Scholarship America is a national education service organization that mobilizes support for students getting into and graduating from college. We have three core programs: • Dollars for Scholars® helps more than 1,100 community-based chapters raise local dollars to provide scholarships to local students. • Scholarship Management Services® (SMS) helps 1,200 corporations, foundations and individuals give out scholarships around the world. • Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Assistance program helps community colleges keep low-income students from dropping out of school by providing emergency financial assistance. History Scholarship America is 50 years old and is rooted in the powerful belief that one person can make a difference. • Dr. Irving Fradkin is still working toward this mission at age 88. • He founded the organization on the belief that if everyone in his community gave just one dollar, every kid who wanted to could attend college. Scholarship America Statistics • Our three core programs provide support for more than 100,000 students each year. • Since 1958, we’ve given $2 billion to 2 million students. • Nearly 500 higher ed institutions give favorable treatment to Scholarship America-awarded scholarships through our Collegiate Partners program. Dollars for Scholars (for FY 2009): • 42,000 students received $43 million in scholarships • 150,000 students received academic support through ScholarShop • 38,500 volunteers supported chapters in 3,800 communities, in 40 states and Washington, D.C. Scholarship Management Services: • Manages 1,173 programs for corporations, foundations, individuals; 100 of them for Fortune 500 companies • Manages the $125M Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund • Awarded $168 million in scholarships to nearly 73,000 students in FY 2009 • First client (1976) is still with us today Dreamkeepers: • Supported by Lumina Foundation for Education, Kresge Foundation and Walmart Foundation • Distributed more than $1.5 million to students since 2004 • Average grant of $523 keeps students from dropping out. Dick Schwab Like most nonprofit organizations, Scholarship America is increasingly doing more with less. For example, five years ago our communications team was made up of seven staff with significant support from IT/IS to develop and maintain our two websites. Today, we have three staff, limited IT support (staging and testing only), and ten websites (scholarshipamerica.org, familiesoffreedom.org, walkforeducation.org, scholarshopkids.org and the six regional websites) that are supported by a single, self-taught staff person who also designs and edits our e-newsletters and maintains several portal sites for members and staff; our Facebook presence and (soon) a Twitter account for the organization. He's doing a great job, but having some exciting, professional assistance in redesigning our national website would be a fantastic help and incredible learning experience for him and us. Further, we will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary (we were nationally incorporated in 1961) in 2011 and would like to launch with an improved online presence that will help set the stage for our second 50 years of supporting student success. Bloomington 2010-01-05T17:40:05Z 2010-01-05T16:03:47Z Mim Schreck (interim president) Our operating budget expense for FY 2010 (current year) is $13.2 million. Pass-through scholarship awards of more than $102 million (raised and distributed) are included in our overall audit report. 952-830-1929 As a national nonprofit with 1,200 member chapters in 40 states, we have a large constituency with whom we need to communicate (approximately 40,000 volunteers plus donors). We have moved much of our communications online in 2009, in terms of using e-newsletters, fundraising campaigns and an improved donation portal that allows donors to designate where they would like their contribution to be allocated. Our goal for 2010 is to more fully integrate our communications efforts with a freshly designed, easy to use website that works for multiple constituencies, allows us to move away from even more paper-based communications and assures that our small staff can work more efficiently and effectively on behalf of students and our supporters. 34 Our IT/IS function annual budget, including personnel, hardware, and operations development costs, is $1.3 million. However, the IT staff does not support scholarshipamerica.org other than staging and testing before changes go live. A new website will help us accomplish our mission by providing thorough information to current and prospective member chapters and supporters in an easy-to-use manner. Currently, we have a member portal that is not well integrated with our external-facing site; we want to do a better job of helping our members find and use the portal. In addition, we have six regional web sites that we have only just begun integrating with the national web site--better integration would increase our brand consistency and our efficiency. Also, by integrating our marketing and fundraising messages through our website, we increase the probability of donors finding our site and using it to make or increase their donations to our organization. Further, because we are primarily a member-service organization, and therefore we help OTHERS provide direct service to students, Scholarship America's website does not address students' needs very well. However, we want to engage students more and envision a new website that will address their scholarship questions and needs, and build lasting relationships with them while increasing the organization's visibility and branding. /system/logos/34/normal/SA_Color_Web.gif?1262713143 image/gif SA_Color_Web.gif 11349 2010-01-05T17:39:03Z Mission To mobilize America through scholarships and educational support to make postsecondary education possible for all students. Vision Through our programs, services and strategic alliances, all students will receive support from their communities to achieve their educational goals. Who We Are Scholarship America is a national education service organization that mobilizes support for students getting into and graduating from college. We support the continuum of student needs through our 4G philosophy: Get Ready, Get In, Get Through and Give Back. We support volunteer-led member chapters in 40 states; the volunteers in these member chapters work to raise scholarship funds and support students preparing for, entering or attending two- and four-year colleges and other higher education institutions. We also manage scholarships for companies, foundations and individuals. Our philosophy – which is made clear through our spending priorities - is to keep our overhead low so more funds are spent on scholarship support. (This is part of the rationale for why we don’t have money to spend on a new website.) Scholarship America 952-830-7307 Our operating budget revenue for FY 2010 (current year) is $12.5 million. Pass-through scholarship awards of more than $102 million (raised and distributed) are included in our overall audit report. false true MN 1550 America Blvd E Suite 155 04-2296967 2010-01-11T21:06:27Z http://www.scholarshipamerica.org 55425