Scholarships

A named scholarship can be established when the amount given meets the minimum funding requirements for an annual or endowed scholarship. Scholarships are often named after donors, companies, organizations, or to honor parents, professors, or other important people in one’s life. Alternatively, gifts of any amount may be contributed to existing scholarship funds.

Endowed scholarships create a permanent fund where contributions are prudently invested and income from investment returns help fund individual scholarship awards. Annual scholarships are not invested and are only awarded for as long as funding is available.

• University Scholarship (Annual): $500 minimum
• University Scholarship (Endowed): $15,000 minimum
• Elevated Scholarship (Annual): $1,000 minimum
• Elevated Scholarship (Endowed): $25,000 minimum

A University Scholarship has a single selection criterion while an Elevation Scholarship can have multiple selection criteria.

When establishing a named scholarship, you can specify the criteria to be used for recipient selection. University representatives from the appropriate academic department will honor the criteria when determining scholarship recipients. Donors cannot participate in the selection of scholarship recipients.

• Annual notification of scholarship recipients
• For endowed scholarships, an annual report about the endowment’s financial status
• For annual scholarships, an annual report about the fund’s status
• Periodic scholarship news, impact reports, and other communications
• Opportunities to engage with leadership, faculty, staff, and students through various events and engagement activities including an invitation to the Foundation’s annual Celebration of Giving Banquet

On an annual basis, University Advancement will notify you of your named scholarship’s recipients.

Student contact information is confidential and cannot be shared without a student’s permission. However, University Advancement is happy to serve as an intermediary. Feel free to send your message to scholarships@western.edu, and we will pass your message on to the applicable students. Be sure to include your contact information so students can respond!

All scholarship recipients are invited and encouraged to share what scholarships mean to them. Many students are eager to share their stories, but others may find reflecting on their experiences to be too personal. Whenever possible, University Advancement will share messages from the specific recipient of your named scholarship; however, we cannot require scholarship recipients to write thank you notes. University Advancement also shares scholarship news and impact reports throughout the year.

Several colleges and programs host scholarship events where donors may have the opportunity to meet scholarship recipients. Many students may be excited to attend, while others may find the situation intimidating or uncomfortable, and others still may have obligations that make it difficult or impossible to attend. While we invite and encourage students to attend scholarship events, University Advancement cannot require their attendance.

Please email us at scholarships@western.edu or call (970) 243-2226. We will work with you to understand your vision for the scholarship and your financial commitment.