Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories (Edee Nichols and Vern Henricks) - Episode 175
Today, we talked with GMCF’s President and CEO Vern Henricks, and Gants & Scholarships Coordinator Edee Nichols about the impact of GMCF’s scholarship initiatives, from the heartwarming origins fueled by donor interests and memorial funds to the tangible success stories from students in the community of Clay Center, Atchison, Dover, Wamego, and Manhattan, Kansas. You'll learn how these scholarships address critical educational needs in communities without local universities.
Discover the strategies behind establishing and managing scholarships. Vern and Edie reveal secrets on determining criteria, thoughtful naming, and the difference between endowed and non-endowed scholarship funds. Avoiding the pitfall of scholarships going "underwater" during the years of the scholarship and the expertise of the Community Foundation in managing these funds ensuring donors see the positive impact on students’ lives are just a few insights you’ll gain.
How to Start a Scholarship Fund
Welcome to Philanthropy Today. We are excited to share information on ways you can support the charitable causes of your choice. My name is Mitzi Richards and I look forward to being with you today on our GMCF Philanthropy Today podcast series. Today our topic is the impact of scholarship in our series Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories. Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories. Welcome, vern and Edie. This is one of our early introductory episodes of the Transformative Power of Scholarships on our Philanthropy Today podcast. Today we're going to dive into the history and impact that GMCF has had through our scholarship program. Again, I'm joined by Vern Henricks, our President and CEO, and Edie Nichols, our Scholarship Program Director, who I'm going to chat with today just to ask some questions about the details and the success of our scholarship program. So, vern, you're going to kick us off. Tell us a little bit about the origins as well as the evolution of the GMCF Scholarship Program.
Speaker 2:Certainly, and it's good to visit about this because it's really kind of a story of the community foundation model in general.
Speaker 2:Community foundations have become a very reactive development operation.
Speaker 2:Where a donor has an interest, we try to serve those interests to the point of their satisfaction and scholarships in our community we're not looked at as the primary force because we have a university foundation and a K-12 school foundation here in town, and so those that come to us really arrive from individuals that may not have a connection with those at two institutions, maybe they've retired to Manhattan but nonetheless want to be charitable, understand scholarships, receive the scholarships during their day as a student and certainly want to give back in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 2:And so that's kind of the story of how things got started here at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation is there was an interest of somebody that understood academics and understood how scholarships worked and were familiar with that from a philanthropic point of view and wanted to establish that. And so we have a few not a lot in the basic Manhattan funds, but in the advent of our partners program we have probably exploded there a little bit more because we have other communities that we serve as well and help their administrative process and that's where we've probably got into a larger scholarship mode that Edie will talk about more a little bit, simply because they don't have that university in their community and the Community Foundation becomes that source of administration for scholarships becomes that source of administration for scholarships.
Speaker 1:So was this started with the beginning of GMCF or was this so it's always been a part of?
Speaker 2:Yeah, as funds developed in the community foundation. You know when a scholarship was interested. Sometimes it starts through a memorial. There might be somebody that has passed and you don't know for sure. You know what the gift might be for. But there is a memorial fund and it accumulates to a level where somebody feels like you know, we'll shoot Mitzi Vern Edie. You know they would really like to give a scholarship to a deserving student or someone that's a high achieving student or something of that nature, and so here again, we're very reactive in that process, whatever the donor's interests are or where their passion lies. You know that's what we want to serve, and so it was an option in the early days, as well as other vehicles of giving, but something that we certainly are happy to serve.
Speaker 1:So, Edie, can you provide us with some kind of current data? What's happening with scholarships and maybe some of the numbers related to scholarship awards?
Speaker 3:Sure, we've had a busy year this year just really no different than any other year. But it's rewarding to see where kids are going to school, if they're going to two-year school or a four-year school, and how they kind of make that decision. Right now we have about 20% of kids going to a two-year school and 80% going to a four-year school. Clay Center has a very generous scholarship program for kids who are interested in a two-year program and so they've had 19 kids. Well, we're going to have to come back to that. We have about 19 recipients in a two-year school and they are outweighing the kids going to a four-year school because of this generous scholarship that was awarded to them. So that's pretty exciting to see.
Speaker 3:We have scholarships all over for all different things. In Atchison there's a fund where it's called Clubs for Kids. Vern could maybe get behind that. It's very generous scholarships for kids who are part of a golf program in Atchison Dover Community Foundation. They are a small but mighty group of kids. They have one fund and the town of Dover does not have a school anymore, so it's those students have to have parents or family that are in the Dover area and that's a nice $2,000 scholarship for each of those kids.
Speaker 3:Manhattan Community Foundation this year we've had a local business start a scholarship program and that's been pretty successful and that has bumped up the amount of awards that we have given out of Manhattan for this year. I think if we would have looked at last year's it would be pretty striking the difference between there. Manhattan Ogden Public Schools Foundation also their scholarships come through us and that's something that Sally manages on her side. Tabitha has some great scholarships. The Wamego Community Foundation has had their longest existing scholarship program, I would believe, and they are very generous in the amount of scholarships that they give to their students.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they also have a great scholarship. What is it? The banquet? Their banquet in the spring? Yeah, we attended last year and it was an amazing turnout of kids and their brothers and sisters and their parents and their grandparents.
Speaker 2:Well in the scholarship program. From a historic perspective, our partners program evolved out of the scholarship program because the gift that Edie is referencing over at the Dover Community Foundation, that was an estate gift that was left to the Dover Community Foundation for scholarships and they didn't really have a foundation, didn't know how to administer that, and so that's how their partnership with us was developed and that's how the relationship of administering those scholarships has taken place. So they have been our longest standing one because they were our first partner in the program at that point in time.
Speaker 1:That's great. Well, Edie, could you elaborate on the amount of scholarship funds allocated and maybe a little bit about the number of recipients this year?
Speaker 3:This year we had 321 recipients. We have 129 scholarship funds, wow. So you know Clay Center has 26,. But anyway, it's pretty powerful numbers. Yes, and we're thankful for those donors who have decided that they want to give towards scholarship. And it does kind of give you all the feels. Even though it's a lot of work, it does give me all the feels and I feel proud of all those kids for where they're going.
Speaker 2:Well, I think for our listeners, the scholarship process is the highest maintenance process of any of the giving that we actually have, because you have to make sure that you send the money. We send the money to the institution, we don't give it directly to the student and so you have to make sure the student's enrolled, and that doesn't always happen. Sometimes they change schools, so we need to make sure that we get the information back and they're staying active in that process as well, and so the student has to tell us where they're going to school. So sometimes that's hard to capture too.
Speaker 2:A lot of communication, a lot of boxes to check, and Edie does a great job, and it's. We've always kind of looked at scholarships as the gateway to philanthropy for so many individuals, because, you know, most of individuals that are philanthropic probably received a scholarship or at least aid somewhere in their life, and so it's their way of I want to do something for someone else, like they did it for me.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, it is the gateway to further philanthropy. Oftentimes those who create a scholarship and experience the joy I like the word the feels and the gratitude from those young people receiving that award and their families. They often come back to us with other kinds of interest.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly.
Speaker 1:So how has the financial support Edie, in your opinion, impacted the educational landscape for students? What do you pick up from the kids? What do you hear from the recipients?
Speaker 3:I think they're always appreciative, always appreciative, thank you. Thank you, mrs Nichols, for getting this processed and I hope that they get it. That it does matter. It just matters that somebody cared enough to think about some kid they don't know that wants to go on to school and needs just a school go back to their communities.
Speaker 1:We've already heard from several of our participants on this podcast. Those who've received the scholarships talk about what a difference it made to them and why they returned home, and I think that's really beautiful. So, vern, walk us through the scholarship application and selection process and you might want to defer to Edie.
Speaker 2:Well, it's pretty standard and I think even before we get to that, if somebody is interested in setting up a scholarship, a lot of times they asked us you know, okay, what do we need to do? And really we just return. The question is well, what do you want to do? Because it's really that simple in the process. If you want to give to high achieving students, we can model it that way. If we want to give it to those who have financial need, we can model that way. The only thing that Edie and I and others caution them about is the more restrictions you make, the less opportunity you have to actually award the scholarship, and so everybody wants their scholarship to be given and utilized, and so we have to guide them through that part a little bit to make sure that it is a usable scholarship. And sometimes that requires ED to call the student counselor and say hey, we have an interest in this area, do you have students in this academic area generally or how often? And we want to make sure we coach the donors in the right way. And as far as setting up the scholarship, once we determine the criteria and the priorities, it's as simple as setting up the fund agreement naming the scholarship. If they want to endow the scholarship, we always ask them to put the word endowed in theirs, because that sends a signal in itself that it will be in perpetuity for the family or whatever. You know the name of a scholarship is important. You know, sometimes that's kind of overlooked, but you know, if you're honoring a family member or the family as a whole, or maybe it's a significant individual in your life that did something special for you and you want to honor them, so there's a lot of thought that needs to go into just the naming of the scholarship, because that'll be the future and be on the list and the funds that we have, and so we want to make sure we recognize and honor those individuals as much as we possibly can.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, setting up the scholarship. But we're going to sit here, we're going to invest the money while it's here, to make sure that it has the greatest impact for the longest time as possible, and so we'll visit with the donor about what's your risk level If it's an endowment choice. Well, they're talking about something forever, and so we can be a little more risky. You know the market will tell us that it's going to grow and it's going to return, even though there are down times versus up times. So if it's going to be an endowment and they understand how that works, we basically will put it in a little more risk adverse kind of program.
Speaker 2:The one thing that people understand, you know, when you set up an endowment there's this thing called underwater. You set up the endowment today and the market goes down, then it immediately might go underwater and so we don't award scholarships where the fund, the original balance that was given, is underwater. If it's been with us for 10, 15 years and it's got a significant growth to it, even though the market goes down, it's probably higher than the original principle and we don't have to worry about that. So it's just those very original days of a scholarship establishment that you have to worry about that underwater a little bit.
Speaker 1:That early time.
Speaker 2:Yep, those early days where the market can be volatile, and if you know how to play the game, you know. We want a little bit more about what you know too.
Speaker 1:And there's ways to discuss with the donors. You know, maybe making that cash scholarship that first year so that you do give the endowed portion a little bit of time, and depending on how much they give.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right. They may want to cash, make it a cash to start with, or they may want to split it so they can endow a portion of it and then leave a little bit in the cash element of the fund so that there is that money available if the market would go down a little bit. We want the money to get out there and make a difference. The Community Foundation in general is we want to spend money where we're not here to acquire it. It's really a donor's choice if they want to endow the funds. A lot of times that is a misnomer that takes place as people think that we're an endowment building element. Well, a lot of the funds want to achieve that endowment status because then it goes in perpetuity. But that's not our primary purpose. Our purpose is to serve the wishes of the donors or the fund holders in all of these cases.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think what's exciting about scholarships again is we can, here at GMCF for all our partners, we can be that back office. We can do that investment side, we can do that procedure side.
Speaker 1:all that communication, edie, all those letters you send, all those checks you send we can do that back office work for our partners and hopefully then they get to really experience the upside of watching the young people obtain their educational goals. See the big smiles on the parents' face when the young daughter or son goes and picks up that award. And I think what really makes our scholarship program a bit unique is the fact that we do have the two-year and four-year schools that we support. Hedy, your son is headed to a two-year institution.
Speaker 3:He's going to Hayes. Oh, I'm sorry that's four years, but I will say my youngest son will go to a two-year school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And isn't that more the I mean more and more the trend these days?
Speaker 3:We are seeing it, that Ross Pat McDaniel scholarship. It's really neat because the way we pay off that scholarship is just a little bit different and so I get to see, like the classes that these kids are enrolling in, which is pretty cool, they're doing some pretty cool stuff. But I think it's just becoming more mainstream to be able to go to a two-year school and just start working right away. You didn't pay as much in tuition as you would in a four-year school. There's just there's some benefits to thinking about a two-year program.
Speaker 1:And every young person has different opportunities for them, different capacity for them, and I think, when you think of all the demand for different professions that don't require a four-year school, Well, I think the scholarships that we administer here, certainly the ones in Manhattan if they want to go to K State, that scholarship is probably at K State Sure.
Speaker 2:Or if they graduated there and want to establish a scholarship at K State, the K State Foundation will handle that. If they're a Manhattan High grad and you know they'll operate through the Manhattan High School Foundation and it'll be in their funds and obviously we administer them for them. But it'll be in that foundation. So those that we administer here directly are kind of those one-offs. Maybe someone didn't have a connection with K-State or Manhattan High, or maybe they didn't go to university at all but they really appreciated an education that they did get. So we're just here for those that want to tailor a scholarship that really resonates with them, and here again it's largely because somebody in their life made a difference one day and they want to do the same thing for another young man or young woman moving forward.
Speaker 1:Thank you, vern. I think that's a great place to wrap up. Thank you both for being here helping just explain a little bit more about the inter workings of scholarships, how we administer them, invest them and make a difference at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. There are podcasts coming up in September and October that will give a lot of the specific details around what we've talked about today. So we'll be hearing from donors, we'll be hearing from recipients, and their stories will really shine a brighter light on why we spend the time we invest to make sure these scholarships can be not only given but awarded. Thanks guys, appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Mitzi.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us today where we look inside the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. You can always learn more about GMCF at our website, mcfksorg. We invite you to subscribe to Philanthropy Today. Wherever you get your podcasts, I'm Mitzi Richards and have enjoyed hosting our Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories series in the Ad Astra Cast Studios here in downtown Manhattan, kansas.