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ACH Scholarship payments
Hello All, We've moved our grant payments to ACH, and now we're working on using ACH for scholarship payments. In the past, we mailed a check for each student award along with a cover letter. Sometimes that meant sending 10 or more checks and letters in one envelope to the school. For those of you currently using ACH for…
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Scholarships are in, now what
I'm looking for best practices or procedure list of how to process scholarships through SLM before sending apps to evaluators/selection committees. Do you review them and abandon ones that clearly don't qualify, etc. and then mark the app complete, etc? Would appreciate your insights or any shared docs of procedures.…
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Out of Country Scholarships
Hello! Does your Foundation have a policy for scholarships when the University is out of the country? For example, a US student, that meets all of the requirements of the scholarship, but the University they are planning to attend is located in a different country. (Note: This is not a Study Abroad program). How do you…
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District Wide Common Scholarship Application Software
Hello! Has anyone successfully partnered with other scholarship providers in their area to put application processes from different organizations onto the same software? The vision is a scholarship software solution for the entire school district so there is just one place that students go to fill out scholarship…
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Reverse Scholarship Program
Good morning, If you are running a reverse scholarship program, I have questions for you! Are you storing applicants social security numbers in SLM? Have you converted any existing scholarship funds to fund a reverse scholarship? Thank you,
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Class rank as part of evaluation process
One of our local school districts will be eliminating class rank as part of their student data, and their guidance office reached out to me for some input. We don't use class rank as part of our scholarship evaluation, but I know other organizations may, so I told her I would reach out to other scholarship providers. Their…
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Submitted GPA vs. GPA on the transcript
Hello scholarship administrators. We are struggling with the GPA inputted by students vs. the unweighted GPA on the transcript. Although we specifically ask students to input their unweighted GPA as it reads on their transcript, we have found that often it's not a the same as what's on the transcript...which we discover…
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Looking for a general "intake form".
Can anyone share a link to or attach a general "intake form" that your foundation uses for an initial call or email about starting a scholarship or new fund.
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When do you disburse your scholarship funds? Timing of scholarship fund disbursement
Hello everyone! When do you send scholarship checks to your recipients' school/university/college etc? Is it possible to send funds in May? In the past I have disbursed the funds for new recipients and renewal recipients in August/September. However, my boss was wondering if we could disburse the funds right after making…
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Student thank you videos - which platforms are you using?
Hi everyone, We have decided not to continue our annual scholarship reception event. Instead, we plan to gather student thank you videos to share with donors individually and the public. We are currently looking at two platforms: Thank View and Memory Fox. Does anyone have experience with either or both and have…
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How to handle FAFSA delays in scholarship judging?
Hello, I'm a newer admin and first time post-writer. Our scholarships give consideration to FAFSA results, but this year there are major difficulties for students in completing the FAFSA form. How have you handled this issue? Financial need isn't among our highest priorities, so I'm considering removing the FAFSA questions…
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Program Scholarships
We have a new scholarship opening that is funded by several smaller scholarships. Students will apply to the one "master" scholarship and the financial awards will come from the individual funds. Wondering if anyone has had this situation and figured out how to simplify/streamline the award process in SLM and CSuite. Thank…
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Marketing Scholarships to Non-traditional Students
Our foundation needs help reaching continuing college and nontraditional students to notify them of scholarship and educational loan opportunities available through our foundation. How are other community foundations marketing to prospective scholarship applicants who are not in high school?
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Eligible Organizations for Scholarships
Good Morning, Has anyone had experience issuing a post secondary scholarship to a school that was deemed not an "eligible educational institution" (see below definition from the IRS). We recently came across a scenario where a trade specific school (i.e. Welding, Electrical) said that they cannot accept funds from a…
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Do any of our peer community foundations grant scholarships internationally? If so...
What should we be aware of when establishing a scholarship for international students/universities? Note: This would be an employer scholarship for dependents of international employees. What IRS guidelines are you using to govern your work? Are there particular nuances with the application, selection, or grant process for…
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Text messaging to students
Hello, I am trying to gather best methods to communicate with students. Email seems to be opened sometimes, but we are finding things going to SPAM, or simply not being read. We are thinking that texting may be the best method. I am wanting any process recommendations for texting to students. (Reminders to complete follow…
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Scholarship for study abroad students not getting applicants
We are struggling to get applicants for a scholarship meant for students who will study in a foreign country for one semester or more. The application is fairly simple, so no roadblocks there. And it doesn't seem to matter what time of year I open or close the application. I've reached out to several global studies…
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Is NSPA membership worth it?
Hi! Is anyone a member of the National Scholarship Providers Association (NSPA) and thinks it is worth it as a scholarship provider? If yes, what would you say are the main benefits? If you were a member and cancelled your membership, why did you cancel? Thank you for any feedback you can provide!
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Scholarship Criteria
Good morning, We are in the process of reviewing scholarship fund agreements. We have several scholarships that list criteria like high moral character, worthy citizen, constructive attitude, potential for future success, etc. Our scholarship process is blind (student names are redacted from the application) and we have a…
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Gender versus Pronouns??
Good afternoon!! I am new to the Foundant/Compass Community, and am looking forward to getting some great feedback!! Reviewing our scholarship application and wondering if everyone is using the term Gender on their applications or using Pronouns instead? What is best practice? Thank you so much! Kasey
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"Chosen Name" or "Preferred Name" field for scholarship applicants?
Hello! My organization is considering adding a "chosen name" or "preferred name" field to our scholarship applications after we discovered the need for such a field during our recent scholarship cycle. Do other organizations use a field like this in their applications? If so, could you please share the language that you…
