Scholarship letters of recommendation

LeeONeilLeeONeil Posts: 34 ✭✭✭
5 Up Votes First Comment First Compass Anniversary 5 Likes
edited December 2022 in Grants & Scholarships

Will your organization or has your organization eliminated letters of recommendation from your scholarship applications? (Unless it's part of the scholarship fund agreement, of course).

I'd be interested to know your organization's thoughts about that.

Thank you!

Lee O'Neil

(she/her/hers)

Community Foundation of Fayette County, PA

eoneil@cffayettepa.org

Comments

  • BethNuttallBethNuttall Posts: 49 ✭✭✭
    First Compass Anniversary First Comment Photogenic First Answer

    We removed the letters of recommendation for the first time last year in an effort to make the application as easy and accessible as possible for the applicants. I agree that I do not think it adds much helpful information to the application as they all are positive. I think, especially last year, applicants found it difficult to get the information from their recommender. I believe we will leave it off again for our next cycle. I find it more valuable to have a text question about their achievements/volunteer work/activities etc.

  • @CarolReynolds and @LaurieAbildso I think this new feature setting might be helpful for your third party workflows with the Universal Application: https://support.foundant.com/hc/en-us/articles/4416167051671-Third-Party-Dashboard-Display-Days

    The Third Party Dashboard Display Days setting is accessible under Foundation Settings in your site and allows you to set the number of days a third party request will display on the third party's dashboard (from the date assigned). If your policy is to not accept letters of recommendation after the application deadline, when the deadline passes, you could change the setting to 0 days so that all third party requests are removed from their dashboards. Please keep in mind that this is a site-wide setting and you'll want to be sure to increase the days setting again sometime after the deadline!

    As for standalone scholarship process requests (non-UA) when you mark the application complete, the third party request falls off their third party dashboard.

    I hope this helps!

  • CarolReynoldsCarolReynolds Posts: 109 ✭✭✭
    Summit 2024 First Compass Anniversary 5 Up Votes Name Dropper

    @StephSchneider thank you--we will look at putting that into our procedures for next year.

  • LaurieAbildsoLaurieAbildso Posts: 68 ✭✭✭
    First Compass Anniversary Name Dropper First Comment Summit 2022

    Thank you, @StephSchneider. That sounds look a good workaround for now.

    Laurie Abildso

    Vice President

    Your Community Foundation of North Central West Virginia, Inc.

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