Awarding 4-H Scholarships – Best Practices

Determine the Purpose

• Set criteria for the scholarship. Will it be a need-based scholarship or a merit-based scholarship or a combination or both?  A request for financial information is appropriate only on a need-based scholarship. Subjective terms such as “active 4-H’er” should be defined so that the applicants are aware of the scholarship’s requirements.

• Write the criteria and ask others to review it. Does it make sense?  Is it objective and not subjective?  Does it accomplish what the donors of the scholarship money want it to accomplish?

• Write the application. Does the application reflect the information you need to collect based on the criteria?

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• Scholarships must be advertised to everyone who is eligible to apply for that scholarship. Examples could include:

1. A scholarship for graduating seniors who have been active 4-H’ers. This should be advertised to all graduating seniors in 4-H.  Active should be defined in the criteria prior to advertising the scholarship.

2. A camp scholarship for 5^th In your newsletter or camp promotional materials that are given to everyone eligible for camp, you could state “There is limited number of camp scholarships available.  If you would like more information on a camp scholarship, please (call the office, come by the 4-H office) before (deadline).”

• Make sure you determine a deadline so you can award money. If a person registers late for camp, or is not part of your usual marketing efforts for camp (example is they attend a school you do not have 4-H meetings because of limited staff), it is OK that the deadline to request information has passed.

• You do not have to give everyone a scholarship application.  You must advertise the availability of scholarship money to everyone that is eligible.

Awarding the Scholarship

• There should be a scholarship selection committee named before scholarships are advertised. This committee should be as diverse as your community and schools. 3-5 people would be appropriate.  You could use members from your Program Development Team, school teachers, or 4-H volunteers.  Do not use parents of students applying for scholarships or parents/coaches who are close to a lot of 4-H’ers in order to avoid conflicts of interests and any appearance of bias.

• Each member of the committee should have an independent vote so they are not persuaded by other members on the team.

• Members should be provided the criteria, be able to spend time reading the applications, and then submit their scores.