How to Start a Memorial Scholarship on Kind Circle: Step-by-Step

You want to honour someone you love with a scholarship in their name. You know why. (If you are still weighing your options, start with our guide on how to start a memorial scholarship in India.) This guide is about how – exactly what happens, step by step, when you start a memorial scholarship on Kind Circle, and how little of your time it really takes.

On Kind Circle, every scholarship is called a "circle". A memorial scholarship becomes a Memorial Kind Circle – a page, a fund and a community, all in your loved one's name. The person who leads it is called the Karta. That will be you.

Step 1: Fill the Start a Scholarship form

Go to kindcircle.org/start-a-scholarship and choose "I want to create a scholarship". The interest form has only two sections:

• About yourself – your name, contact details and relationship to the person you are honouring.
• About the scholarship – who you would like to support, roughly how much, and anything special you have in mind.

You do not need everything figured out. A rough idea is enough; the Kind Circle team will help shape it.

Step 2: Design the scholarship together

On a short call, the team helps you turn your idea into a clear scholarship design:

• Who it is for – for example, girls in Classes 9–12, engineering students, law aspirants, or students from your loved one's home town.
• Eligibility – minimum marks and family income limit.
• Amount and seats – how much each scholar receives and how many scholars each year.
• Where the money goes – directly to the student's bank account, or to the school or college as fees.
• Renewal – one-time support, or yearly renewal based on progress.

One circle can even run more than one initiative – say, one for school students and another for college students – each with its own budget and rules.

Step 3: Choose a plan

Kind Circle offers simple plans for individuals and families, from a no-setup-cost option to plans with added benefits such as mentoring, scholar testimonials and on-ground verification. A small share of each contribution supports operations – verification, disbursal, reporting and compliance – so that most of every rupee reaches the scholar. Compare the options on the pricing page.

Step 4: Get your memorial page

The team builds a dedicated page for your circle on kindcircle.org with:

• Your loved one's story and photograph
• The scholarship details and eligibility
• A live record of funds raised, scholars supported and disbursals
• Donate, nominate and invite options

Your page can be prepared and kept inactive until you are ready to fund and launch it. Take your time – many families launch on a birthday or an anniversary.

Step 5: Fund your circle, alone or together

You can fund the scholarship yourself, or invite others to join. Children, siblings, cousins, friends, colleagues and alumni of your loved one's school or college can all give to the same circle, whether they live in India or abroad. Payment options include online banking and cards, and international donors can contribute through the foundation's FCRA-compliant route.

Every donor gets an official receipt from Buddy4Study India Foundation, which is registered under Sections 12A and 80G of the Income Tax Act.

Step 6: Find and select your scholars

This is where the platform does the heavy lifting. Kind Circle is backed by Buddy4Study, which has close to 4.5 million registered students. Applications are invited, documents are checked, and students go through a multi-layered verification process. You can also nominate a student you know.

You then receive verified profiles to review. You approve the final scholars – the decision stays with your family.

Step 7: Disbursal and updates

Once you approve, the scholarship is paid directly to the student or their institution. You can see each disbursal on your circle page and dashboard. Through the year, you receive updates on your scholars' progress, and you can choose to meet them at a felicitation, a mentoring session or a simple video call.

Step 8: Renew, grow or pause

Each year you decide what happens next:

• Renew support for existing scholars
• Add new scholars or increase the amount
• Change eligibility or focus
• Pause new intakes for a year while continuing existing scholars

If a scholar drops out or becomes ineligible, the unused amount returns to your circle balance. You can support a replacement scholar, increase support for an existing one, or carry it forward.

How much time does it take?

Being a Karta is meaningful, but not time-heavy. Most Kartas spend a few hours in the first cycle setting up the scholarship and reviewing profiles, and then about one to two hours at key moments each year. You receive email and WhatsApp alerts when your review or approval is needed. Everything else – applications, verification, disbursal, receipts and reporting – is handled by the Kind Circle team.

You can also appoint co-administrators to help you, and if needed, the Karta role can later be handed to a family member.

A quick checklist

• A few lines about your loved one and what they stood for
• A good photograph of them
• Who you want to support and roughly how many students
• A rough yearly budget
• A list of family and friends you may want to invite

Start today

Families have already turned memories into scholarships on Kind Circle – from the GEV Memorial Kind Circle for law students to the KVS & Geetha Scholarship Kind Circle started in memory of two teachers. Explore more on our circles page.

Ready to begin? Fill the Start a Scholarship form, or write to kind@buddy4study.com. We will walk with you at every step.