- What is DiscoverScholars.org?
- Who founded DiscoverScholars.org?
- What is the motivation behind DiscoverScholars.org?
- How does DiscoverScholars.org differ from other means of giving to support education?
- How does DiscoverScholars.org differ from other means of obtaining financial aid?
- What are the benefis to donors?
- What are the benefits to students?
- How can I help?
- Where can I read what others have said about DiscoverScholars.org?
- How does DiscoverScholars.org work for donors?
- Who is eligible to donate to DiscoverScholars.org?
- Who can I give to?
- Why don't you let donors pick students directly?
- How can I be sure that students fit the attributes I provided?
- If I'm choosing student atributes when I donate, how will I know who I'm helping?
- How long will it take DiscoverScholars.org to allocate my donation to students?
- How can I be sure that my money will be used to pay for tuition?
- Can I donate to a student contingent on future academic performance?
- Is my gift to DiscoverScholars.org 100% tax deductible?
- What are my payment options?
- Is there a minimum or maximum amount that I have to donate?
- Can I make a recurring or monthly donation?
- Can I donate by mail?
- Can I contribute stock, property, or other goods?
- Is my donation safe and secure?
- Will you protect my privacy?
- Will I receive a donation confirmation?
- Can I donate by mail?
- Can I make an anonymous donation?
- Can I make a donation over the phone?
- Is there a way to give a donation to DiscoverScholars.org as a gift?
- Can I make a donation as a gift for someone else or in memory of someone else?
- Is there a way to view my giving history?
- What do I do if I have a problem making a donation?
- Can I cancel a donation?
- Who is eligible to apply?
- How do I apply?
- Are there any technical requirements to apply?
- How does the application process work?
- How do you choose which students to fund?
- How will I know my application is complete and verified?
- How can I join your Facebook group?
- Do you offer a student loan service?
- I think DiscoverScholars.org is great! Do you have any employment opportunities?
- How can I keep up-to-date about DiscoverScholars.org?
- Can I subscribe to email updates?
- Can I subscribe to updates in a reader?
- How do I unsubscribe to email updates?
- Where can I read your business plan?
- What is your legal structure?
- What operating principles is DiscoverScholars.org built around?
- How are you spreading the word about DiscoverScholars.org to potential donors?
- How are you spreading the word about DiscoverScholars.org to students?
- What timeline is DiscoverScholars.org operating under?
- What is your operating budget?
- How do you plan to raise your required start-up funding?
- What growth opportunities do you see for DiscoverScholars.org?
- What obstacles do you see impeding the growth of DiscoverScholars.org?
- Where can I view your official documentation?
DiscoverScholars.org is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit organization that awards scholarships to the types of students that donors wish to support.
Donors specify any combination of characteristics, from grades and majors to extracurricular and athletic activities, with the knowledge that worthy students possessing those attributes will benefit from their donations.
Unlike government aid, existing scholarship funds, or financial aid packages from schools, DiscoverScholars.org uses donors' specified attributes to fund students who satisfy those criteria.
You can read more about our mission and goals on our concept page.
How can I keep up-to-date about DiscoverScholars.org?
The best way to keep up-to-date regarding DiscoverScholars.org, is through our blog.
DiscoverScholars.org blog features ongoing commentary about our project, as well as about the world of higher education in general.
Can I subscribe to email updates?
Just click on this link and follow the instrutions.
Can I subscribe to updates in a reader?
Click this link and follow the instructions.
How do I unsubscribe to email updates?
Click on the "unsubscribe" link in a DiscoverScholars.org email update. If this does not work, then please send us an email with your unsubscription request at mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
We hope we have convinced you that DiscoverScholars.org represents a tremendous and unique opportunity to aid in the furthered education of students. Any support you can give us, of any kind, is greatly appreciated. Here's how you can help:
Feedback: We welcome any and all comments on all aspects of our business plan and existing website. If there is something we haven’t thought of, send us your thoughts via our contact form, or by emailing mail [at] discoverscholars.org
Contacts: If you know anyone else who might be able to help with DiscoverScholars.org – through expertise, intelligence, funding, or all three – please get us in touch.
Subscribe: You can keep abreast of updates via e-mail or feed reader. Please sign up, and let others know about this opportunity as well.
Join: Help us spread the word to everyone that you know by joining our Facebook group, or one on another social networking site. You can also help by spreading the word about DiscoverScholars.org to anyone whom you think may have interest.
Share: The more people who hear about DiscoverScholars.org, the more successful that we will be. Help us find students to apply, share our plan with others, and ask them to join or contribute.
Contribute: DiscoverScholars.org is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. As such, all donations are tax-deductible. Help us pay for our necessary start-up costs by making as generous of a donation as you can.
Where can I read what others have said about DiscoverScholars.org?
We keep a collection of others' commentary on our acclaim page.
How does DiscoverScholars.org work for donors?
Donors interested in contributing to individual students do so via the DiscoverScholars.org donation page. Donors make credit card contributions directly to DiscoverScholars.org, so as to preserve their tax-exempt status. Along with their contributions, donors also specify which attributes they would like the students who receive their funding to possess, and the importance of each attribute. These characteristics include students’ learning institutions, GPA ranges, expected majors, level of financial need, extracurricular activities, region of the country, and more.
For each contribution, DiscoverScholars.org identifies the students who meet donors’ criteria, decides who should receive funding, and then issues checks in students’ names to their learning institutions. In the event that we do not have at least five students who meet the donors' attributes, DiscoverScholars.org tries to accomodate the donors' request as best as possible. Checks are issued to schools to ensure that they are used for their intended purpose. In keeping with DiscoverScholars.org’ emphasis on transparency, donors are asked – but not required – to contribute an additional percentage directly to DiscoverScholars.org to cover our overhead costs. This will leave donors with the option of having all of their contributions go toward the student of their choice.
Who is eligible to donate to DiscoverScholars.org?
Anyone and everyone. There are no restrictions as to who can give to DiscoverScholars.org
Anyone you want! Simply choose the student attributes that you'd like your contribution to be allocated to, and DiscoverScholars.org will ensure that your contributions is allocated to students who meet the characteristics you selected.
Some of the characteristics from which donors can choose include:
- Current college or university
- Class year
- Donors may choose specifically (e.g. 'incoming freshmen' or 'juniors') or combinations (e.g. 'juniors and seniors')
- Home state or region of the country
- Academic performance
- High-school / college GPA
- Grades in major classes
- Strength of academic courses, as defined by DiscoverScholars.org
- Enrollment status
- Whether the student is enrolled full-time or part-time
- Major or intended major
- Donors also may select more general categories such as 'engineers' or 'foreign language' majors.
- Activities
- General (e.g. 'athlete' or 'employed')
- Specific (e.g. 'soccer', 'varsity athlete', or 'debate team')
- Recommenders' opinion
- Career interests
- Level of financial need
- As ranked by DiscoverScholars.org
Is my donation to DiscoverScholars.org 100% tax deductible?
Yes! DiscoverScholars.org is organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. As such, all contributions are fully tax-deductible to the full amount allowed by law.
Note: Not all donations can be claimed as charitable deductions, even if the organization is registered as a nonprofit. Check with the IRS on whether or not an organization can receive charitable deductions.
Charitable Events: For a charitable event, only a portion of the ticket value is deductible. The charity hosting the event will be able to identify the exact value of the benefits for each event.
You have a choice of using PayPal or Google Checkout to process your donation. Both allow you to contribute using your American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa card.
If you would like to use a check, you may do so by making your check payable to "Discover Scholars, Inc.," and sending it to the following address:
DiscoverScholars.org
Attn: Donations
5062 27th St. N
Arlington, VA 22207
Is there a minimum or maximum amount that I have to donate?
No. Donors are free to contribute as little or as much as they wish.
Can I make a recurring or monthly donation?
Yes. Please send us an email with your request at: mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
Can I contribute stock, property, or other goods?
No. At this time, DiscoverScholars.org does not have the ability to accept any in kind contributions.
Is my donation safe and secure?
Yes. Both PayPal and Google Checkout, which we use to process donations, utilize Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a recognized authentication and encryption software. The sites become locked while you are giving us your information and unlocks only when you leave the secured area, and your number is encrypted so it is unreadable to anyone outside the transaction process.
JustGive guarantees that we will not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone outside DiscoverScholars.org.
Will I receive a donation confirmation?
Yes. Once your donation has been processed, you will receive a receipt via email.
Yes. Please make your check out to "Discover Scholars, Inc.," and mail it to the following address:
DiscoverScholars.org
Attn: Donations
5062 27th St. N
Arlington, VA 22207
Can I make an anonymous donation?
No. At this time, we do not have he ability to accomodate anonymous donations.
Can I make a donation over the phone?
Yes. If you would like to speak with someone over the phone before making your contribution, you may reach DiscoverScholars.org at (202) 470-6782. That said, we urge you to take advantage of the convenience, safety, and simplicity of giving online.
Is there a way to give a donation to DiscoverScholars.org as a gift?
Yes. Please sent us your request either via our contact form, or by sending an email to mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
Can I make a donation as a gift for someone else or in memory of someone else?
Yes. Make your contribution under your name, and then send us the gift recipient's name and email address at: mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org. We will ensure that an email notification of your donation is sent to your gift recipient. (If your recipient does not have email, simply submit your email address. Once you receive the notification email, just print it out and give it to your recipient.)
Is there a way to view my giving history?
No. Unfortunately, at this time we do not have the means for you to view your giving history online. To obtain a record of your giving history, please email us at mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
What do I do if I have a problem making a donation?
If you have any problems or questions, please send us an email describing the problem at: mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
Unfortunately, all donations made to DiscoverScholars.org are not refundable. However, if for some reason there is an error on your credit card, please send us an email at: mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
How can I be sure that students fit the attributes I provided?
DiscoverScholars.org verifies the accuracy of information that students provide. Once an application is received, we undertake an internal process for authenticating applicants’ academic information, speaking with references, and confirming students’ level of need. No student is eligible for funding until DiscoverScholars.org has a complete and verified application on file.
If I'm choosing student atributes when I donate, how will I know who I'm helping?
After we award your donation to students fitting your chosen attributes, we notify you that we have done so. In addition, we let you know more information about the students who you funded, including their picture, academic plans, and extracurricular interests.
How long will it take DiscoverScholars.org to allocate my donation to students?
While it will depend on how many donations we have recently received, you can expect for your donation to be allocated to students within two (2) weeks.
How can I be sure that my money will be used to pay for tuition?
DiscoverScholars.org only issues checks to students' learning institutions, and never to the students' themselves. Contributions are made in the students name, just as other scholarship foundations do.
Can I donate to students contingent on future academic performance?
Not at this time. While we hope to incorporate this capability in the future, we do not have a means of accepting contingent donations.
U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are:
- College-bound high-school seniors and have accepted an offer to attend a four-year undergraduate college or university during the coming school year, or
- Currently enrolled undergraduates at an accredited four-year college or university
Full instructions on how to apply to DiscoverScholars.org can be found on our application page.
Are there any technical requirements to apply?
The application is optimized for Mozilla's Firefox browser, but is also compatible with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
To complete the application, you must have cookies enabled in your browser (In Firefox: Tools --> Options --> Privacy --> Accept Cookies from Sites, and in Internet Explorer: Tools --> Internet Options --> Privacy --> Medium, Low, or Accept All Cookies)
How does the application process work?
Students apply to DiscoverScholars.org as they would to any other scholarship, with their application submitted via the secure form on our website. Potential applicants are required to provide contact information and their academic history, including secondary and postsecondary school transcripts. DiscoverScholars.org also requires a personal statement and short responses to two essay questions.
The application also contains an optional financial aid section based off of the Federal Application for Student Assistance (FAFSA). Applicants are asked to provide information regarding the financial situation of themselves and their parents or guardians. Complete information about the application itself can be found on our application page.
Once an application is received, DiscoverScholars.org verifies the accuracy of the provided information. This process includes authenticating applicants’ academic information, speaking with references, and confirming students’ level of need. In order to be eligible for funding, DiscoverScholars.org must have a complete and verified application on file.
Students then are scored internally based on the strength of their application relative to criteria for evaluating students academic records, extracurricular involvement, level of financial need, and other relevant variables. No favoritism is given to any personal characteristics, unless such a preference has been indicated by the donor.
How do you choose which students to fund?
Once an application has been submitted and verified, DiscoverScholars.org scores each applicant based on a variety of criteria. We have attempted to standardize this scoring process as much as possible, with objective standards for evaluation applied uniformly to all students. Students are scored in each of our metrics from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best possible score.
Below are some example factors that we take into account:
- Academic
- How difficult is the student’s course of study?
- How strong has the student’s overall performance been?
- Has the student improved over time?
- How strong has the student performed in his or her main area of study?
- Extracurriculars
- How involved is a student outside of school?
- Does the student show initiative by making a significant time commitment to at least one activity?
- Has the student been awarded any recognition for performance in these activities?
- Personal Statement
- Does the student have thought-out academic goals?
- Does the student have strong reasons for pursuing a particular course of study?
- Essay Responses
- Is the student able to develop and sustain insightful, in-depth thoughts?
- Can the student clearly articulate those thoughts?
Once scores in these various areas are obtained for each student, we assign weights and average them together to get an overall score for each student. This score is then used in the financial allocation process.
We also have developed metrics for scoring the financial need portion of students’ applications, with students again scored from 1-10 based on their level of need. This factor is taken into account only when donors choose it as a criterion they value.
Once an application has been scored, it enters our overall pool of students who are eligible for scholarship funding. When donors selec certain criteria, we filter down this overall pool to those who mee the donors characteristics. We then apply a standardized algorithm that awards money to students in a cascading fashion, with higher-scored students receiving money before lower-scoring students. The distribution of funding, therefore, is dependent on which students are made eligible by the donors and the student scores assigned by DiscoverScholars.org.
How will I know that my application is complete and verified?
DiscoverScholars.org will email all applicants, at the address they provide, to let them know that we have received all required documentation, and that the information has been confirmed as accurate.
How can I join your Facebook group?
Just click on the following link, and then become a fan!
No. DiscoverScholars.org provides scholarship funding to students, but we do not provide any student loans.
I think DiscoverScholars.org is great! Do you have any employment opportunities?
Actually, we do. We're always looking for help with our updating our website, and could use someone who has a technical background. Email us to find out more: mail [at] DiscoverScholars.org.
What are the benefits to donors?
The transparency inherent in DiscoverScholars.org provides donors with a substantial improvement over other status quo means of giving to support education. Unlike other scholarship foundations, donors to DiscoverScholars.org will know how their contributions are allocated, because they provide input about the type of students they wish to support. Some donors will contribute to students majoring in a particular subject, while others will have their donations allocated to students from a certain geographic area, a particular socioeconomic background, or in attendance at a given learning institution. In essence, DiscoverScholars.org will provide donors with a means to endow scholarships of their own at a fraction of the cost of searching for students or hiring a philanthropic advisor.
After donations are made, each donor will receive information about the recipient(s) of their funding, and donors who make contributions above a certain threshold will receive personalized thank-you notes and periodic updates on their students’ performance. No other scholarship organization currently in existence offers donors such a high level of transparency and customer service.
What are the benefits to students?
Students who complete the DiscoverScholars.org application process will gain access to significant funding for their education. Each donor who visits our website with the intention of making a donation represents a potential scholarship opportunity for the student. DiscoverScholars.org will expose students to potentially thousands of funding opportunities for their education.
As a result, DiscoverScholars.org will drastically reduce the time that students will spend searching for education money. No longer will it take students hours upon hours to find scholarships for which they qualify, because only one application will be required, instead of a separate one for each different source of potential funding. By keeping their profiles up-to-date, students will continue to be eligible for funding – just as if they were keeping their résumé up-to-date on a job-search website.
Best of all, DiscoverScholars.org will provide students with extra incentive to perform well in school, because the more impressive their applications, the more educational funding they can expect to get. That donors will have influence on what types of students are awarded scholarship aid means that students will receive educational funding commensurate with their abilities and their needs.
Why don't you let donors pick students directly?
The original concept for DiscoverScholars.org was to let donors select the students whom they wish to fund with their money. In this model, DiscoverScholars.org would have operated like a "Match.com" for education funding, linking interested donors with students in need. However, because of a potential for malevolent donors to direct their funding to kin and personal friends, the IRS prohibits us from undertaking this set-up while preserving the tax-exempt status of donors’ contributions. Nonetheless, we believe that our proposed set-up will accrue many of the same benefits that donors selecting students would accomplish. For this reason, we believe that the ability of donors to give input in the funding allocation process provides them with an opportunity that cannot be found anywhere else in the world of educational charity.
To ensure that no donor can direct their contributions toward a single known individual, DiscoverScholars.org will adopt multiple internal controls as precautions. First, donors will not be able to access any information relating to specific students on our website. In addition, all donors will be required to attest to the DiscoverScholars.org terms and conditions, which will explicitly forbid attempting to direct money to known individuals. Finally, in order for characteristics that donors specify to be acceptable, DiscoverScholars.org must have at least five (5) students who match those specified by the donor. If this condition is not met, then donors will receive a message asking them to remove one or more of their provided criteria. This constraint will ensure that even if an individual donor attempts to "game the system," by specifying characteristics of known students, there will be little guarantee that their donation will be allocated to their preferred individual.
Where can I read your business plan?
Who founded DiscoverScholars.org?
Jonathan Bydlak, Founder and Executive Director, is the former Director of Fundraising for the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign, where he oversaw a fundraising apparatus that raised over $35 million. Jonathan is applying his experience with web 2.0 social networking tools to build a dedicated donor base for DiscoverScholars.org.
Prior to his service on the campaign, Jonathan worked as an investment analyst at one of the largest hedge funds in the world. Philosophically committed to market-based solutions, Jonathan graduated in 2005 with an A.B. in economics from Princeton University.
DiscoverScholars.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, incorporated in the state of Virginia.
What operating principles is is behind DiscoverScholars.org?
DiscoverScholars.org is built around one basic principle: Effective charitable organizations require donor accountability. We believe that donor accountability takes two forms: First, donors should have as much input as is allowed under the extent of the law. Our ability to allocate educational resources efficiently requires donors to tell us which types of students they would like to fund. Maximizing donor input and choice will maximize our efficiency and effectiveness.
Second, we believe that it is important to keep DiscoverScholars.org as transparent as possible, with our donors having the opportunity to provide constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. In order to maximize our transparency, we see it as one of our utmost priorities to maintain a website that serves as a resource for donors, with information that is thorough, accurate, and up-to-date. We seek to be upfront with our methodology for selecting which students receive funding, and we strive to make public on our website any relevant documents that may be of interest to donors, including our annual reports, latest budgets, planned changes to our provided services, and recordings of our board meetings. Our donors also are invited to an annual meeting where they may ask questions of the board and executive director.
So that we may hold ourselves to the highest possible standards, in time we plan to establish reasonable metrics for gauging our effectiveness. These metrics will seek to measure our organizational efficacy, in terms of how many donors and students take interest in our services, impact, in terms of the number of students who receive funding and how much, and in later stages of the venture, the performance of students who receive funding. DiscoverScholars.org will make public which metrics of assessment it deems appropriate, invite suggestions for improved metrics, and publish the results of its findings on our website in an easy-to-find manner.
How are you spreading the word about DiscoverScholars.org to potential donors?
Our efforts to attract donors to DiscoverScholars.org focus on web-based methods. We have been utilizing social networking websites to court funding from young university alumni, as well as spreading the word among popular education-, economics- and philanthropy-related blogs.
The strategy of utilizing social networking resources for promotion has proven very effective for many non-profit organizations such as Kiva and UNICEF[1], because the internet offers the means to gain exposure to thousands of people at virtually no cost. This technique also was used effectively to promote the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul, at which the founder of DiscoverScholars.org was previously employed.
Because the founder of DiscoverScholars.org is most familiar with Princeton University, we plan to use some Princeton-specific methods of driving traffic to the website. We will alert the well-organized Princeton alumni network through its "Tigernet" Alumni Forums, as well as by promotion at the Princeton Club of New York. We also will attempt to obtain an article on the project in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, as well as purchase advertisements in the magazine. We believe it also may be possible to purchase mailing lists to the PAW (as well as the Daily Princetonian), which we then could mail on our own.
Another means of promotion to potential donors will come from courting corporations or other foundations to make contributions. For example, technology companies may have an interest in supporting students who are majoring in computer science or have strong mathematical abilities. Rather than setting up a scholarship fund of their own, they could make contributions specify those characteristics to DiscoverScholars.org, with the assurance that such students would be funded. For this reason, it will be important to identify such organizations, as well as individuals, who might take interest in donating regularly.
[1] UNICEF has described how they were able to double the exposure of their video content by using MySpace and other social media outlets: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30546.
How are you spreading the word about DiscoverScholars.org to students?
As with donors, the DiscoverScholars.org website is central to our promotional efforts. We have been attracting student applicants through the use of web 2.0 networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. These sites allow visitors to read more about DiscoverScholars.org, make financial contributions, and -- most importantly -- promote DiscoverScholars.org to their friends. We believe that this strategy is particularly appropriate for courting student applicants, because because the individuals who utilize social networking websites tend to be of a younger demographic.
While social networking websites will remain our focus, we also plan to utilize other means of promotion to students as well. Online advertising via Google Adwords will help drive traffic to the website from Google searches related to scholarships. We also will promote DiscoverScholars.org to prominent online bloggers and commentators at well-read websites who see value in our service.
As word of DiscoverScholars.org spreads, we also will undertake more traditional means of promotion. These likely will include meeting and speaking with students at college campus centers, recruiting campus representatives to hand out flyers on campus, and placing ads in student publications. Attempts also will be made to work with financial aid offices to promote the venture, perhaps working with colleges to recommend DiscoverScholars.org with their financial aid packages. Finally, we will work to establish relationships with high school career counseling offices.
[2] http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=guidestar&npoId=1154135
What timeline is DiscoverScholars.org operating under?
Our focus currently lies in three areas: raising the necessary funds to pay for our start-up costs, attracting student applicants, and beginning to promote the venture to the general public. In addition, we currently are working ona complete redesign of our website that will bring additional functionality.
The size, scope, and direction of our project beyond 2009 will depend entirely on public reaction to it, and the funds we raise. For a further discussion of future growth opportunities, click here.
What is your operating budget?
Revenue
Our goal is to raise at least $200,000 in our first year of existence, with about half of this revenue being raised by December 2008. Meeting this goal will leave us with $100,000 to cover our organizational costs and salaries during our first year. Based on historical growth shown by DonorsChoose.org, we project that our second-year revenue will be on the order of $500,000.
Costs
Start-up costs and other expenses during the first six months of DiscoverScholars.org will consist mainly of 501(c)(3) filing and legal fees, website hosting and design fees, and employees’ salaries. Discussions with Terra Eclipse Design Consulting Group, a website design company, estimated the costs of setting up a complete version of the DiscoverScholars.org website at $10,000 - $40,000, depending on the capacity it is built to handle. In our projected budget, we use an expected amount of $20,000, and estimate that it will require about one month of work.
Additional expenses will include employees’ salaries, accounting fees, credit card processing fees, and the potential need for office space. We budget $40,000 for personnel during the first six months of the venture. This accounts for a $60,000 annualized salary for the executive director, and a potential buffer of $10,000 for additional labor as needed. This salary was set as a continuation of pay from the executive director’s prior position, and is likely below market value based on past work. If DiscoverScholars.org proves successful, the board of directors may decide to award a modest performance bonus to the executive director at the end of 2008. All salary considerations will be at the discretion of the board of directors, who will review employees’ salaries at least once a year, as laid out in the DiscoverScholars.org bylaws.
A summary of our expected costs from July through December 2008 is outlined in the table below. Note that we do not anticipate a need for office space in our immediate future.
| Item | Amount |
| Initial website hosting and database design | $20,000 |
| Ongoing website hosting and maintenance | 10,000 |
| Salaries | 40,000 |
| Legal and accounting | 10,000 |
| Promotion | 10,000 |
| Credit card processing | 5,000 |
| Miscellaneous | 5,000 |
| Total Expected Costs | $100,000 |
How do you plan to raise your required start-up funding?
Our initial method of securing funding for DiscoverScholars.org has been through reaching out to potentially interested personal contacts. As mentioned earlier, we also will use multiple online means to court start-up funding from potential donors in the online community. If suitable opportunities arise, we may apply for non-profit grant money as well.
Once DiscoverScholars.org is off the ground, three different sources of revenue will be responsible for maintaining the viability of the organization:
Our chief source of ongoing revenue comes from donors’ contributions. When donors make contributions to DiscoverScholars.org, they are asked to give an additional percentage directly to DiscoverScholars.org, with 15% being the default. This same strategy is utilized by DonorsChoose.org, another prominent non-profit, with 93% of donors choosing to give the extra 15% to fund ongoing operations[1].
We plan to supplant this income with revenue from web ads. These ads will focus on education-related firms, such as study abroad opportunities, deals on textbooks, etc. We hope that web ads will become an increasingly viable means of defraying DiscoverScholars.org’s operating costs.
Finally, we charge student applicants a low non-refundable $25 application fee. The primary reason for the student fee is to discourage specious applications, but it also helps to cover the costs associated with verifying students’ application information. We believe the fee is reasonably set so as not to discourage too many students from applying to DiscoverScholars.org, and for those who cannot afford it, we have established a waiver procedure. As we cultivate a dedicated donor base, it may become possible for the application fee to be lessened or even eliminated.
[1] “Want To Buy My Students a $392 Camcorder? A nonprofit uses the Web to work marketplace magic,” Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2159771/.
What growth opportunities do you see for DiscoverScholars.org?
Market Growth
In the current phase of DiscoverScholars.org, eligibility is limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents who will be incoming college freshmen or are currently enrolled at four-year U.S. colleges and universities. If there proves to be adequate demand from donors and students, then we plan to work as rapidly as possible to expand the venture to include other students. Currently, we foresee expansion occurring according to the following timeline:
| Date | Students | |
| Phase I | Immediately | Incoming freshmen and currently enrolled students at four-year U.S. colleges and universities |
| Phase II | By end of 2009 | Professional and graduate school students |
| Phase III | By end of 2010 | International students studying at U.S. colleges and universities |
There also will be an opportunity to expand DiscoverScholars.org into many other groups of students. While there are no plans to extend our services beyond the above schedule at this time, such other groups may include:
- Private secondary school students
- Public school students wishing to go to private school
- Accelerated high school students wanting to take college courses
- Domestic students looking to study abroad at international universities
- Full-time workers in need of funding for night classes
- Students who choose to work in unpaid summer internships
- Students who need to pay for non-tuition related expenses such as books
Services Growth
Beyond expanding the market for DiscoverScholars.org into different groups of students, we see an opportunity to expand the venture by increasing donors’ level of choice. One obvious addition is the ability for people to give philanthropic gifts to others. Donors will receive "online gift cards" that they can give as gifts to friends. The gift recipient will use the card to donate on the DiscoverScholars.org website, providing the student attributes they value as usual.
Another area of growth could be incorporating the ability for donors to select anonymous student profiles as a means of funding individuals. Such a system would create a "Match.com" for educational funding, where donors would be linked with individual students, rather than specifying the types of students they would like to fund. Because it is unclear whether the IRS would consider such donations as tax-exempt contributions or fully taxable gifts, this idea will have to be looked into further at a later date. If it is determined that such a system is not deemed tax-exempt, then it may still make sense for DiscoverScholars.org to offer this service to donors without receiving a tax deduction.
DiscoverScholars.org also could provide donors with the ability to contribute to students who have made significant improvement in their grades from semester-to-semester. Donors could choose to award students who have seen the greatest jump in their GPA, or students whose grades have risen steadily over time. It may even be possible to incorporate contingent donations, in which DiscoverScholars.org would alert students that those who raise their grades by a certain percentage will be eligible for a large scholarship the next semester. Such contingent donations would give donors even more peace-of-mind that their contributions are valuable, while providing students with extra incentive to perform well academically.
Finally, there is the possibility to incorporate a no- or low-interest loan feature, essentially applying the concept of microfinance to college students. Donors would have the option of giving loans to students, with a promise of being paid back in the future. Students would benefit by gaining access to funding at lower rates of interest than available by other means. Nonetheless, offering student loans requires additional registrations and conditions, and so at this point in time, we have no plans to offer student loans.
What obstacles to DiscoverScholars.org do you forsee?
With any proposed venture, there are many obstacles to success that need to be overcome. We have alluded to some of these in this business plan, but it is worth taking a minute to address them more specifically. As is true of most start-up organizations, the biggest obstacle to overcome is obtaining "seed money" to fund the initial stages of the venture. To address this concern, we have created an aggressive, multi-faceted plan for identifying benefactors, and we fully anticipate raising the necessary funding for the project.
More generally, there is always the possibility that donors may not find financing students’ education to be a worthy charitable cause. We know, however, that a large market exists for educational charitable giving. The experience of DonorsChoose.org provides evidence that charitable donors also value organizations dedicated to transparency and donor input. While an a priori assessment of demand can never be taken for granted, we are confident that DiscoverScholars.org offers donors benefits that are currently lacking in other charitable organizations focusing on educational causes.
Another possibility is that DiscoverScholars.org will fail to attract a large number of students, because of little guarantee that they will be awarded scholarship funding. We feel that this is a reasonably minor concern, because the potential to raise significant money for their education will far outweigh the application costs (both time and pecuniary) for most students. However, the bigger concern for students may be that they are unwilling to apply because any money they receive would only reduce the financial aid packages awarded by their undergraduate institutions. However, this same issue plagues any other third-party scholarship funds, and many students still apply to these organizations each year. Moreover, that thousands of students receive minimal or inadequate financial aid from their college means that many students will have a major incentive to apply regardless.
Finally, there is the risk that students could receive scholarship money from DiscoverScholars.org and then drop out of school. While this is a possibility, we believe that this risk is incredibly low. Nonetheless, as is the procedure at most scholarship foundations, we will ensure that donations default if the student drops out.
Where can I view your official documentation?
All of our official documentation may be downloaded below: