Setting up a scholarship fund on your own can be arduous as it entails establishing a tax-exempt foundation and validating it with the Income Tax Department. Moreover, creating and managing a fund takes additional time, money, expertise and training. Marketing, application reviews, customer service, and fund disbursement can all add to the administrative load.

However, an easier way would be to take assistance from a scholarship management organisation, saving you time and money. A good scholarship management organisation or a philanthropy platform can understand your objectives and help you tailor a scholarship fund which meets your requirements. From creating a blueprint of the fund to the final disbursement, everything can be accomplished with ease and efficiency.

'A Scholarship Fund that Fits Your Vision' - Strategising the Scholarship Fund

Collaborating with a scholarship management organisation or a philanthropic platform can ensure that your scholarship fund is designed around your goals — from the application process to the promotion of the program. With the expertise of such an organisation, you understand and define the following areas:

1. The purpose of the scholarship

2. The impact that you wish to create

3. Which students do you want to assist? — school students, college students or non-traditional groups?

4. Is there a focus on special groups- women, the specially-abled, transgenders etc.?

5. Do you want to assist your employees and their families?

6. Do you wish to serve a field of study or a sport?

7. Will the scholarship be awarded only once or renewed throughout a student's college career?

8. Will the amount only cover tuition, or will it also cover other essential living expenses?

9. Are you as a donor, aware of the tax regulations that govern the distribution of scholarship awards?

10. Have you considered administrative costs and resources such as application processing, marketing, legal counsel and award distribution?

Once answered, all these questions can help you define your vision and thus create a more impactful fund.

For example, with Kind Circle, a donor is assisted in understanding and creating a scholarship or Circle best suited to their objectives. The donor can create either of the four circles- Memorial Scholarship Circle, Community Scholarship Circle, Employee Scholarship Circle and Cause-based Scholarship Circle- per their requirement.

While the Memorial Scholarship Circle allows the donors to create a scholarship in the name of their beloved ones, the Community Scholarship Circle enables them to reconnect with their schools, colleges, villages, communities, and the larger society by creating scholarship opportunities for those in need.

The Employee Scholarship Circle efficiently supports deserving students from low-income families, including the staff members of the individual/s' company or organisation. Whereas the Cause-based Scholarship Circle is a medium to garner support for a specific cause, a crisis, or a professional field like Sports, Music, Law, Chartered Accountancy, Nursing, etc.

Assistance with Paperwork

Choosing an established philanthropic platform like Kind Circle significantly reduces the paperwork that you, as a donor, need to do. You are saved from the hassle of setting up your foundation or sorting tax paperwork. Therefore, by creating a scholarship with an existing nonprofit, you can save yourself from the behind-the-scenes hustle.

Eligibility Criteria and the Application Process 

Two quintessential components of a scholarship fund are the setting of the eligibility criteria and the application process. The eligibility criteria are based on the scholarship fund's nature and the target students/ beneficiaries. Further, the application process makes up for a significant chunk of the administrative workload. With the experience and expertise of leaders in the scholarship domain, Kind Circle helps the donor establish scholarship eligibility requirements and criteria that reflect their passions and priorities.

The platform also supports the donor in creating, receiving, processing and screening all scholarship applications, establishing deadlines, checking for eligibility or missing information, and handling customer service questions. All of this is done with the help of cutting-edge software and a seasoned team of experts who have been planning and managing scholarships for over a decade.

Reaching Out to the Target Scholars 

After determining the target scholars, the next step is to connect with them. Extensive data on students can be of great use here. Kind Circle, supported by India's largest scholarship platform- Buddy4Study- provides donors with a comprehensive database of more than 48 Lakh registered scholars nationwide, created over 11 years and expected to grow exponentially. The availability of an appropriate student database helps streamline the publicity, thus again saving the donor's time and money. 

Assistance with Publicity

A robust publicity campaign ensures the scholarship fund creates maximum impact. The campaign may entail the creation of emails, press releases, media reports, posters, social media posts and other publicity material for awareness, engagement on social media platforms, conducting webinars/seminars, collaborating with influential personalities for promotion etc. Kind Circle can help the donors by creating an effective budget-friendly scholarship promotion campaign, especially custom-made as per the nature and requirement of the fund. An extensive database of students, teachers, and educational institutions also makes publicity much easier. For more details, please reach out to us at kind@buddy4study.com.

Selection and Disbursement Process

Once the scholarship application deadline closes, the Kind Circle team can help review the set of applications and suggest the best candidates based on the quality of the applications. So, for example, instead of reviewing thousands of applications, the donor can review only 25 applications to decide on the beneficiaries. After the results are announced, Kind Circle, through the direct benefit transfer mechanisms, ensures that the scholarship amount is directly transferred into the beneficiaries' bank accounts. 

Transparent Accounting

To maintain credibility throughout the process, transparent accounting is available on the dashboard of the Circle's admin. All of a Circle's incoming and outgoing fund transactions are available online in an online passbook, which the Karta (circle admin) can share with his donors monthly or quarterly. If an unspent fund in any Circle remains unutilised for more than six months, Buddy4Study will transfer the scholarship fund to a common pool of funds to support students on the waiting list.

Progress Tracking and Mentorship 

Unlike many other philanthropic platforms, the Kind Circle platform allows the donor to track the performance of scholars. This is especially useful in cases where the scholarship fund is renewed every year. The donors can also interact with the scholars and offer them mentorship based on their expertise or the requirements of the scholars.