A scholarship program offers many benefits to a company and its employees. It makes employees focused and happy–ready to serve the company wholeheartedly. It also creates a healthy work environment and increases productivity.
According to statistics, 56% of U.S. employers offered financial assistance to their employees for their undergraduate and postgraduate programs in 2024. Thinking of setting up a company scholarship program? Here are some valuable tips to guide you.
Table of contents
1. Consider What’s Involved
A scholarship program isn’t just about giving financial assistance to deserving employees. You’ll need to do a few things to create a great program. Consider the expenses involved, the funding sources, and set scholarship rules and minimum requirements. This will help you to identify the employees to award scholarships.
Decide if you’ll set up a scholarship review committee within the company or outsource the task to a scholarship management service. Outsourcing the scholarship review process to a third party adds integrity to the process.
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2. Get Funding for the Program
A scholarship program is all about money. You must come up with a clear plan on how you intend to cover all scholarship-related expenses. There are multiple options you can explore. You can set up a trust fund or create a non-profit organization.
Tax experts who work with 1(800)Car-Title, a company that gives title loans online and also offers scholarships from time to time, advise businesses to pay attention to the tax implications for each option before making the final decision.
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3. Determine Who Should Benefit
Once you’ve set your company scholarship program, you will receive many applications from employees seeking to further their education. To create a level playing field, you’ll need to develop non-discriminatory scholarship criteria that all prospective beneficiaries must meet.
The company may decide to award scholarships based on its long-term plans. For instance, if the company is a tech firm, it may choose to offer scholarships only to the IT team to enhance technological innovation.
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4. Define Scholarship Rules
Scholarships vary by state, scholarship provider, and institution. There’s no single governing authority that regulates scholarship funds. Therefore, you’ll need to set rules that all employees must follow when applying for scholarships. Give applicants adequate time to prepare well before applying.
Also, make it clear whether the application forms will only be available online or online and offline. Online application forms are better because they are easier to manage.
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5. Consider the Award Scope
Decide if the scholarship program will be a one-time thing or if it will be continuous. Depending on your organization’s tax obligations, philanthropic goals, and funding, you can offer a specific amount to each successful applicant or offer them a full scholarship until graduation.
The success of a company scholarship program is highly dependent on proper planning. As you design your scholarship program, remember that there’s no single way of creating the program.
Each company follows a unique set of rules and regulations. However, you need to make sure the program benefits ambitious and deserving workers as well as the company.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Financial support based on academic achievement or other criteria that may include financial need. The donor of the scholarship sets the criteria for recipient selection. The grantor specifically intends money be spent to defray the costs of study, training, or research
Participate in community life. …
Apply for as many scholarships as possible. …
Ask for help with applications. …
Read the scholarship criteria carefully.
You usually need about $20,000 to $25,000 to endow a scholarship that pays out $1,000 every year. The requirements vary by organization. Some let you create a shorter-term scholarship fund with less money.
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