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Whether you are opening a scholarship to honor a loved one, help students achieve higher education, encourage studies in certain fields, or assist your employees through a corporate scholarship, Greater Houston Community Foundation can customize and manage your scholarship program to help you achieve your charitable goals.

If you are a student interested in applying for a scholarship or would like to learn more, please visit www.GHCFScholar.org or contact [email protected].

Making a Difference in Local Lives

“The Pi-Squared Scholarship is for those inquisitive students who are trailblazers within their families. I know they will have tremendous success at college and in their careers. I just ask them: remember to share a slice of Texas pecan pie with the teachers and family that made their success possible.”

Chris Yetter (Greater Houston Community Foundation Scholarships Client)

How Greater Houston Community Foundation Supports Scholarships

Greater Houston Community Foundation offers full-service management of scholarship programs to help donors open the door to academic success for Houston students. We administer a variety of unique scholarship funds that grant over $5 million annually to college students. Together, we can make a greater impact on a new generation of leaders.

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Strategic Design and Focus

The multidisciplinary team at Greater Houston Community Foundation can help you strengthen and refine your scholarship efforts, helping you make the biggest impact with your dollars. We start by working with you to define the profile of students you would like to support. From there, we help you set up a successful scholarship fund, giving you the flexibility to fund a student at any accredited trade school, college, or university in the U.S.

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Consulting Services for Scholarship Funds

Greater Houston Community Foundation makes establishing your tax-deductible scholarship fund easy. Our team offers expert advice to ensure that your scholarship is awarded to the type of student who aligns with your values while utilizing industry best practices to keep your fund in alignment with IRS rules and regulations. When you partner with us for your scholarship fund, you also gain access to expert advice throughout the entire process from the design of your scholarship to the management of your fund.

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Scholarship Management and Administration

Greater Houston Community Foundation is here to remove the administrative burden of application and scholarship processing, allowing you to be as engaged as you’d like in the scholarship process. Our team manages the entire scholarship fund process including developing the online application, reviewing, scoring, and selecting recipients, and issuing the final award. We even have a scholarship team available to provide one-on-one assistance for applicants.

Scholarship Funds in Houston.

Whether you’re interested in honoring a loved one, creating a family legacy, or furthering your company’s philanthropic goals, Greater Houston Community Foundation can help you design and implement a scholarship fund that aligns with your vision.

Looking to open doors to opportunity, strengthen communities, and drive progress? Below is some important information about how establishing a scholarship fund is done — and how it can help you make a lasting impact. 

How do scholarship funds work?

Scholarship funds provide financial awards to students pursuing higher education. Unlike loans, scholarships don’t require repayment, making them one of the most effective tools for reducing financial barriers to education. Scholarships are a powerful way to effect systemic change, and they are also highly customizable philanthropic vehicles. Some common structures for scholarship funds can include the following. 

  • Merit-based scholarships reward academic achievement, leadership qualities, or talents in athletics or the arts.
  • Need-based scholarships provide support to students from low-income families or communities. 
  • Targeted scholarships focus on fields of study or career paths to address gaps in education or workforce development. These can also be deployed into areas in which you, your family, or your organization has a particular interest. 
  • Renewable scholarships are awarded over multiple years, provided the student continues to meet specific criteria.

While scholarship funds can operate as one-time donations, they become especially powerful as endowments that generate ongoing support for years to come. 

With the proper structure and experienced administration, your scholarship can create opportunities for deserving students while offering significant tax advantages for your overall financial plan.

How do I start a scholarship in Texas?

Wondering how to start a scholarship fund? While the exact process will be determined largely by how much support you have from your philanthropic partner, it will always involve some key steps. 

Step 1: Determine purpose and eligibility requirements

Begin by defining your scholarship’s purpose. Are you looking to honor someone’s memory? Support students in a particular field? Help students from a specific region? Your purpose will guide the development of your scholarship’s eligibility criteria, which might include:

  • Academic achievements
  • Financial need
  • Geographic location
  • Field of study
  • Community involvement

When establishing eligibility requirements, it’s important to make sure they align with IRS regulations. For your scholarship to qualify as tax-exempt, the criteria must be objective and nondiscriminatory. Our team at Greater Houston Community Foundation can help you develop guidelines that accurately reflect your wishes while adhering to stringent legal and regulatory requirements.

Step 2: Establish a selection committee 

Your selection committee plays an essential role in reviewing applications and selecting recipients for your scholarship. The committee should be diverse, impartial, and clearly understand your scholarship’s selection criteria and values. For donors that open a scholarship fund with the Foundation, we provide a selection committee composed of nonprofit leaders, high school and college faculty and administrators, and other community volunteers.

Establishing and selecting a committee is an important process, and it can contain additional steps for certain types of scholarship funds. For instance, company-sponsored scholarships must ensure that there’s only a limited probability that employees or their children will receive grants, and the selection committee must remain separate from the employer to maintain tax-exempt status with the IRS.

Step 3: Promote your scholarship opportunities

Once your scholarship fund is established, the next step is to create awareness for qualified students. Whether you’re focusing on students in local communities or broader fields of interest, you generally have a lot of latitude in how you promote your scholarship. Some effective promotion strategies could include:

  • Leveraging existing relationships with educational institutions
  • Planning events or collaborations with community organizations
  • Properly using digital platforms and social media
  • Tapping into the extensive network of your scholarship management partner

Greater Houston Community Foundation can help amplify your scholarship’s visibility through our established connections with schools, universities, and community organizations throughout the region, to make sure that your scholarships end up in the perfect hands.

Step 4: Support students

Supporting education through scholarship funds goes beyond just providing financial assistance. Some scholarship programs might include mentorship opportunities along with other resources to maximize their impact.

The more additional support you can provide your students, the more academic and professional opportunities they’ll have. Developing holistic and well-structured programs can make your donations and your legacy go further. 

Houston scholarship FAQ

Do I have to start a nonprofit to start my own scholarship program?

No, you don’t need to establish your own nonprofit organization to create a scholarship fund. Partnering with an existing 501(c)(3) organization like Greater Houston Community Foundation to set up and administer your scholarship fund can offer a number of benefits, including:

  • Simplified administration
  • Established legal framework
  • Potential tax benefits
  • Access to expertise and resources
  • Collaboration with your existing professional advisors

Partnering with the Foundation can allow you to focus on your philanthropic goals while we handle the administrative complexities of managing a scholarship fund.

What are the tax rules for scholarship funds in Texas?

Contributions to scholarship funds can be tax-deductible when structured correctly. While gifts to unqualified charities or unqualified nonprofit organizations are not deductible, donations to scholarship funds are deductible if certain conditions are met:

  1. The grant must be awarded on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis.
  2. The grant must be used for study at an educational institution; be a prize or award that is excludable from gross income; or be related to the literary, artistic, musical, scientific, or teaching skill or talent of the grantee.
  3. Company scholarship programs must be competitive, selecting recipients based on factors like academic merit, recommendations, or financial need, independent of employment status.

Charitable donations and tax deductions can get very complicated, so it is important to consult with a philanthropic professional. The giving experts at Greater Houston Community Foundation can help ensure that you stay abreast of complex compliance and changes in the landscape, as well as connect with your professional advisors to collaborate on creating a giving plan that works for your life. 

What kind of assets can a Scholarship Program at Greater Houston Community Foundation accept?

The Foundation accepts a wide variety of assets to fund scholarship programs, including:

Whether you’re interested in donating appreciated stock or distributing qualified charitable distributions, our team can work with you to determine the most advantageous way to contribute these assets while maximizing your tax benefits and philanthropic impact.

Get started with Greater Houston Community Foundation scholarships

Establishing a scholarship fund with Greater Houston Community Foundation offers a streamlined path to making a meaningful difference. From strategic scholarship design to full-service management and administration, we’re here to simplify your philanthropic journey.

While scholarships are an incredible way to make an impact, they are just the tip of the philanthropic iceberg. Whether you’re looking to start a scholarship, contribute to a donor advised fund, or further synergize your charitable giving and financial planning, the philanthropy professionals at Greater Houston Community Foundation are here for you. 

Give Greater Houston Community Foundation a call at 713-333-2210 or reach out directly to get started.