Starting a scholarship is an outstanding way to make an impact on the world, change the lives of students and leave a legacy for yourself, your organization or company. But creating a scholarship from the ground up can seem daunting if you don't know where to start.
Before setting up your scholarship, we recommend considering these crucial questions to help develop your program:
1) Define your "why"
Knowing your goals and your target audience will help define the scholarship administration and funding process. Ask yourself questions like:
• What’s driving you to start a scholarship, and what impact do you hope to have?
• What students do you want to serve?
• Will you focus on new high school grads, current college students or nontraditional (and often underserved) groups?
• Are you providing assistance to your employees, their families or a community population?
• Are you serving a specific population or field of study?
• Will you be focusing on students’ financial need, or other criteria?
2) Determine funding and sustainability
Like most things, scholarship awards come with hidden expenses, and the budget to give away a $5,000 scholarship isn’t just $5,000. There are many other costs associated with funding a scholarship. We'd recommend considering the following:
• How is your scholarship being funded?
• Will your scholarship be given just once, or will it be renewed throughout a student’s college education?
• Will you be funding tuition only, or other important living expenses?
• Are you aware of the tax regulations around scholarship award distribution?
• Have you considered administrative expenses and resources, including application processing, marketing, legal, printing and award distribution?
3) Plan for administration and award selections
Lots of planning is needed up front to create a great scholarship program — and that’s before you even start creating applications, selecting a review committee and answering applicant questions. Here are a few key considerations:
• How will you be hosting, advertising and processing scholarship applications?
• Who will be reviewing applications and selecting award recipients, and can you ensure that their judgment will be neutral?
• Have you considered outsourcing administration to ensure resources remain sustainable?
• Who will be handling customer service questions?
• How will you spread the word about your scholarship to students?
4) Be strategic with your scholarship award amount
To start a scholarship fund with a real impact, we recommend a minimum award amount of $1,000. Our sponsors’ average award is just over $3,500. Awards of $5,000 or more are considered prestigious—the kind of award that makes a tangible impact, and consequently one a student will never forget. When choosing your scholarship award amount, make sure to consider:
• How can you afford to best help your community?
• Is your scholarship criteria inclusive enough to attract a significant number of applications?
• How do you want to support your scholarship award winners throughout their education?
Lots of planning is needed up front to create a great scholarship program — and that’s before you even start creating applications, selecting a review committee and answering applicant questions. Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone.
Whether you’re a company looking to start a scholarship fund for employees or their families, or an individual looking to start a scholarship in honor or a mentor, you’re in good hands. Everyone deserves an opportunity to pursue their educational dreams, regardless of financial status. At Scholarship America we can help you help others achieve their education goals.