New Year Tips to Start & Stay Strong
Needless to say with unprecedented events of the past few years, your support of students is more vital than ever. Make sure your chapter is well-organized and equipped to adapt to any uncertainties.
TIP 1: If it’s scheduled, it happens: Pick a team member to get important things on the calendar and set reminder notifications. This will help you complete the major annual affiliation requirements to keep your chapter in good standing and running smoothly for 2022.
- Financial reports and affiliation fees are due on March 31, 2022. Schedule the work to begin now, and build in monthly and final reminders before the deadline. Things happen, and the earlier you begin, the more time you have to deal with unexpected glitches.
TIP 2: ChapterNet is your go-to management tool: Use it for:
- Updating your Board Roster
- Adjusting the Security profiles of your team
- Submitting Financial reports
- Checking when to renew your Bonding insurance
For all of these key steps, you can find a “how-to” resource in Affiliate Resources just use the keyword search for your topic.
TIP 3: Track Your Online Accounts: In 2021, many of you established organizational emails and online donation accounts and verified your nonprofit status. To avoid the extra time and stress of looking up or resetting passwords, use the VIP Account Resource to help manage your account info. For safe storage, and for access should they be needed during a transition, you can load them into ChapterNet’s My Affiliate Documents.
TIP 4: Keep using and expanding your tech skills: If you haven’t already, incorporate a virtual connection to your meetings, and your student outreach, to keep as many of your volunteers and students engaged with your work and offerings.
TIP 5: Invite your community to join you: Create a small posse of your board members whose job it is to cultivate relationships with parents, school, civic and business leaders. Set goals, share your mission, add membership!
New Year Student Outreach: It's FAFSA Crunch Time!
Schools across the country are dealing with a wide range of COVID protocols—and plenty of uncertainty. You can track your school openings here. To help your schools and students, reach out to counseling staff and let them know you are offering your scholarships for 2022.
Post your scholarship opportunities on your Dollars for Scholars and high school social media channels, on parent and community channels used by your school district, and in other venues that your schools use to reach out. Invite student leaders or alumni to post on their social media. Look for ways to include more groups that support students to help you get the word out—doing this work now will mean more completed scholarship applications.
In addition, don’t forget to encourage your seniors to complete the FAFSA, the universal form for all federal, state, and other financial aid. Even if your Dollars for Scholars doesn’t require FAFSA data, completing the form is still crucial. (This year’s FAFSA also imports IRS data from 2020, helping students whose families faced hardships at the beginning of the pandemic.)
You can track the progress of FAFSA completions at your local high schools using Form Your Future’s national interactive FAFSA tracker. If your local schools are lagging, this guide from Form Your Future can help!
ChapterNet Checklist
To ensure you’re well-prepared as we kick off the new year, review the checklist below:
- Advance your scholarships – The first and most critical step in opening your scholarship program for the year is completing the annual advancement process. If your scholarships are not advanced properly, you can end up with last year’s applicants mixed in with this year’s applicants. [Annual Advancement Training Video]
- Website & Instructions Updates – The “Students & Parents” section of your website is the go-to for your students to access information about your scholarship program, application instructions, and the link to log in/create an account. Check to make sure you have the current Open/Close Dates and up-to-date application instructions posted. [Editing Your Website Training Video]
- Notify Students & Counselors – Let students and counselors know when your scholarships open and close, and any other important dates or application requirements they should be aware of. Let the counselors know what is expected of them when students request information from them, i.e. should they provide weighted or unweighted GPAs and do they need to provide ACT/SAT test score information?
For more reminders, tips and resources, check out the Scholarship Management Checklist found in Affiliate Resources.
Reminders
- As of January 15 - With the retirement of Lynne Zervas, Despina Costopoulos Emerson is now serving as the Director of Community Engagement and Partnerships for the Dollars for Scholars Lynne worked with. Learn more about Despina and see her contact information here.
- Ongoing – keep your board roster up-to-date
- ASAP – Make sure your Dollars for Scholars’ bonding insurance is up-to-date
- February 18 – Deadline for students to apply for the Wells Fargo Scholarship Program for People with Disabilities - tell your students about this scholarship opportunity
- March 24 – Save the date for our next Dollars for Scholars Connect
- March 31 – Financial Reports are due
