Scholarship Task Force Charge

•What are current processes for donor recognition, announcement of scholarship opportunities, the awarding of scholarships, and monitoring scholarship awardees?•How can scholarship information be more effectively shared with prospective awardees?•How do we better communicate with faculty and staff to make certain that all scholarship funding is awarded?•How can we effectively connect scholarship recipients with the donors who have provided this support?

Scholarship Task ForceMembership

Kathy Lake, co-chair, Director, Enrollment ServicesMary Kay MacIver, co-chair, Associate Director-Alumni Relations, UA&MMaude Bigford, Coordinator-Honors Program, University CollegeKevin Dendel, student representativeMatt Eickhoff, Assistant Director, Student Leadership & ActivitiesBrian Kegler, Assistant Athletic Director, Athletics Becky Kowalkoski, Educational Counselor, BusinessRod Larsen, Assistant Dean, PharmacyRon McKean, Associate Dean, TechnologyAngie Mishler, Admissions Counselor, Admissions & RecordsTracy Powers, Assistant Dean, FSU-GRChrista Walker, Advancement Services Assistant, UA&MHeather Youngs, Scholarship Programs Coordinator, Financial Aid

Scholarship Task ForceSubcommittees

•Awarding and Tracking – Kathy Lake, Chair

•Marketing/Application – Maude Bigford, Chair

•Stewardship – Mary Kay MacIver, Chair

Stewardship

stewardship, noun A process whereby an organization seeks to be worthy ofcontinued philanthropic support, including the acknowledgment of gifts, donorrecognition, the honoring of donor intent, prudent investment of gifts, and the effective and efficient use of funds to further the mission of the organization.

Donor Bill of Rights

To receive proper acknowledgement & recognition

Acknowledgement policy

Publicity policy

College recognitions

Individual department recognitions

Annual donor event

Scholarship luncheons

Endowment reports

Current Process

•Financial Aid Website

•Selective advertising

-Torch

-MyFSU

-Crimson & Gold (Legacy)

•Colleges and program marketing varies

Marketing & Application Current Process

Focus Group Notes:

•Students find the current scholarship website difficult and frustrating.

•Hard to find initially and many did not know it existed at all

•Can’t search by major

•Most do not have links for more information

•Don’t know what “need-based” means

Marketing & Application Current Process

Focus Group Notes Continued:

•Categories seem too general and poorly labeled

•Most who called Financial Aid to ask questions about scholarships after visiting the site said the person who answered could not answer any of their questions

Marketing & Application Current Process

Focus Group Notes Continued:

•No suggestions or tips on the site on how to successfully apply

•Students who spent the time to apply, including writing essays, often did not hear back at all. Some were not sure their application was received

•Students visit once and don’t return

Marketing & Application Current Process

Focus Group Notes Continued:

Other Marketing Ideas:

•Utilize Torch•Brochure in orientation packet•FSUS classes•Advertise on Facebook and My Space•Flyers•Encourage professors to announce in class•Targeted announcements that are clear•Scholarship workshops •Scholarship fair

Marketing & Application Current Process

Focus Group Notes Continued:

Students were unanimous in their desire for a unified application system

Marketing & Application Current Process

Scholarship Website at our own

College of Technology!

•Comprehensive

•Applications are available as pdf files

•Detailed information regarding each scholarship

•Great Job!

Marketing Best Practices

Scholarship Web Search at Northern Michigan University

Marketing Best Practices

Title

Scholarship Workshops at University of Washington

Freshman Scholarship 101 – Getting Started in the Search for Scholarships

Scholarship 201, Continuing Students – The Search for Undergraduate Scholarships and Graduate Fellowships

Marketing Best Practices

Ohio State University Scholarship Application

See handout

Unified ApplicationBest Practice

Marketing:

1. Complete overhaul of the scholarship search site to include more detailed information about each scholarship, including an educational piece about the donor.

2. Include a FAQ section, as well as tips on how to apply for scholarships

3. Encourage each college to list scholarships similar to the COT

Recommendations

Marketing:

Timely Torch article

Encourage professors to announce scholarship availability in class

Utilize FSUS classes

Hold scholarship workshops

Investigate scholarship fair

Thoughtful use of MyFSU notices

Utilize Facebook and My Space – this is where our students are on a daily basis!

Recommendations

Marketing continued:

Use all marketing internal resources, including Bulldog Radio, flyers, Ferris Cable channel

Recommendations

Develop a unified application to be used with all scholarships university-wide

Recommendations

Awarding Process

• Current Process– Endowment status is reviewed in the

Spring– Status memo is sent to the colleges– Dept./Fin Aid start selection process– Dept. sends email to Fin Aid with

recipients information– Fin Aid awards the scholarship– Dept. sends out notification letter to

student

• Awarder Survey Results– No consistent place to get

information – No tracking of whether a

scholarship was awarded or not– Little or no communication exists

Awarding Process

• Penn State – Annual Cycle

Awarding ProcessBest Practice

• Northern Michigan University

Scholarship Committee

Awarding ProcessBest Practice

Recommendations

• Establish a contact person in each College

• Send an email awarding notification form to appropriate contact person in the Spring (already developed)

• Dept contact person forwards the form with selection information to Fin Aid for awarding of scholarship

• Establish a University Committee to award general scholarships

• Create a website for awarders on the Intranet, ie FAQ’s, Annual Cycle

• Create tracking for scholarships that are not awarded or not accepted

• Develop a process to acknowledge applications

• Coordinator is developing a system to ensure that all funds are awarded

Recommendations

Internal Resources

• Programmers– Tracking program for

scholarships– Intranet website for awarders– Website for scholarship searches– Website for donors

Enough with the plaques!

Show me the impact!

Stewardship

Current practice:

Not required

•No process in place to track thank you notes

•Encouraged only at the department/awarding entity level

•No unified message to encourage students to write thank yous

•No guidelines available to assist them

StewardshipThank You Process

University of Memphis:

All student-athletes are required to write up to five thank-you notes to their donors.

They do not receive their books/grant money until they write those five notes.

The student-athletes are given a template to work from

Donors are very appreciative!

StewardshipBest Practice

University of Minnesota

Does not require a thank you for the funds to be released

Creates instead, a “scholarship experience” for students with a packet that contains a congratulatory letter, background information, a note card to write the thank you, tips on what to say, and a return envelope to the development office

StewardshipBest Practice

University of Florida

Requires a thank you note and an information release form before releasing funds

See handout

StewardshipBest Practice

Current practice:

Lunches are selectively coordinated by

•Alumni Office

•Colleges

•Departments

•Major gift officers

StewardshipScholarship Luncheons

FSU College of Pharmacy Honors Convocation

Donors are invited to attend to present awards

Traditional ceremony that donors look forward to each year

Great job!

StewardshipBest Practice

StewardshipEndowment Reports

See example

Reports are sent in the spring with a letter from President Eisler

Contains background, criteria, amount to award, recipient information and contribution information

Stewardship Best Practice

University of Texas at Austin’s

“Donor Connect”

An online reporting system developed by UT Austin that allows donors to check the status of their endowment and connect to recipients via personalized messages with photos that augment traditional thank you notes.

Recommendations

Development of a Comprehensive Stewardship Policy available on the intranet to help educate faculty and staff about the importance of speaking with one voice.

Response from awarding survey regarding donor contact and providing that contact information to UA&M:

“We would if it involved them”

Recommendations

Develop the administrative systems necessary to begin a stepped thank you process:

Begin with thank you notes strongly encouraged and move to a thank you note required system in the future

Provide students with the necessary support to write effective thank you notes

Recommendations

Examples of support:

Online tips for writing thank you notes on our scholarship website

Requests for thank yous attached to the notification letter

Workshops to assist students in writing thank you notes

Providing computer workstations, notecards and postage.

Recommendations

Establish a policy for scholarship luncheon support similar to the acknowledgement policy.

Research indicates that donors appreciate as much personalization as possible for luncheons:

•Private with University representative and student

•Department level

•College level

Recommendations

Research the feasibility of providing online information to donors including a donor survey on estimated usage of such a system

We do some things well

We do some things ok

We do some things very poorly!

We are not alone. Many universities we spoke with want a copy of our report because they face the same challenges!

Breaking new ground!

Scholarship Task ForceWrap - up

•Written report will include a recommendation to establish an Office of Scholarships at Ferris State University.

•Oversee the entire process from Stewardship to Marketing to Awarding

Scholarship Task ForceWrap - up

Questions?