Maintaining net tuition revenue is becoming increasingly challenging for many institutions as demographics decline and price sensitivity increases. Financial aid leveraging has buttressed enrollments for many institutions, but leadership teams and boards are becoming leery of further increases in aid budgets as discount rates approach 40%, 50%, or even 60%.
In an environment where every potential dollar of aid is precious, many institutions leave millions of dollars of endowed scholarship funds on the table ever year. Even when a fund is allocated, a lack of true accountability and inefficient workflow management processes mean that allocation decisions are often made in the summer or fall, missing a crucial opportunity to inflect student recruitment or retention decisions in the spring.
This resource is part of the Get the Most from Allocating and Communicating Financial Aid Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
This white paper describes how best practice institutions have increased the share of endowed funds allocated every year and pulled allocations into the critical spring packaging period. Download the white paper or explore each section below.
Creating an accountability infrastructureAlthough central management of scholarships almost always improves efficiency, it leads to a reduction in authority for academic units and, occasionally, the development office. All central scholarship functions must have a complete database of endowed funds, but the value of centralizing other functions depends on an institution’s organizational structure and the degree of opposition to central control.
Maximizing the number of potential awardsMany…