Best Of
Re: How long is your scholarship application open?
Hey there, our application cycle is open December 1 to February 1. I reserve a week for straggler 3rd party requests to be filled, and then a couple weeks for me to finish vetting applications and get them assigned, before evaluations open some time in the last week of February. I do my best to give evaluators a full 30 days to complete, and aim for committee meetings to discuss and finalize awards in the first two weeks of April.
I know you didn't ask for full timeline in this question, but did on the Foundant Summit one!
FEG 2026 Community Foundation Survey Webinar
Foundations,
FEG is an Investment Advisory Firm that surveys Community Foundations annually. The survey captures evolving practices and priorities across the community foundation landscape, including asset allocation, spending policy, values-aligned investing, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in foundation strategy and operations.
FEG presents the findings at a webinar on June 24th, 2026 at 2pm eastern. Here is the link to register if you are interested:
FEG 2026 Community Foundation Survey Webinar
Yours in Philanthropy,
Holly Spitz
Re: Donor involvement in scholarship process
Hi! I am the Scholarship Manager at the Quad Cities Community Foundation, and we also allow donors to participate in the application review & decision process. I meet with them when they are setting up their fund if they decide they want to participate in the decision so I can clearly review the steps with them, including:
- They must complete a Conflict of Interest form every year, and must notify me (and subsequently not participate that year) if they are related to or have a conflict of interest regarding any applicants.
- I give them access to their applications in SLM, and provide training on how to access and evaluate.
- Our scholarship committee is divided up into subcommittees, each reviewing 5-6 scholarships. I, or one of my colleagues, oversees each of these meetings and takes minutes to ensure proper minutes and notes are recorded, including donor involvement.
- They are allowed one collective vote - regardless of whether they are an individual, a family, or somehow a group - to ensure they cannot make up the majority of votes on their scholarship.
Hope this helps!
Steve Gottcent - stevegottcent@qccommunityfoundation.org
Re: Donor involvement in scholarship process
Hello! We do allow donors to participate in the review process for their scholarships if they are interested. We take several actions as an organization to comply with our understanding of the IRS rules around donor involvement.
- We require that they submit their committee membership to us annually for approval by our board of directors.
- Donors and their families cannot be a majority of the committee; we require that they recruit friends/neighbors/coworkers to balance our their family's participation on the committee.
- A foundation staff (me) or trained scholarship reviewer volunteer is assigned to each committee to provide official oversight of the process.
- We ask each committee to submit their completed evaluation paperwork to us so we have documentation that the decisions were made based on the pre-approved evaluation framework and not because of personal knowledge or relationships.
I would be happy to discuss further if you have questions! Feel free to reach out to me.
Best,
Rachael Watkins
Director of Scholarships
Truman Heartland Community Foundation
watkins@thcf.org
Top Members of April!
Happy May! 🐝🌸🌱🦋
Congrats to our Top 10 community members who lit up Compass with their engagement and dedication throughout April! Let's give a round of applause to: @breaunajurkowski, @JasmineWilliams, @RobinBaker, @ChekemmaTownsend, @ZaidaPadilla, @MarieShores, @AlondraVazquez, @KellyMiller, @MariaWakan, and @denisesorom. All 10 members totaled 347 points last month!
As always, each of you is entered into our monthly draw for a special surprise. Stay tuned for tomorrow to see who’s chosen! 🎁✨
Want to land on next month’s leaderboard? Take a peek at this post to learn how. And don’t forget: adding a profile photo not only earns you points, it helps build a friendlier Compass community.
–Gretta, Compass Intern
Re: Compass FAQs for New Members
This post was supper helpful, thank you! I am new to compass since attending the 2026 summit and love that this gives us more access to out peers!🤩
