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Defending your decisions: How to stand up to those who claim you're not granting correctly
I'm curious if any funder has a protocol, practice, or tool to use when a community member says, "Hey, I don't think you're granting the way you should!" We know that not everyone is going to be pleased with your grant award decisions. And many people express disappointment. But every so often someone with privilege and/or…
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Does anyone have experience with a scholarship like this?
The Delaware Community Foundation has been approached by a community organizer about doing scholarships for his MERIT STEM program students (grades 9-12 - they qualify if they have been active for the last 4 years in MERIT) but they want to add money to the BASE of the scholarship for other things they do beyond…
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Citizenship question on scholarships?
Hi--while the family foundation I work with does not fund scholarships, this question came up in a group discussion lately and I'm eager to hear what you all think and how some of you are handling the situation in your worlds. At a particular organization, it was a given for years that all scholarships only went to US…
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Sample -Lilly Endowment Scholarship application
Hello all, Our community foundation just transitioned to CommunitySuite (financial part). We will be transitioning to SLM in June. Our Lilly Endowment Scholarship application opens August 1st. For those outside of Indiana- It is a scholarship application for high school seniors from our county; every CF in Indiana…
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Foundation Turn Over (Grants and Scholarships Role Descriptions)
I know one reality of Foundation work is regular turnover. I've had many conversations over the years with clients seeking advice on job descriptions for Grant and Scholarship Coordinator/Manager/Directors and suggestions on how to call out Foundant familiarity/technical aptitude in those descriptions. If you have a…
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Show me your application!
I work for a school and as I am building my scholarship application for the first time, it would be helpful to be able to login as a student to some real-world examples. If you have scholarships, would you kindly share with me? You can delete me as a user at any time. Thanks
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Scholarship Award/Denial Letters - Paper or Digital?
Hello all, Just curious to see how folks handle their award/denial letters for scholarship applicants. Currently, we send paper award and denial letters to every applicant that finishes and submits an application. We also send an email to award recipients with more detailed instructions on how to complete the follow-up to…
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Scholarship Deferrals, Renewals and New Funding in a New Normal
We had great discussions around these three scholarship topics during today’s Coffee Talk. Our own @AlyseBraaten, Manager of Client Services, Grants and Scholarships hosted along with our special guest host @LaurenGrevel , the Education & Youth Initiatives Officer with Grand Haven Area Community Foundation. If you missed…
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Using standardized test scores in evaluating scholarship applicants
We have decided to make standardized test scores optional on our scholarship applications this year since some colleges/universities are not requiring them. Our steering committee just met, and many expressed concern that it is unfair to take scores into consideration for candidates if not all of them provided scores. Has…
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Welcome to Scholarship Chat! Find introductions and discussions here!
If you have a minute, go ahead and introduce yourself to the group in the discussion below - we'd love to get the networking started! A couple of starting points: Have you ever been to Montana? Are you a dog or a cat person? (Request the Dog Person or Cat Person badge)! Name your favorite Bequet Caramel flavor. (Request…
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Gender and Race Questions
This year we are adding - Non-binary and Prefer to self-describe. Are others of you doing this as well? We also are going to ask to identify yourself racially/ethnically with four different choices and open ended - specify. Again are others doing this and having you been doing this for awhile?
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Scholarships and off-campus housing
My organization is trying to sort out how to best handle scholarships for off-campus housing (aka paying apartment rent). This has been a request from a few students who have explained that they've received a softball scholarship at their local community college (*with no campus housing*), but the school or coach (I'm not…
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Scholarship Processes Thought Partner Needed!
Greetings, I'm looking to have some scholarship process chat with anyone that is available. I need a thought partner. There are so many different processes involved with administering scholarships and renewals and my brain is fried as I'm trying to think through some more efficient processes! I'd love to talk through/pick…
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Volunteer Evaluators & Student Privacy
Hello everyone - we are looking to update some of our policies for scholarships, and specifically one for our volunteer evaluators that addresses student privacy. Our evaluators access the students applications through SLM, but I do know some of them print the forms out to review. We want to ensure proper destroying of the…
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Scholarship funds for wraparound services
Good afternoon, I have a question about some of our affiliate scholarship funds. Have you ever applied variance power to named scholarship funds to provide wraparound services to students? We would like to change these funds since the affiliate has a Promise Zone that will be able to provide 4 years of full tuition…
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Need Based Scholarships for Private School Students
Wondering how other scholarship programs handle the issue of private high school student eligibility for their need-based scholarship opportunities. Currently, out of over 100 locally offered scholarships for graduating high school seniors, none have been created that specifically include private schools. Typically they…
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Change in Scholarship Criteria Due to Company Merger
We manage a scholarship fund that benefits children and grandchildren of a company that recently merged and no longer exists as the entity identified in the fund agreement. Additionally, the newly-formed company announced the closure of the main facility, which will significantly narrow the applicant pool if the original…
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Board Members relatives receive monetary scholarships?
Do your Board members relatives or employee's relatives receive monetary scholarships or just honorary scholarships? If so, do the funds have a specific criteria that is straight forward. For example the student of your Board Presidents son is Salutatorian.
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3rd Party Question- Scholarships
I'm in the process of building a branching question around the student Expected Family Contribution (EFC) off the upload of the FAFSA report. When I tried to build the branching rule, I was unable to do so. Does anyone know how to build a branching question from a file upload? Is this even possible to do? Thanks
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Scholarship Coffee Talk: Learn from the past, & look to the future
Thanks for joining us on today's Scholarship Coffee Talk! You had some brilliant suggestions for your colleagues which we will be sharing here along with the chat notes and recording link. In the meantime, please continue the discussion with questions, comments, & tips.
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Setting up a scholarship fund in the midst of a tragic death
I know those of you who offer scholarship funds have encountered this before.... A family loses a child in a tragic death and wants to set up a scholarship fund A.S.A.P. because they want to direct memorial gifts to that fund. Putting aside the issue of whether or not they will raise enough in memorial gifts to establish a…
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Letters of Recommendation (Scholarships)
Hello! We are currently building our scholarship application and are considering making some changes in regards to letters of recommendation. Previously, we have asked students to request two letters of recommendation and upload them to their applications. We often receive form letters and have heard from our committees…
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Virtual Scholarship Receptions
Hi everyone! I'm a Grantmaking Specialist at the Quad Cities Community Foundation and part of my role entails managing our scholarship program. We are beginning to brainstorm how to host our annual scholarship reception where we bring together donors and award recipients. Typically this happens in person but we are…
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Interview Alternatives
We conduct interviews for a few of our scholarships. We cancelled the interviews for one of our scholarships which would have taken place on April 8th because the award event that follows where the recipient is announced was postponed (and will most likely get cancelled). We conduct interviews for 2 other scholarships in…
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Adjusting for New (COVID) Scholarship Season
What are your organizations doing to adjust for the upcoming scholarship season? Ours typically "runs" from November 1 through late July. What will you do different because of COVID19? Are you going to shift due dates around? Our deadline was February 15, 2020 which we bumped back a week to account for some non-COVID…
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Fees Associated With Hosting Applications
I am the Scholarship and Programs Associate for a Community Foundation in Georgia. Our scholarship portfolio is small. We have funds with their own grant or scholarship process with us only providing a link on our site while others ask us to manage the entire application and selection process for them. As we continue to…
