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As long as there are students desiring a college education, there
will be a need for scholarships.
Access without regard to the ability to pay is a powerful goal
for every institution of higher education in America. Scholarship
donors take great satisfaction in knowing they are helping worthy
students, as well as the University. A designated endowment fund
bearing a special name is one to which all members of a family or
other group—including future members—may continue to contribute in
the years to come, in this way, increasing the size of the endowment
and therefore, the size and perhaps the number of scholarships
Oglethorpe is able to award in that name.
The perpetual existence of this endowment and the opportunity
for existing and future members of a family or other group to
contribute to it at any time will be a powerful means of encouraging
philanthropic efforts in children and in future generations. At the
same time, it will benefit untold numbers of future Oglethorpe
students who would have been unable to attend the University without
the financial assistance which this scholarship provides.
These guidelines were formulated to help donors understand how
endowed scholarships work.
- Gifts made to an endowment are invested in perpetuity to
generate earnings to support the purposes of the endowment. The
gifts form the corpus of the endowment. The corpus is never spent;
the scholarships are provided by the earnings from the corpus.
- For a named endowed scholarship, the minimum initial corpus is
$25,000. When the minimum is reached, the scholarship is
considered vested. Up to five years may be taken to complete the
building of a $25,000 corpus. Scholarships may also be endowed by
planned gifts.
- The corpus must be vested for an entire year before the first
scholarship awards can be made. (Example: for a scholarship to be
awarded in the fall of 2004, $25,000 would need to be placed in a
fund by June 30, 2003.)
- Endowments are invested by professional investment advisors
according to policies adopted by the Board of Trustees. The
Board’s Investment Committee provides oversight of the advisors.
- Distributions are made from endowment earnings according to
policies adopted by the Board of Trustees. The current “spending
rule” is 5.5 percent. Should the corpus earn more than 5.5%,
unspent earnings are reinvested to preserve the purchasing power
of the endowment, so that scholarships can continue to be awarded
during lean economic times, as well as good ones.
Scholarships are awarded by the Office of Financial Aid
consistent with the donor’s criteria and University policies and
procedures. Donors may restrict awards on the basis of need or
merit. Criteria determined by the donor in consultation with
University officials can give preference to students enrolled in
specific courses of study, seeking particular careers, performing
particular roles on campus, or residing in designated geographic
locations. Scholarships are documented by written agreements and
drafted by University officials with the consent of both parties.
Prohibitions
- As a member of NCAA Division III, Oglethorpe University is
prohibited from offering athletic scholarships or grants in aid.
- The donor may not name scholarship recipients.
- Criteria may not compromise the University’s tax exempt status
or accreditation or violate the law or University policy.
Other Scholarship Options:
An Annual Scholarship. The donor makes an annual gift to the
University which in turns makes a scholarship award in the same
amount. Annual named scholarships can be established with a minimum
amount of $1,000, and are renewable each year, as long as we receive
the funds for the scholarship by June 30th of that year for
distribution in the fall semester.
A Convertible Scholarship. This option starts as an annual
scholarship while the donor makes gifts over a period of years to
vest an endowed scholarship. Example: A donor pledges $6,000 a year
for five years. Each year’s gift is divided into two parts: $1,000
is used for an annual scholarship, and the remaining $5,000 is
placed in the endowed scholarship fund. At the end of the fifth
year, the endowed scholarship is vested and begins generating
scholarship funds in the fall of the next academic year.
For ideas and information, please contact:
Deborah Ryan
Director of Development
404.364.8439
dryan@oglethorpe.edu
www.oglethorpe.edu (keyword:
PlannedGiving)
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