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AI Generated Responses from Applicants
My organization uses Foundant for Grant, Scholarship, and Assistantship applications. We recently received two applications that were generated by AI (ChatGPT). The prompt to the essay was copied, pasted, and entered into ChatGPT and the response generated was submitted directly to the scholarship application as the…
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Apprenticeships and other for profit training academies
We have had an uptick in students attending for profit training academies as well as bypassing "traditional" post-secondary education plans and doing apprenticeships. Our organizational policy states that we cannot payout a grant to an individual or for-profit entity. Other organizations with the same policy in place, how…
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Separate, non Follow-Up form to Collect Thank You Notes from Students
The current methods of collecting and delivering specific thank-you notes to donors from students are often difficult. We'd like to see a system where a dedicated thank you note form can be configured and assigned to the student per opportunity and as needed and attached to the request, eliminating the need to use follow…
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Streamlining Scholarship Acceptance Process Share Your Insight
Hello! I am curious to learn about other foundation’s scholarship acceptance workflow to see if there’s a way to simplify my foundation’s scholarship acceptance workflow. Currently, they have a two-step process. First, the student signs a scholarship agreement, which confirms they are still attending college. I use…
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College Majors in Eligibility Rules
For those who use a Universal Application for scholarships, if you use a dropdown menu listing college majors to determine students' eligibility for certain scholarships, would you be willing to please share the dropdown list of majors you list?
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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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529 Plans to pay scholarships
Hi! Our Community Foundation is looking into paying scholarships through 529 plans to help avoid aid displacement. Do any other organizations pay scholarships this way? Has it been helpful in reducing aid displacement? Thank you!
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Designated Scholarship Conflict of Interest
We have several designated scholarship funds where the selection committee is made up of the school/outside personnel (principal, guidance counselor, etc.) and we have no part in the selection process. Do you have the school sign some type of conflict of interest form and if so, would you be willing to share?
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Scholarship Successor Advisors?
Hello everyone! Our scholarship program at The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation is celebrating 30 years and we are starting to have a generational shift. The individuals who signed the original fund agreements would like to "pass their scholarship" on to the next generation of their family. What policies do you…
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If SAI is not currency, then why is it used in the over award formula?
Federal Student Aid website states: Your SAI is not a dollar amount of aid you’ll receive, what your family is expected to provide, or your final financial aid offer. But also says: An overaward exists when a student’s aid package exceeds their need or overall cost of attendance (COA). Remember when packaging subsidized or…
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Demographic questions in scholarship application?
Hi everyone, Do you ask demographic questions as part of your scholarship application? We have not included a demographic section, but starting next year, we plan to add optional questions at the beginning of the application to better understand who is applying and receiving our scholarships. Initially, I planned to use…
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Automatic address correction?
So apparently our student scholarship applicants don't know where they live. Is it a street, a road, a boulevard? And nevermind about pesky capitalization. ZIP code? Oh boy! :) Anyone else with SLM suffer through this and know if Foundant has consider that auto address correct function you see elsewhere on the internet,…
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Emergency scholarship funds
Good morning, Do any of you provide scholarship students with emergency funds (funds for living expenses, emergency school expenses, etc.)? If so, what is your process like? What are the pros and cons of a program like this? Thank you! Robin Cowles Fremont Area Community Foundation, MI
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Coffee Talk: Cybersecurity-Staying Safe Online
During Cybersecurity Awareness month, we discussed how to protect sensitive data and maintain security protocols in a quickly changing environment. We hope you will join this discussion and share what your organization is doing to prevent security threats.
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Scholarship Applications Following Natural Disaster
The Foundation that I consult with is in Henderson County NC. It's sole mission is to support the public schools in the county. There are so many unknowns right now. I work remotely several states away so one of the things I can do now is to try to figure out how we can support our high seniors. Does anyone have experience…
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SAT Scores for Scholarships
Good Morning, I am curious how many of you require SAT Scores on your applications for scholarships vs do not require it on your application. Last year we had it as optional, but are trying to determine if we should make it required or not. If you have it optional, how do you factor it into the scoring? Does the…
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Coffee Talk: Funding Displacement and Scholarship Awarding Process
Thank you to everyone who joined us today to talk all things scholarships and the awards process! Below are some other resources on scholarship displacement that you can take a look at! Use this space to continue the discussion!
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Financial Need vs. Ability to Use a scholarship
Hello, There is much discussion about financial need of a student. We evaluate a student based on a number of input items from the student such as SAI, income, extenuating family circumstances. What I do not see being considered is the ability to use a scholarship. Does anyone determine the amount the student owes - SAI?…
