Community Scholarship Fund

Full- and Partial-Tuition Scholarships | Open to everyone | For use on most 2024 Freeflow courses

The Freeflow Foundation’s Community Scholarship Fund is supported by generous contributions from the Freeflow community. The CSF enables us to make Freeflow Institute field courses more accessible to more people. We also aim to provide general guidance and support to those unfamiliar with outdoor education or backcountry travel. We are interested in helping people tell their stories, advocate for wild places, build connections, cultivate awareness and resilience, and catalyze positive change in the world.

How do awards from the Community Scholarship Fund work?

Awards from the Community Scholarship Fund are waivers that generally cover 50% or 100% of the program cost of your Freeflow course. We offer partial-tuition scholarships that typically cover 50% of the program cost and full-tuition scholarships that cover 100% of the program cost.

Our scholarships do not cover travel costs, guide gratuity, or the cost of gear.

Who can apply?

While preference is given to applicants from marginalized, underrepresented, or lower-income communities, everyone is welcome to apply to the Community Scholarship Fund.

We encourage all artists, writers, leaders, educators, students, journalists, communicators, activists, and professionals to participate in Freeflow. The Community Scholarship Fund exists to help you realize your vision.

You must be 18 or older to apply.

Which 2024 courses are eligible for scholarships?

The following 2024 Freeflow field courses are eligible for CSF scholarships:

What is the timeline for applications + award distribution?

The 2024 application window is open March 4 through April 4. 

Scholarship recipients will be notified of their awards by April 12, 2024.

 If you are selected, you’ll need to accept your award and commit to your Freeflow course no later than April 22, 2024.

What additional supports are offered?

The Freeflow Foundation is developing a robust and holistic system of support for our scholars. This process is slow, given that we are a tiny organization with limited resources.

We do have a limited gear-lending library and a very small fund for travel stipends. Let us know in your application what additional support you may need and we will try our best to help you out.

We will provide you with logistical preparation and support leading up to and after your Freeflow course.

We encourage you to seek financial support beyond what we are able to offer. We add to this list of external funding sources regularly.

What expectations are attached to the scholarship?

Our Community Scholarship Fund awards are intended to support you on our Freeflow adventure. We want our courses to be more accessible to more communities and to facilitate outdoor education experiences for people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Accepting a CSF award comes with simple and minimal expectations. These expectations include a commitment to attending the course, sharing a brief bio and photos from the course, offering feedback on our programming, and submitting a personal impact report.

Are there other Freeflow scholarship opportunities?

We add new scholarship opportunities often. The current offerings are listed here, on our main Scholarships page.

If you have trouble understanding or accessing the application, please contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] and we will help you.

To prevent the loss of your application content, please SAVE A COPY OF YOUR RESPONSES before submitting the online application form. 

As an alternative to sharing electronic files with us below, you can hand-write or print your application responses and mail them to Freeflow / PO Box 602 / Milltown, Montana 59851.

COMMUNITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND APPLICATION

What is your name?(Required)
What's the best mailing address for you?(Required)
MM slash DD slash YYYY
To apply for a scholarship, please incorporate your responses to the following questions into a cohesive, creative response and upload it here. We can accept applications in any media format: written document, video, audio, visual composition, multimedia, etc. Please upload any application materials here. If there are links you’d like us to visit, include those in the field below.
What are you trying to do in the world? What’s the story you’re hoping to tell, the work you’re hoping to do, or the change you’re hoping to make? How will your Freeflow course help you meet or exceed your goals? (Please be specific here.)
Drop files here or
Max. file size: 50 MB.
    Which scholarship would allow you to participate in your Freeflow course in 2024?(Required)
    We have very limited scholarship funds. We aim to support as many people as possible, and we encourage recipients of partial-tuition awards to seek financial support from other sources.
    If you are awarded a scholarship, will you be able to commit to attending your Freeflow course in 2024?(Required)
    You may share a bit about your work, life experience, research, volunteerism, or leadership. You may also share with us how you’ve experienced barriers to the outdoors, to writing, or to creative work, generally. You may choose to share how your participation will contribute to a more inclusive and complex cohort.
    Drop files here or
    Max. file size: 50 MB.
      You may, as an option, share more documents with us here. Maybe you’d like to share your CV, samples of your work, a current project, or shining letters of recommendation. Don’t feel pressured to use this space; share whatever you’d like us to see as we consider your application – whatever might help us better understand you and your work.
      This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.