Sunday, August 19, 2007

Increased Focus on Scholarships

BETF plans to create a $2,000,000 scholarship endowment in the near future!

BETF awarded nineteen scholarships in 2006 for high school students pursuing post-secondary education. The total value of the awards was $32,500 – a little over $1,700 per recipient. A major funding source for the 2006 scholarships was Bank of America.

The total value of the scholarships awarded by BETF in 2007 is $41,000 - a little over $1,500 per recipient. A major funding source for 2007 scholarships is Eli Lilly & Company.

In the past five years, the annual cost of a college education continues to rise with average costs for tuition, fees, room and board exceeding $12,000 for a four-year, public institution and $29,026 for a four-year, private institution per year.

Increasing cost of education = More students with greater financial need.

Assuming a 5% spending policy and reinvesting all remaining earnings, the BDPA Education & Technology Foundation (BETF) can confer $100,000 in awards annually, which will increase over time as the endowment grows. The new level of funding would be over three times what BETF is presently able to award to our deserving high school students.

Larry Quinlan is the BETF Director leading effort to develop a strategy to raise the $2 million for this scholarship endowment. Over time we expect that many individuals and corporations will support our efforts to increase the quantity of scholarships both in number and amout. In August 2007 we were blessed to have scholarship pledges from:
  1. Dell - $5,000
  2. State Farm Insurance - $5,000

Our hope is that others will make this move as well. You can donate immediately to the BETF Scholarship Fund using our secure online ClickandPledge.com process.

Do you have any suggestions or comments on how we can reach our scholarship funding goals?

3 comments:

Zmoney said...

Well I'm still in the earlier years of studying and scholarships require you to be smart or very talented. I Don't know if I got what it takes. Nice read tho I'll see if I can get into a program near me to assist because I sure would love to go abroad and study business.

Unknown said...

Z-Money --> There are plenty of scholarships available ... many go unclaimed. Where would you like to go for your studies?

peace, Villager

Unknown said...

All - 2008 was a good year for our scholarship efforts. I just want to thank any of you that helped us over the past 12 months. You can see list of recent donors in the left-hand sidebar...