Scholarship Follow ups

letheacortner

I am wanting to know what other foundations' practice is for scholarships and follow-ups. We pay the school once a year for renewal scholarships and ask the students to submit a mid-year follow-up with their transcript from the fall along with the financials and then one for the end of the semester to make sure we know they are meeting the criteria for the scholarship and where to send the next year's check. Do you send the scholarship check once a year in the fall to cover both semesters or send a check for both Fall and Spring semesters? How do you handle the follow-ups at that point?

LaurieAbildso

We send two checks (one for fall and one for spring) for most of our scholarships, unless they are valued at $1,000 or less for the year. In that case, we pay the full amount with one check and ask that it be applied to the fall semester. For those scholarships of over $1,000, we pay out in July for the Fall semester and in Dec/Jan for the Spring. For students getting two payments per year, we ask them to complete follow-ups at the end of each semester, submitting their transcript and proof of enrollment for the next semester. If the award is only paid in the fall, we just ask for a follow-up at the end of the spring semester. Hope this is helpful!

JennyCampbell

Hi,

We send one check with a letter that states the scholarship is for expenses for the entire academic year and should be split accordingly (so schools that have trimesters split the payment into thirds). The letter also explicitly states that funds must be returned to us if the student does not enroll for a given semester or withdraws. We do receive refund checks from schools stating a student is not enrolled (generally for spring semester - in fact, I received one just today); I have not audited schools or students to guarantee 100% compliance but this seems to work for our smaller staff. Hope that's helpful.

Would be interesting to hear from others about unseen problems with this approach.