Pitfalls in Paying for College: Confronting Scholarship Award Displacement in Maryland

The Woodside Foundation and the Caplis Family Fund invite grantmakers who manage or fund private scholarship programs, to be aware of the practice of scholarship award displacement. This practice jeopardizes the annual $6 billion in private scholarship funding nationally and the $62 million of private scholarships to students attending Maryland colleges. This practice tampers with donor intent, and diminishes the effort of hardworking students, particularly low- and middle-income students, who take the initiative to find, apply for, and win private scholarships.   

Scholarship award displacement is defined by the National Scholarship Providers Maryland Philanthropy Network (NSPA) as occurring when receipt of one form of financial aid, such as a private scholarship, leads to a reduction of other forms of financial aid, such as an institutional scholarship. Much of the evidence is anecdotal, but in 2013 NSPA issued a paper based on a nationwide survey of financial aid offices at 100 four-year institutions. Additionally, over a three-year period, the national Dell Scholars program found that 60% of their recipients had their scholarships displaced.

Join this webinar to learn more about scholarship award displacement, the current law effecting 4-year public universities, issues and pitfalls facing families struggling to piece together funding for a child's college education, and future possibilities.

Our speakers will be Jan Moylan Wagner, President, Central Scholarship; and Cassie Motz, Executive Director, CollegeBound Foundation.

Central Scholarship, a nonprofit founded in 1924 that helps low-income students from throughout Maryland pay for college, decided to tackle this issue in Maryland, resulting in a 1st in the nation law which took effect on July 1, 2017. 

The CollegeBound Foundation works with public school students in Baltimore City to help them navigate the path to and through college. CollegeBound provides full-time college advisors in about half of Baltimore's public high schools and administers a $2 million annual need-based grant and scholarship portfolio. Founded almost 30 years ago by the Greater Baltimore Committee and BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development), CollegeBound recently expanded its programming to include a college completion program to guide City Schools' graduates at local universities, and a middle school program to reach younger students in Baltimore City.

Sponsored by the Woodside Foundation and the Caplis Family Fund, this webinar is for Maryland Philanthropy Network members and invited guests only. Registrants will receive instructions to log onto the webinar in advance.

If you do not have an Maryland Philanthropy Network member website login, please RSVP by email to Elisabeth Hyleck.