Endowed Scholarship
LGBT+ students - and LGBT+ students of color - are among the most at-risk students for college completion. Any LGBT+ student scholarship, but particularly an endowed student scholarship that will exist in perpetuity, is an excellent way to raise visibility and provide much-needed financial support for sexual and gender minority students.
The Movement Advancement Project, in their report Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for LGBT People of Color, highlight how "upon entering the education system, bullying, harassment and violence together create key barriers to education for LGBT students of color. Barriers of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity are compounded in ways that can make it more difficult to obtain an affordable, quality education." Scholarships will help mitigate these barriers.
The first step to starting an endowed student scholarship is to communicate with your college's Foundation to establish scholarship criteria. In order to be inclusive of non-LGBT+ students, you may want to consider offering the scholarship to LGBT+ students OR active allies to the LGBT+ community. Students can speak to criteria in a personal statement as part of the scholarship application process. Once scholarship basics are carved out, fundraising may begin. College Foundations are non-profit organizations (501(c)) so an incentive for some donors is a receipt for income tax deduction.
At MiraCosta College, the base level for endowing a scholarship is $25,000.00. Major fundraising events include an annual Queer Cupcake Party where donations are accepted, an annual drag show, monthly payroll deductions by employees, and social media fundraising via the Amplo platform. A number of the endowed scholarships also benefited from a 2-to-1 funding match commitment by the MiraCosta College Foundation; for every $2 raised, the foundation donated an additional $1. For an example of the types of scholarships you may want to establish, MiraCosta College has the following 4 endowed scholarships for LGBT+ students; two of these are the first of their kind in the world:
The Movement Advancement Project, in their report Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for LGBT People of Color, highlight how "upon entering the education system, bullying, harassment and violence together create key barriers to education for LGBT students of color. Barriers of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity are compounded in ways that can make it more difficult to obtain an affordable, quality education." Scholarships will help mitigate these barriers.
The first step to starting an endowed student scholarship is to communicate with your college's Foundation to establish scholarship criteria. In order to be inclusive of non-LGBT+ students, you may want to consider offering the scholarship to LGBT+ students OR active allies to the LGBT+ community. Students can speak to criteria in a personal statement as part of the scholarship application process. Once scholarship basics are carved out, fundraising may begin. College Foundations are non-profit organizations (501(c)) so an incentive for some donors is a receipt for income tax deduction.
At MiraCosta College, the base level for endowing a scholarship is $25,000.00. Major fundraising events include an annual Queer Cupcake Party where donations are accepted, an annual drag show, monthly payroll deductions by employees, and social media fundraising via the Amplo platform. A number of the endowed scholarships also benefited from a 2-to-1 funding match commitment by the MiraCosta College Foundation; for every $2 raised, the foundation donated an additional $1. For an example of the types of scholarships you may want to establish, MiraCosta College has the following 4 endowed scholarships for LGBT+ students; two of these are the first of their kind in the world:
- Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Club Scholarship
- Joe Maak & Pride Resource Partners LLC Scholarship
- Trans+ Pride Scholarship (first of its kind)
- Queer & Trans People of Color Scholarship (first of its kind)
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