Bringing it all together: Centralizing scholarship processes at MSU
About the entry
In the spring of 2017, MSU identified a rather large problem—it had nearly $600,000 in scholarship dollars that went unspent. Digging into the issue, a number of reasons were identified for the abundance of unspent funds, including communication issues between financial aid and advancement, faculty members who simply "didn't get around" to awarding scholarships and no deadlines or minimums for donors to know when making their gift. The solution was to bring multiple stakeholders to the table and attempt to somewhat centralize the process.
From the Judges' Report
The panel believed that this submission also displayed excellent objectives and execution. Their example is one that addresses a common and highly complex issue that institutions face. It is an issue that can directly impact audit concerns and donor relations at the highest level. This was considered to be an impressive undertaking of a large scale endeavor, with actionable and strategic planning to invest resources and time with an effective timeline for collaboration. The submission shared proven results, especially around awarding and compliance that were impressive. From the perspective of the panel, we felt acutely aware of the challenges we have either experienced or observed at institutions in regards to the flow for scholarships from beginning to end. This effort “felt” campus-wide in its impact, in addition to being an extremely important asset to donor relations and stewardship.