbur Bowlin, Alpha Iota/Washington-St. Louis.

At a convention meeting of Kappa Alpha Theta in 1922, it was voted to use a funding surplus to establish a book collection at DePauw University as a memorial to the Fraternity’s founding of Alpha Chapter at DePauw in 1870. In 1953, Grand President Ellen Bowers Hofstead, Alpha Eta/Vanderbilt, recommended the establishment of an annual grant to DePauw to grow the original book collection. Theta Foundation continues this tradition today with an annual grant to DePauw University Libraries to fund the purchase of books authored by women or related to women's endeavors.

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) Foundation is the premier advocacy and support organization for the advancement of the sorority experience. The Foundation for Fraternal Excellence (FFE) exists to support organizations and individuals invested in developing the next generation of fraternity and sorority leaders.