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  • 1.  Annual Unrestricted Fund Scholarship

    Posted 22 hours ago
    Edited by Tioga Anderson 22 hours ago

    Our organization (university affiliated foundation) has trouble raising unrestricted funds, it's a very small percentage of our overall fundraising (less than 3%). The annual unrestricted fund is marketed as supporting student scholarships and the greatest needs of the university. Some of the money is already used for emergency requests from students and faculty and staff grants. The rest is mostly used for the foundation's operating expenses (which includes administering nearly 1000 scholarships). 

    Our finance department has become concerned with how our annual fund team markets this fund (specifically that they say it helps support student scholarships) so that we will now be creating a new scholarship that will be funded by these unrestricted gifts. This is totally unnecessary right? It might not directly provide funds to students (though it already does on a small level) but it certainly "supports" scholarships by enabling us to pay people to do the work of administering them. It transparent on our website that these funds are unrestricted and can be used for whatever so this seems like an 'own goal' to me.



  • 2.  RE: Annual Unrestricted Fund Scholarship

    Posted 22 hours ago
    I think that the finance department is correct in raising a concern. Stipulating that the unrestricted fund supports scholarships is another way of saying that some of the funds are restricted for that purpose. I can see their point - but yours, too.

    I suggest sitting down with finance and mutually agreeing to language that makes it clear the gifts are unrestricted but that in years past the greatest needs have included scholarships. This might sound better to them than stating emphatically that this fund DOES go toward scholarships.

    John


    John Taylor Principal, John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC 919.816.5903 Big ideas; small keyboard