Thinking Differently About Scholarships Can Make All the Difference
According to statistics gathered by the National Scholarship Providers Association, approximately $100 million in scholarship money is left sitting on the sidelines each year, unused. Even though the number of scholarships awarded in the United States has increased by more than 45 percent over the last decade, not enough students are applying. These are sobering statistics, considering that the burden of tuition and student loan debt is weighing heavily on America’s young adults.
This presents a challenge for your clients who are interested in supporting education as a charitable giving priority. On one hand, your clients want to help students get the education they need to thrive in their careers. On the other hand, no one wants to fund a scholarship that goes unused.
Hawai‘i Community Foundation can help. Our team will work with you and your client to establish a tailored charitable giving plan that meets your desire to support education while helping to ensure that the money does not go unused.
First, we help your client think broadly about education. Limiting a scholarship fund to four-year institutions could result in a lot of missed opportunities. A college or university is not the only option for post-secondary learning and career readiness. Community colleges, trade schools, vocational programs, and out-of-the-box learning experiences may be a better fit for some students. The community foundation can even help you structure gifts to support teachers, classrooms, and school districts, all of which need resources to deliver the best possible education to students.
Next, our team will help the donor craft the criteria for the scholarship so that it is not too narrow. In other words, casting a wide net can be important to ensure a strong pool of applicants. Limiting scholarship recipients to a small geographic footprint, area of study, or very specific high school credentials may mean that there simply will not be enough applicants to fully utilize the scholarship dollars.
Finally, our team is happy to help you with the strategy for getting the word out. Many times, would-be applicants simply are not aware of all the options for scholarships. If scholarship funds don’t adequately promote the opportunities, it may be hard to capture students’ attention as they wade through the vast amount of information available about paying for college.
This year, HCF has awarded more than $6.6 million in scholarships to more than 1,000 students. These scholarships include those through the Stronger Together Hawai‘i Fund. This fund was first established in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, with the support of First Hawaiian Bank and many caring individuals. It offers a flexible scholarship that students can use as needed, even as they change schools or change enrollment from full- to part-time in response to life changes. This approach is helping students achieve their academic goals. Of the 200 Stronger Together Hawai‘i Scholarship awardees this year, one quarter expect to graduate in their chosen field of study by the end of calendar year 2022.
To learn more about creating a scholarship fund at HCF or participating in the Stronger Together Hawai‘i Scholarship Fund, contact Jen-L W. Lyman, director of Planned Giving and Advisor Relations, at (808) 566-5596 or jlyman@hcf-hawaii.org
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