One of the perks of running a business like ScholarshipApp is that we often talk to great people who want to set up a scholarship in memory of a loved one they lost. While we recently talked about this topic in this article, there are some questions that remain unanswered. Today, we’ll show you how you can do it with ease and without worrying about the complicated paperwork.
Start from the basics: the award amount and the number of awards
As discussed in our previous blog posts, the very first step in setting up a scholarship is choosing how much you want to give away and to how many people. There is no rule of thumb here, but we suggest grabbing an account and taking a look at some of the current scholarships on ScholarshipOwl to get some inspiration. No amount is too small and all kinds of financial help can change a student’s life.
Besides the amount and the number of awards, also think about the frequency that you want to run your scholarship for. We suggest making at least monthly or annually.
Local or nationwide
There are two paths that you can take here. If you make your scholarship local, it has certain advantages, such as the fact that you will be helping the local community. This can be the same community where the person whose name the scholarship carries lived in. Also, you may have an easier time promoting the scholarship locally. The biggest disadvantage is that you will not get as many applicants as you would if running it nationally.
On the flip side, a national scholarship will get more applicants and more attention. However, you may have to work harder to get the kind of promotion and exposure that you want.
Ultimately, the choice is yours to make and you should choose the one that best reflects the kind of person that you’re remembering with the scholarship.
Get some funds
There are different ways to get funding for your scholarship and you can get creative here. You can set up a trust fund or start a fundraiser which will hopefully get some attention. If all else fails, you can use your own personal funds. Whichever route you choose, talk to a tax expert before doing anything.
Final step: get the papers ready and register the scholarship fund with the IRS (OR, better yet, use ScholarshipApp)
To get the legal work out of the way, one of the quickest ways to get started is by using a community foundation. There are quite a few online locators for community foundations or you can work with a school or university instead. Bear in mind, however, that they will have a minimum fund requirement.
Also, you can go the long route and register yourself as an official non-profit so that you can receive tax benefits. This is a good idea but it will take quite a bit of time to get the process finished.
Or you can go the easy route and use ScholarshipApp to set up your scholarship. Using our Fund Manager, you can make sure that each of your scholarships is 100% tax-deductible. All it takes is creating an account with us and 15 minutes to set up your scholarship in the memory of your loved one.
The best part? It’s completely free to get started.
So what are you waiting for? Get started today!
