Red tape doesn’t get talked about often. We accept it as it is: a necessary nuisance, prescribed by institutions, and followed to the letter.
However, in some cases, administration prevents us from making good decisions. Hiring an employee from another country can often be an administrative nightmare. So businesses opt for domestic employees, often less qualified. The alternative is just too much work.
We’ve found that independently published scholarships also come with significant administrative burden – that is why small and medium businesses are often reluctant to pursue and announce them, despite many potential benefits.
Which is a pity. Thankfully, there are platforms that significantly alleviate administration on business’ part, opening the door to existing and possibly additional benefits.
Platforms to the rescue
Any business that announces a scholarship faces three stages to complete the process: preparing and posting a scholarship, reviewing applications and choosing the winner, and finalizing documentation for the winner to receive the reward.
Needless to say, these stages come with significant cost, both in manpower and finances. Posting a scholarship alone, if done correctly, requires a huge chunk of time to find all the appropriate venues to announce your scholarship.
Even with all the resources, you simply might not have wide enough access to maximize the impact of your scholarship.
Platforms, such as ScholarshipApp, are built to take over the administrative part completely. This means that, typically, you only set parameters and let the algorithm do the rest – announce your scholarship to and find the most suitable candidates (ScholarshipApp connects to the pool of 4 million students seeking scholarships), compile and present the data or randomize the draw, and provide you with the necessary documents for the winner (privacy policy, affidavit, terms and conditions).
Aside from the obvious savings in costs, why is this important, though?
Connecting the dots
There are many tangential and tangible benefits to a good scholarship model, the biggest ones concerning HR, marketing, community building, and developing good relations with future professionals in your field.
The biggest hurdle to announcing scholarships – administration and access – is removed via platforms, so businesses can now easily choose, strategize and build business models around them.
But that’s not all.
Aside from the benefits (did we mention tax deductions?), cuts in administration also mean more resources to pour into this model. More resources available = more potential benefits at disposal.
Let’s say that your business is utilizing scholarships as a long-term marketing and HR tool – you are helping students, presenting your company in a favorable light, and acquiring database for potential internships and employment in the future.
Through scholarship platforms, you would have saved not only administrative costs, but also the costs of HR and marketing in the future, because the odds are you will find a viable candidate in the pool of expert students. What will you do with these savings?
It’s really up to you – you might re-allocate them to manufacturing process, cause campaigns (another excellent marketing model), or use them to announce another scholarship.
Because, you see, marketing and HR savings are great, but the more scholarships you announce, the more communities you can build. In today’s economy, more communities also means more customers.
See what we’re getting at? Instead of focusing on one-way line Business-Customer, scholarships introduce a cyclical model Business-Students-Communities-Business, where value circles around. Win-win for everyone. And it all starts with removing unnecessary, outdated costs from the equation.
It’s a good bargain
It is quite understandable that, up to this point, businesses were somewhat apprehensive regarding scholarships. Although some benefits were worth the effort, there was still a lot of work, administration, and the costs involved.
With global access to students, new opportunities have arisen, which make scholarships a great business model, and a well of interesting and effective business decisions. Additionally, scholarship platforms nowadays make the process of announcing a scholarship and further planning as easy as it can be.
Don’t wait for this model to become mainstream before you use it. The best of all? At ScholarshipApp, it’s free for all who want to become scholarship providers. Check out our blog to learn more about all the ways that scholarships can contribute to your business and save you both time and money.
