RECOMMENDING A GRANT FROM SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS (EITHER ENDOWED OR NON-ENDOWED)

Each donor is permitted to recommend grants from his/her scholarship fund. In compliance with recent federal legislation governing scholarships administered by community foundations, we have stringent in-house procedures, as follows: (If you have questions about these selection criteria, please contact the Foundation.)

1. All scholarship recipients must be selected by a committee, and it must be a competitive process.
2. The donor’s advice is limited to his/her role of serving as a selection committee member.
3. The donor does not appoint a majority of the committee or otherwise control the committee directly or indirectly.
4. The selection committee must consist of a minimum of three individuals, two of them must be disinterested parties.
5. The Solano Community Foundation Board of Directors must approve all members of the committee.
6. Donors may make recommendations of committee members.
7. The Foundation Board must approve procedures for selecting recipients insuring they are objective and nondiscriminatory.
8. The Foundation Board must annually review selection criteria and procedures.
9. Grants are made to the institution at which the scholarship recipient will attend, not to the student directly.
10. Grants may not fulfill pledges and/or be made to secure benefits from the distribution recipient.
11. Donors, advisors, or related parties may not receive grants, loans, compensation, or expense reimbursements from any Fund.
    
    With all these procedural pieces in place, the donor may recommend a scholarship grant, using the following
12. The donor completes the appropriate Student Profile Information form (either “High School” or “College or Grad”). See PDFs below.
13. The donor then completes and returns a copy of our Grant Recommendation Form (see PDF below), providing information about the donor, the recommended grantee, and the type of grant. The form also provides information about what types of grants cannot be made (any donations to help individual families in need, payment of pledges, any gift that benefits the donor, or anything prohibited by the Internal Revenue Service). On the form, please indicate “Scholarship” where it asks you for “Type of Grant.”
14. The SCF staff conducts due diligence about the recommended grantee (checking 501c3 status, Board of Directors, financial documents).
15. The recommendation is placed on the agenda for the next SCF Board meeting. (Please see PDF of Current Year Board of Directors’ Meeting Schedule below.)
16. The SCF Board votes on all such recommendations.
17. All approved recommendations are then considered grants, the checks are cut, in-house accounting records are updated, and grant letters are sent to the grantee with a copy to the fund holder.

At any time, fund holders can receive information from SCF staff concerning their fund balance and the amount available to grant.

2010 Board Meeting Schedule

Scholarship-Student Profile Information High School

Scholarship-Student Profile Information College or Grad

Grant Recommendation Form