The Ultimate Guide to Scholarship Management Software

Scholarships help associations attract and engage members who can’t afford dues, conferences, credentialing, or leadership training. But managing the application, review, and fund disbursement processes for scholarships is an administrative nightmare, especially if you’re juggling it with your other responsibilities.

Bring order, efficiency, and calm to your day with scholarship management software, which saves you hours each week and helps you and your co-workers manage other programs too.

What Is Scholarship Management Software?

Simply put, scholarship management software is your escape hatch from inbox chaos.

Associations use scholarship management software to manage the entire scholarship lifecycle, from accepting applications, to reviewing and scoring them, communicating with applicants and reviewers, awarding scholarships, and disbursing and tracking funds.

Benefits of using scholarship management software

— Reduce time spent in drudgery

With scholarship management software, you manage the entire program from a centralized dashboard. Plus, it allows you to:

• Eliminate paperwork.
• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Schedule emails to applicants and reviewers about incomplete applications, status updates, reviewer assignments, deadlines, and award notifications.

Shift your focus to more strategic work, like building relationships with prospective scholarship sponsors.

— Improve oversight with a single source of truth

Data and documents are no longer scattered among folders and drives. At a glance, you see the status of applications, reviewing assignments, and scholarship notifications and disbursements.

Because scholarship management software, like OpenWater, integrates with association management, customer relationship management, and accounting systems, all scholarship-related data is at your fingertips.

— Provide a polished portal for applicants

User-friendly online forms eliminate confusion. Applicants save their work to complete later, and upload references and other documents.

— Receive higher quality applications

Minimize errors and increase completion rates. You no longer have to chase after applicants for missing information.

— Increase volunteer satisfaction.

Volunteer reviewers don’t have to organize and compare multiple documents or folders of paperwork. They have everything they need for evaluating and scoring applications on their dashboards, making it a simple task for busy members.

— Share useful reports.

With demographic insights and program metrics provided by the software, you get a better understanding of your applicants and program performance. Create customizable reports for your sponsors, board, donors, and other stakeholders.

— Grow your program without effort.

Increase the number of scholarships without having to add more staff hours.

— Eliminate redundant software.

Multipurpose software, like OpenWater, also helps your organization manage awards programs, grants, session proposals, and abstract submissions.

Features to look for in scholarship management software

When researching tools to manage your scholarship program, make sure these features are on your checklist.

— Scholarship website builder.

No tech skills are required to create an online application portal that’s visually aligned with your website. Design customizable forms using a no-code, drag-and-drop form builder. It’s a cinch to apply conditional logic that adapts questions based on scholarship type or applicant category.

— Centralized dashboard.

Manage the entire scholarship process from one place, including data and documents related to applications, reviews, fund disbursements, and reporting.

— Application collection portal.

Applicants complete an online form and upload the required documents.

— Reviewer dashboard.

Assign applications to reviewers. They log in, review according to your preset customized criteria, and score applications based on your rubric. Set up single- or multi-round reviews.

— Mobile accessibility.

Applicants and reviewers take care of scholarship business at their convenience.

— Email wizard.

Set up automated messaging to individuals or groups, such as application confirmations, reminders about unfinished applications, required actions and deadlines, status updates, and award notifications.

— Fund disbursement and tracking.

Select and notify scholarship recipients. Track fund disbursement.

— Advanced reporting and analytics.

Consult real-time dashboards where you track program, applicant, reviewer, and financial metrics. Design customizable reports for sponsors, board, donors, and other stakeholders.

— Integration capabilities.

By connecting with your association management, customer relationship management, and accounting software, log-in is simplified for applicants and reviewers. You and your colleagues from membership, accounting, and other departments have the information, data, and reports you need.

— Implementation timeline.

Find out how quickly you start using the software.

— Customer support/training.

Choose an industry partner who is committed to your team’s short- and long-term success.

How scholarship programs boost member engagement and association growth

Besides helping members achieve their career goals, scholarships solve several challenges faced by associations, like attracting young members, filling volunteer leadership pipelines, and increasing retention.

— Increase member recruitment and retention

Membership scholarships remove the financial barriers for early-career professionals and those in between jobs. Nothing earns loyalty like a helping hand when it’s needed most.

Scholarships that cover or subsidize conference registration, travel, and/or hotel expenses help members who don’t have the financial means to attend in-person events, especially students, recent graduates, and early-career members. Turn these groups into your biggest fans and spark peer recommendations—the most effective membership marketing.

Extend scholarships to online education, such as courses and microcredentialing programs, to help members with employers who don’t pay for professional development.

— Fill your volunteer leadership pipeline

Leadership training scholarships eliminate financial barriers to volunteering and expand your leadership bench beyond those with employer support.

Offer travel scholarships to chapter leaders who don’t have the budget to attend your association’s conferences or leadership training programs. Help them develop the skills needed to improve chapter performance, strengthen their relationships with peers, and create deeper trust and buy-in for association initiatives.

Many members can’t afford to travel to national meetings, so they don’t apply for or accept committee and board positions. Volunteer travel scholarships eliminate these barriers to board or committee service.

— Expand educational programs

Credentialing scholarships help increase program participation by subsidizing expenses related to applications, textbook purchases, study group registrations, and/or exam fees.

Scholarships for online and in-person educational programs help boost the participation of new or underserved audiences.

— Offer valuable sponsorship opportunities to member companies

Don’t assume sponsors are satisfied with associating their name with your events. They’re looking for new ways to share their expertise and become known as true industry partners.

Supplier members want to align themselves with good causes that also fulfill their corporate social responsibility goals. Give them the opportunity to provide membership, conference, education, or leadership scholarships to people who might not otherwise have a chance to participate in your association and its programs.

How to fund scholarships?

Besides partnering with sponsors, other ways to fund scholarships are:

• Annual budget line
• Grants
• Fundraising campaign
• Silent auction
• Optional check-off dues supplement: “Donate $5 to our scholarship fund.”

Check with your CPA about the tax implications of scholarships. You may have to send a 1099 to recipients if the scholarship exceeds the IRS baseline of $600.

With scholarship management software, like OpenWater, you change from a paper-shuffling administrator into a program strategist, who has more time to focus on sponsor relationships and program growth.

OpenWater doesn’t just transform scholarship management. Associations rely on OpenWater to help them manage award programs, grants, conference session and abstract submission, mentoring programs, volunteer applications, and leadership development programs—anything that requires an application or judging process.

Watch a quick video tour of OpenWater to find out how it can make your job a whole lot easier.

Laura Rudd

OpenWater Mid-Year Product Update: New APIs, Reporting Enhancements, and More