Fulfilling a scholarship’s mission isn’t as easy as awarding a scholarship and moving on. Scholarship donors, recipients, and selection committees all benefit when the scholarship provider stays in contact with a recipient.
It helps the recipient form valuable networking connections and helps the organizers better understand how their scholarship benefits the recipients and how to choose the best recipients in the future.
Keep Track of your Scholar’s Progress
Scholarship organizers need to keep track of those who receive their scholarships.
If a scholar’s grades are slipping, the scholarship organizers can step in and try to help them get back on track. Of course, the scholar’s grades only tell one part of their story, but seeing that a scholar’s grades are slipping lets the scholarship provider know something is wrong.
The problem could be as small as the program isn’t the right fit for the scholar, or the decrease in grades could be related to something more serious, like an illness or personal tragedy.
No matter the issue, the scholarship provider wouldn’t know their scholar is struggling and won’t be able to step in and assist them if they don’t keep track of the recipients.
Scholarships are designed to help students succeed in school and help them towards graduation. They then go on and help their communities thrive, which helps fulfill your scholarship’s mission.
Scholarship providers want their scholars to succeed, and they need to keep track of their scholars to make sure they’re on the right track.
Connect Scholars with Peers and Mentors
Peers and mentors are vital to a scholar’s success, but connecting your scholar with past winners and potential mentors is often a hassle.
A scholarship management system allows scholarship providers to easily and quickly connect current recipients with peers and mentors. A good scholarship management service allows scholarship organizers to quickly lookup past scholarship recipients and connect them with a current scholar.
A group of mentors and peers is essential to a scholar succeeding and fulfilling the scholarship’s mission. It doesn’t have to be tedious to connect a scholar to past winners and mentors when the scholarship organizers have access to a database of people via a scholarship management system.
Check-in with Your Scholar
As indicated above, a scholar must have a community supporting them. The scholarship provider can form a mentorship connection with their scholar or send them regular updates, newsletters, or information.
Even simply providing a scholar with tips for studying for exams, writing a good cover letter, or budgeting as a new graduate is a great way to keep in touch with past and current scholars.
A scholarship management software can integrate with most email marketing software, so scholarship providers can always have their scholar’s information at their fingers and connect with them quickly.
Using a scholarship management service to keep in contact with scholars also helps scholars feel comfortable knowing their personal information is stored securely and not sold to third-party companies.
Small things like these help build trust between scholarship providers and scholars, making them more likely to recommend the scholarship to friends and family.
This, in turn, helps scholarship providers find the best candidates and better fulfill their scholarship mission.
Checking in with scholars also allows the scholarship selection committee to better understand the impact the scholarship made and whether or not the candidate was a good match for the scholarship.
This information helps the selection committee choose the best recipient the next time the scholarship is awarded.
Collect Stories for Donors
Scholarship donors love to hear how their money has positively impacted the recipient.
Hearing powerful and moving stories about how the money changed a person’s life makes scholarship donors enthusiastic about the scholarship and motivates them to continue their donation year after year.
The information collected from scholars can also be used in annual reports or donor marketing to help increase donations and increase the impact of the scholarship.
Personal stories are moving. Everybody loves to hear how someone overcame adversity, persevered through challenging times, and ultimately succeeded.
Collecting stories from past and current scholars can go a long way in fulfilling your scholarship’s mission and generate more funding.
Conclusion
Fulfilling your scholarship’s mission isn’t as simple as picking a recipient and awarding them the money.
Scholarship providers have to keep track of and communicate with their scholars to ensure the scholar succeeds.
A scholarship management service makes communicating with past and present scholars easy and efficient. Not only does communicating with scholars help them succeed, but it’s also beneficial to the scholarship board and helps them select the best recipients and obtain funding from scholarship donors. Get started with Scholar’s App today!