HOW TO START A SCHOLARSHIP FUND IN FEW EASY STEPS

Scholarships awarded in your name can be spent on anything, but you would be wise to look at this as an investment and not a reason to squander the funds on video games or concert tickets. This money is for school expenses like tuition or other things be it,  books, pencils, housing, food, or even computers and software.

 You can get the money in one chunk before school begins, and in other cases, the money is distributed in installments. Scholarships sometimes may be paid out in the middle of a semester. It is essential to get an award for financial aid in high school to pursue your higher education, it is required from every student that applies for a scholarship.

Setting up a program that ensures funds for a scholarship for students is a program that requires energy, time, determination as well as hard work to pull it off.

Setting up a scholarship helps you to;

• Help to clarify and planning your program objectives
• Defining applicant goals to make your scholarship a success
• Ensuring your scholarship is as inclusive as possible
• Recommending award amounts and program duration
• It shows that you are ready and at the same time eligible for the scholarship award.

Setting up a scholarship fund is not easy, you might require some help but you can achieve this with the steps below;

1. Determine if you will run the scholarship, or use a scholarship management service
2. Find the funding
3. Determine the kind of judges you and the criteria for judging the winners.
4. Paperwork
5. Set the deadline
6. Promote your scholarship
7. Select the winners
8. Award the scholarship

Setting up a scholarship program is not just about handing money to scholars. You will need to think about additional costs. Costs include setting up the program. Will you use a website or paper applications. Keeping track of applicants. Promoting the scholarship, and awarding the scholarship.

Once you understand all the expenses involved, you’ll have a better idea of how much money you can use in a certain period of time. After you may have confirmed the legal requirements required, you will need to define the rules of your scholarship.  

You can also look for investors or people who want to help fund the program, If you cannot finance the scholarship alone, you will need to do some fundraising to get the project off the ground. And if you decide working with a school to develop the scholarship is best for you, it may already have a network of donors to contact.

If you cannot afford to fund it on your own, start by making a list of potential donors, such as businesses and community organizations or you can draft some type of flyer or a letter or even a website to let these potential donors know about the purpose of your scholarship.

Your promotional materials can also request a donation, getting distinguished people to judge the contestant applying for the program. This group of people should be fair and considerate as to give a good result.

Promoting the scholarship can come in the form of adverts, newspapers, or anything that can spread the word about the program so as to attract scholars.

Selecting the winners depends on the number of awards you want to give out per year according to the budget anyways. Then you award to the recipients and consider yourself done.

Setting a deadline to this is essential as many have deadlines set to theirs and there are also several ways to promote your work so far, social media, spreading the word, and so on.

CONCLUSION

It is not a piece of cake but this work has to do with focus and determination, you are helping students that have no fund to further their education, these steps will help you and also direct you while setting up a scholarship fund.