Scholarship funds are often named in honor or memory of a person, family, or institution. As the donor advisor, you decide the name of the fund.

Donors or family members may serve as Fund Advisors to the scholarship fund. When naming advisors, remember those who will best carry out the fund’s mission, and if you want to involve the next generation in the fund. While you may select any advisor for the fund, the scholarship review committee will review the scholarship applications. The scholarship review committee operates separately from the fund advisors and donors. While the fund advisor and donor can serve on the committee, they are not allowed to constitute the majority of the committee. The Selection Committee must be composed of at least three members, and you can read more about the guidelines in the Scholarship and Policies Document.

A review committee must be established for each scholarship fund. The Community Foundation has a scholarship review committee comprised of volunteers from the Foundation’s Grants Committee that all scholarship fund advisors are welcome to use. For scholarship programs that benefit employees or family members of employees of a corporation, the Community Foundation’s scholarship review committee must manage the entire scholarship award process.

You may create your own scholarship review committee (according to the guidelines), but the Foundation’s Board must approve the members of any scholarship review committee of Trustees. You may serve on the review committee as long as non-family members do not make up the majority of the committee. Additionally, donors and fund advisors may not control the committee’s decision directly or indirectly. Including individuals from different community sectors contributes to the objectivity of discussing applications and provides for broader dissemination of information about the scholarship. While committees can function well without members representing the field of education, it may be helpful to include one member with experience in college admissions or financial aid issues.

Scholarship review committee members have an important role in ensuring that the original intent of the scholarship fund is followed. They also have the responsibility to promote the fund’s availability and participate actively in decisions about grant-making from the fund. Since scholarship funds are wholly assets of the Community Foundation, they must adhere to specific guidelines. The Community Foundation depends on donors and designated committee members to ensure that each scholarship program meets these guidelines.

Confidentiality is imperative. Each student’s application contains sensitive and confidential information. Committee members must respect this confidentiality by not disclosing any financial or sensitive information outside the committee.

Preventing conflicts of interest is also important. The Community Foundation requires all committee members to sign the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Agreements.

The donor typically works with Community Foundation staff to develop eligibility and selection criteria. These criteria must be objective, non-discriminatory, and ensure a competitive process. Exhibit D of the Fund Agreement is designed to assist in developing these criteria. The Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees must approve the final criteria before scholarship grants are awarded.

The donor typically specifies the purpose of the scholarship fund when establishing it. While eligibility may be straightforward based on the scholarship’s intended purpose, further eligibility criteria might be created for clarity. For instance, eligibility could be limited to graduating seniors from a particular high school.

While it is not beneficial to define the eligibility criteria too narrowly, it is helpful to clarify eligibility to avoid the submission of inappropriate applications. Recipients will be chosen based on the selection criteria from the pool of eligible applicants. IRS rules require that the potential pool of applicants be large enough to constitute a real scholarship, so the Community Foundation may offer suggestions to ensure compliance.

Establishing selection criteria is very important because the process can be challenging. Depending on the purpose of the scholarship, the selection criteria typically considered when evaluating applicants are:

• Grade point average and standardized test scores, which serve as indicators of academic performance and potential for success.
• Extra-curricular activities demonstrate the student’s involvement, socialization, and community service.
• Letters of recommendation that highlight how others perceive the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Volunteer or work experience that can demonstrate the student’s background in their chosen career field.
• Clearly articulated career and educational goals, demonstrating the student’s ability to set future goals and objectives.
• Unusual circumstances to identify any family, personal, or financial problems that may require further review.
• Financial need as shown by the Student Activity Report (SAR), which students receive when applying for financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile.

We encourage you to use the standard application provided by the Community Foundation, as it can reflect your criteria. If you create a new scholarship application, it is important to clearly state the application requirements and keep the process as simple as possible while still collecting the necessary information. Custom applications require approval from the Community Foundation.

Using a rating sheet to evaluate each student provides an objective way to approach decision-making. Each selection criterion can be assigned a weighted score, allowing cumulative scores to compare applicants. Additional materials may also be reviewed during the application process. Our staff is available to assist you in navigating this process.

To recommend a scholarship award, the review committee must fill out a Scholarship Recommendation Form and send it back to the Community Foundation along with a copy of the committee meeting minutes. The minutes should include the meeting dates and location, as well as a summary of how the recipients were chosen.

If you are using the Community Foundation scholarship review committee, all this information will be submitted on behalf of your fund.

After the review committee recommends the grants, they are submitted to the Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees for approval. Once approved, letters will be sent to all applicants notifying them of an award or declination.

Scholarship grants are customarily paid directly to the student’s college or university in mid-July. No payments are made directly to individuals. The payment to the college or university is accompanied by a memorandum explaining the Community Foundation’s policies and requesting that the school notify us if the student does not register or withdraws from school. If a student withdraws or fails to register, the institution will send a refund check to the Community Foundation, and the returned funds are credited back to the scholarship fund. Your scholarship committee may decide to award a new scholarship or roll the award back into the fund balance.  Additionally, if it is discovered that awarding the scholarship could jeopardize the student’s ability to receive and use other grants or tuition assistance for the current school year, the Community Foundation, as a standard of practice, may delay payment of academic awards into the next academic year, if that benefits the student.

Review committees can publicly announce awards not only to give deserving recognition to the recipient but also to encourage more support for the scholarship program. Press releases to local newspapers or trade magazines may, when suitable, lead to a short article or news brief. The Community Foundation must approve all press releases and printed materials. After the releases are published, please send a copy of the articles or announcements to the Community Foundation for our records.

All materials promoting the awards should acknowledge that the Community Foundation manages the fund. For example, “This scholarship award was from the (Fund Name) at the Community Foundation for Mississippi.” If the scholarship fund is a memorial to someone or was started by a living donor or organization, including information about that person or group would make the announcement more engaging.