How to Set Up an Employee Scholarship Program: Seven Decisions to Make First
An employee scholarship program rests on seven decisions: what it’s for, who’s eligible, what it covers, who selects, how applicants are supported, what happens after the award, and how you’ll know it’s working.
Companies that fund scholarships for their employees’ children tend to start from a generous instinct and a budget line. What turns those two things into a program that works year after year is a short list of decisions, and they’re easier to make before the first application arrives than after.
Here are the seven we walk through with every organization we work with.
1. What Is the Program For?
“Supporting education” is a start, not a mission. A program for the children of frontline staff in three countries will look different from a merit award for the children of all employees worldwide. Write the purpose down in two or three sentences. Everything else, from eligibility to the size of each award, should trace back to it.
2. Who Is Eligible?
Decide which employees’ children can apply (by role, tenure, location or income band), what level of study the award covers, and whether it can be used at any institution or only at an agreed list. Clear eligibility rules save applicants time and spare your team a great many individual judgment calls.
3. What Does the Award Cover, and for How Long?
A one-time grant and a multi-year scholarship are different commitments. If the award renews each year, say what a student has to do to keep it, and who checks.
4. Who Selects the Recipients?
This is the decision that most affects how the program is received inside your company. When colleagues’ children are the applicants, selection needs to be fair and seen to be fair, and that’s hard to achieve from inside the building. Many organizations ask an independent third party to evaluate applications against the agreed criteria.
In the US, organizations that fund scholarships through a company foundation should also ask their tax counsel what the rules require of the selection process.
5. How Will Applicants Be Supported?
Families will have questions while the application window is open: about eligibility, documents and deadlines. Plan for who answers them and how quickly. A program that goes quiet during its own application season loses the goodwill it was created to build.
6. What Happens After the Award?
A payment in a student’s name is the beginning. Students settle better and finish more often when someone checks in on them, points them to help on campus, and notices early when things are going off course. Decide whether your program includes that, because it shapes the budget and the partner you’ll need.
7. How Will You Know It’s Working?
Agree at the outset what you’ll track: academic progress, payments made and what they covered, and what you’ll report to leadership each year. It’s far easier to build reporting into the design than to reconstruct it later.
Where a Partner Fits
Some organizations run all of this in-house. Many ask a partner to take on the parts that call for independence or specialist knowledge: writing the criteria, building the application process, running selection, and supporting students once they’ve enrolled.
That’s the work Bennett does. We’re education consultants, so the people shaping your criteria and mentoring your scholars are former teachers, school leaders and admissions professionals. Your funds stay with you; we track payments and report on results. You can read more about our scholarship management services, or about the questions to ask when outsourcing scholarship administration.
Thinking About a Scholarship Program?
Whether you’re planning a new program or reviewing one you already run, a first conversation costs nothing and usually clarifies which of these seven decisions needs attention first.
Start a conversation with our scholarship management team →
Bennett International Education Consultancy works directly with hundreds of families each year across the globe. We support families by helping them make informed decisions about the best-fit schools for their children; with our guidance, they secure placement in preschools, private day schools, public/state schools, boarding schools, colleges and universities, including schools with particular programs, such as special needs support.
