LaurieAbildso
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LaurieAbildso ✭✭✭
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@leeahmahon I use my personal cell phone, which is not ideal. If anyone uses a (reasonably priced) text service they're happy with, I'll take recommendations!
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Thank you, @StephSchneider. That sounds look a good workaround for now.
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@CarolReynolds voted! Thank you for posting that in the idea lab. I go in and deny applications that do not have have the required recommendations on the day after the due date, but there could be some that slip by me with a high volume of applications to review. It would be great to have a hard deadline on those third…
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I feel your pain, @DeirdreMcLoughlin! Overall, this group doesn't respond well to email. I usually end up calling and/or texting a few to remind them. Would love to hear others' strategies.
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In addition to the questions you ask, we also ask students to upload the SAR from the FAFSA and enter their EFC, as well as indicate how many dependents will be in college the following academic year (having multiple children in college at once can have a large impact). Additionally, we leave the financial need rating…
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Thanks, @MollyCerroni. In this case, the student withdrew after the window to receive any refund. The university offered to refund the scholarship to us, but would then bill the student for that amount. We decided not to go that route.
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Thanks, all. We decided not to request funds be returned in this instance. We would like to put a policy in place to address this for the future.
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Thank you @DeirdreMcLoughlin and @robincowles. Deirdre, we are in the process of meeting with all of the local vocational/trade schools to make them aware of the opportunity, and I'm boosted by your comment that connecting with those institutions worked well. We are also going to use traditional media and reach out to…
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Our annual scholarship fund holder letter is attached (last fall's version). Hope this is helpful! Great webinar yesterday!
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How about "Vibrant Community Grants" (inspired by your CF's vision)? And thank you...you're making me reconsider our boring grant process names! (I'm a sucker for a chance at a prize!) 😉
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Hi @ElenaKeltz We have tweaked our scholarship timeline over the years and have the following planned for 2022: o Open application – January 7 o Deadline for applicants – March 4 o References due – March 11 o Applications shared with committees – Week of March 14 o Committee ratings due by April 1 o Summary of ratings…
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We keep ours open for 7-8 weeks, and like the others have shared, we also get most of our submissions in the last couple of days. With that said, I still think having it open for a 1-2 month window is helpful. The same is true for our scholarship applications.
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We recently increased our scholarship fund minimum from $10,000 to $20,000 (with three years to achieve that goal) and charge a 1.5% fee to administer.
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I feel your pain, @JenniferBrambley ! School counselors have so many demands on their time, I think scholarship promotion sometimes falls to the wayside. One thing I have learned is to include guidance office secretaries (if your schools have them) on any communication related to scholarships. We seem to have more success…
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We do not include the dollar amount in scholarship award presentations or publications. Occasionally, we are contacted by school counselors who compile a scholarship dollar amount total for their school. In that case, we share the amount, but ask the counselor to only use it for aggregate totals.
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Thanks, @JodiBeers. Our committee met last night and decided to allow all of the awards since, together, they do not exceed her COA. It's a challenge not knowing what other institutional or external scholarships will be awarded, but the committee decided this student's application was worthy of the awards. We are going to…
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Hi @elizabethmesserli! We do have reviewers rate the applicant even if there is just one, but I'm curious to hear what others do!
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@BettieStammerjohn - I am looking forward to it! The reporting functionality is great! I am much better equipped to monitor our scholarship numbers by school and opportunity, which is helping me target my efforts in promoting scholarships with low applicant numbers.
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Thanks for sharing, @BettieStammerjohn. I had initially set up our confidentiality and COI form as an application, but learned on a recent CSM call that the evaluation stage can be used as an alternative method. The advantage here is that the evaluator does not need to toggle between the applicant and evaluator roles. We…
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Hi @LindseyTouchette, We do require our volunteer evaluators to sign a confidentiality agreement. We borrowed/modified this policy from another community foundation in our state: Confidentiality Policy and Guidelines for Scholarship Committees In the course of your work as a scholarship committee member, you will come into…
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Great question, @AlyseBraaten! For all of our current committees, members currently review every application. We have a couple of opportunities we are considering dividing among members to ease the review burden, but we have not done that yet. I'd love to learn best practices from others who have divided applications among…
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Regarding #1, yes, the donor and parties related to the donor must comprise a minority of the committee for scholarships administered by charitable organizations. This stems from the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Our committees generally have 3-5 members. In rare cases, we have 7 (for example, if we have 3 donor…
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Thanks so much, Lynsie. I like the creative solution for keeping in contact with "legacy employees." It would be great to talk with you about your experience with this scholarship. I will message you directly. Thanks again!
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We are also building our UA for 2021 and would love to see some examples. Many thanks, @TomWickersham. And thanks, @BethNuttall for starting the conversation!
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Hi @AudraClodfelter, In addition to the standard financial need questions (EFC, other scholarships/grants), we ask this open-ended question of all applicants: Are there any extenuating financial circumstances you would like to share with the committee? We do not make this a required question, but it is helpful for those…
