Start a Scholarship
Thank you for your interest in establishing a new scholarship for Sisters High School students! You make Sisters a better place to live by contributing to the educational future of the young people of our community.
Sisters GRO provides support services to three categories of scholarships: corporate scholarships, non-profit scholarships and private scholarships. Scholarships can be designated toward a variety of post-secondary options including training programs, trade schools, community colleges and four-year institutions. Guidelines for scholarship eligibility are flexible and can be customized based on the values and interests of the scholarship sponsor.
Scholarships can be set up as renewable scholarships where donations are made annually, or as an endowment that generates interest used to support the scholarship annually off of a one-time investment with Sisters GRO. The minimum amount requested for a renewable scholarship award is $1,000 per year. In addition, we kindly ask for a 7% donation over the annual scholarship amount to help cover essential operating costs of the Sisters GRO organization.
There are two options for award disbursements. Sponsors can choose to send checks directly to student recipients themselves or choose a Sisters GRO pass-through fund which will make the donation tax deductible and a tax donation receipt will be mailed to you.
The scholarship application review and selection process runs through an online program called AwardSpring and can either be managed by the sponsor and a team of at least two other judges, or can be facilitated by a group of Sisters GRO board members and volunteers. One important rule to note is that due to IRS guidelines the selection process may not be controlled by the donor, meaning that the selection committee must include more non-donors than donors. Donors can not amend selection committee decisions and relatives of donors are not eligible for their sponsored scholarships.
The annual schedule for scholarship sponsors is as follows:
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October/November: Scholarship offerings for the year are confirmed and information is updated in AwardSpring, Sisters GRO starts collecting scholarship donations.
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January/February: Students gain access to AwardSpring to view and apply for scholarships.
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March/April: Scholarship selection committees gain access to AwardSpring to review scholarship applications, and select and submit final scholarship recipients.
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May: Sponsors and recipients attend annual Senior Celebration to distribute scholarship awards.
We are excited to assist you through the process of establishing an educational scholarship. If you would like to take the next step, please click on the button below to fill out the new scholarship form.