How To Create A Scholarship Fund in 4 Steps

Scholarship funds are a great way to help support students throughout their university journey by offering financial help. 

If you’re interested in creating your own scholarship fund, then look no further as we delve into how to create a scholarship in these 4 simple steps.

What is a scholarship fund? 

Scholarship funds are a charitable grant that helps students cover the costs of their education. Those who receive scholarships tend to use them to cover the costs of textbooks and tuition fees. 

Step 1: How are you going to fund your scholarship?

One of the first steps you’ll need to take when creating a scholarship fund is deciding how much money you want to contribute and whether you will solely fund it or if you want to accept donations. 

If you create a scholarship fund on your own, it’s likely that you’ll incur extra costs on top of paying the scholarship money to the winner. 

Other costs could include:

• Paying for an attorney.
• Paying for a tax expert.
• Creating and setting up a website to gain applications. 
• Paying for advertising. 

If you decide to go down the route of accepting funding from donors then using an online platform is an easy way to get people to donate. Having an online platform will help create an authoritative and trustworthy figure for your fund, allowing donors to find out information and make donations in the same place.

Money can also be raised through fundraising activities like:

• Auctions or selling old items.
• Raffles.
• Bake sales.
• Game nights or pub quizzes.
• A crowdfunding campaign.

Step 2: Decide who you want to help

When creating a scholarship fund, it’s important to identify the audience you are trying to help. You may want to help as many people as possible, but you need to be realistic about who you can help most and how far the money in your fund can go.

When creating your audience you need to ensure it’s broad enough to not be discriminatory and to attract as many people as possible to the scholarship you’re offering. 

Your audience could include:

• Those from low income families.
• Those looking to study STEM-related subjects (like Millennium Point offers).
• Those with disabilities.
• Those with merit based achievements such as sports, music or the arts.

Step 3: How do you plan to advertise your scholarship?

It’s extremely important to advertise your scholarship as it will allow it to reach as many people as possible, while helping you gain applications from people that meet your criteria. 

Creating a website to showcase your scholarship, as well as allowing people to donate to your fund or apply to the scholarship is a great way to advertise it. You could also use social media to advertise the run up to applications opening or closing dates. This is a great way to advertise, as you’re more likely to reach your intended audience, as younger people, typically students, are using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to look for things.

Step 4: Decide how you will review applications

Once you’ve completed the previous steps, it’s time to wait for the deadline to pass and start reviewing applications. 

If you gained a small amount of applications, you may be able to go through them all yourself, however if you received a large sum of applications you may need to hire people to help you sift through them.

How can Millennium Point help those looking for a scholarship?

Here at Millennium Point, our Charitable Trust has created a STEM scholarship for those looking to study courses in Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment.

To be eligible for the scholarship you will need to:

• Live in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
• Be 18 by September 2024 and be looking at starting an undergraduate degree at Birmingham City University in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built environment.
• Your chosen course is listed on our website under the ‘What Courses are Included’ section.

Keep up to date on our Scholarship page to see when applications open!