Scholarship America awards grant to Marblehead Dollars for Scholars

Marblehead Dollars for Scholars was recently awarded a $10,000 matching grant from Scholarship America, the parent organization to Dollars for Scholars affiliates across the country.

The grant, if matched with an equal amount of funds raised by Marblehead Dollars for Scholars, will provide deserving students the opportunity to receive financially impactful, renewable scholarships, further aligning itself with Scholarship America's renewed focus of helping students complete their degree or program with a reduced level of debt.

"Renewable, financially impactful scholarships that are directed to students with the greatest financial need will be an important tool to improving educational outcomes in our Dollars for Scholars communities," said Scholarship America's president and CEO, Robert C. Ballard. "Our goal with the Dollars for Scholars Affiliate Matching program is to partner with our affiliates and their local supporters to build and sustain renewable scholarship opportunities so that more students across the country can complete their degree or program with a reduced level of debt."

In addition to receiving the $10,000 grant, the Marblehead affiliate will also receive personalized support and tools from Scholarship America to ensure that the program will remain successful in the future.

Established in 1987, Marblehead Dollars for Scholars provides financial need-based scholarships to Marblehead high school students or Marblehead residents who are pursuing their undergraduate education or job-related training. The organization has 31 permanently endowed scholarships and has awarded more than 2 million dollars to local students over the past 29 years.

The generosity of Marblehead residents who donate to the local nonprofit and investment choices made by members of the organization's board of directors have enabled the organization to build their endowment to more than 2 million dollars.

Each year, Marblehead Dollars for Scholars awards approximately 50-60 scholarships to high school seniors and rising college sophomores, junior and seniors with the average value of each scholarship being $2,000.

For the past several years, the local nonprofit's board of directors has been discussing ways to offer larger scholarships that will be more helpful in reducing student debt. When the organization was awarded the Scholarship America $10,000 matching grant, the board went to work to raise its own $10,000 contribution.

Through a "Fund the Need" effort at last fall's annual Hollers for Scholars fundraiser, where generous donors pledged between $100 and $1,000 each, this goal was achieved.

"This new matching grant scholarship will allow us to jump start our high impact award initiative which seeks to establish four-year, renewable awards with increased levels of annual funding," said Marblehead Dollars for Scholars president Todd Zion.

Students will apply for the matching grant scholarship using the same online process used by all Marblehead Dollars for Scholars applicants. However, the matching grant scholarship has particular criteria that must be met beyond demonstrating financial need, which includes: maintaining a 3.0 GPA, demonstrating leadership and/or service that benefits others and overcoming an obstacle in their pursuit of a post-secondary education.

Page 2 of 2 - This new scholarship will provide a minimum of $20,000 over four years to a student who qualifies and is able to maintain all of the requirements during their undergraduate education.

"We're excited and honored that Scholarship America selected our organization to receive this matching grant and we hope this opportunity will lead to the establishment of other high impact scholarships in the future," said Zion.

Scholarship America mobilizes support for students getting into and graduating from college. Since 1958, Scholarship America has distributed more than $3.1 billion in scholarship assistance to more than 2 million students, funding both entry-level and multiyear scholarships and emergency financial grants. For information, visit scholarshipamerica.org.

Source: Scholarship America awards grant to Marblehead Dollars for Scholars