Opportunities for Growth
Market Growth
In the first phase of DiscoverScholars.org, eligibility will be limited to U.S. citizens who will be incoming college freshmen and students who are currently enrolled at four-year U.S. colleges and universities. If there proves to be adequate demand from donors and students, then we will work rapidly 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 |
If DiscoverScholars.org becomes as successful as we believe it will, then there is the further possibility to expand the venture into other groups of students as well. While there are no plans to extend the service 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 would be 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 would 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.