Scholarship management software that finds the students each donor fund was meant for, and checks every award before it posts
Restricted funds fully awarded, each award proven against its donor's rule.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Scholarship Management is scholarship management software for higher education: scholarship offices match applicants to donor fund rules and draft awards for committee. Agents read each gift agreement into criteria that cite their clause, rank eligible students from the student record, the aid record and their essays, check each proposed award against cost of attendance and federal aid, and draft donor reports that respect consent. The committee votes, the Director of Scholarships records each award, financial aid confirms there is no overaward before it posts, and advancement signs the donor report.
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Scholarship management software exists because a scholarship office holds hundreds or thousands of donor funds, and each one has a gift agreement that says who may receive it. Today staff copy each restriction into an application form by hand, match students on what they ticked, and score essays in spreadsheets. A gift agreement says "students from rural counties studying nursing, preference to first-generation students"; the form asks "Are you from a rural area?" and counts BSN majors only. Students who never tick the box, and pre-nursing students, are never seen, and the money sits.
The financial aid office often learns of a scholarship after the student is told, and federal rules then force aid back. From the 2026–27 award year, a student whose non-federal grant aid covers the full cost of attendance also loses Pell eligibility. Donor reports are pieced together from the scholarship system, the advancement CRM and email, and a student's name can reach a donor without a signed release. Scholarship Management puts agents in front of the reading, matching and checking, so the committee, the Director of Scholarships, financial aid and advancement spend their time deciding.
Estimated split of one endowed fund's award round, by hand and with the agents; our arithmetic, kept modest. The committee's own meeting is not counted.
Seven agents read gift agreements, rank students, check award limits and draft donor reports; people vote, record, confirm and sign.
The Ellery and June Harrow Endowed Scholarship at Halden State University, fund F-04172, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, in the Spring 2027 round. Here is what happens to it, screen by screen, in the working solution.
The day opens on one number: $4,620,000 of restricted money left unspent in 311 of 1,480 funds in 2025–26, with $3,184,600 still to award this year in 214 funds. Each fund stands as a jar filled to what it still has to award, labeled with its restriction in plain words. The Harrow jar holds $84,300, labeled "rural county · nursing · first-generation preferred", with 46 eligible students against 7 last year.
$2.31 million of last year's unspent balance sat in 148 funds matched on form answers alone.
The 2009 gift agreement opens with section 3(b) highlighted. The agent has read it into 7 criteria, each citing its clause (§3(a), §3(b), §3(c), §5) and the data source it is tested against, with confidence from 0.93 to 0.99. Nobody retypes the restriction into a form.
"Rural counties" is not defined, so the agent reuses interpretation IM-2024-07, signed by the Director and the associate general counsel: a home county with a USDA rural-urban continuum code of 4 to 9.
The Matcher reads 1,284 nursing and pre-nursing students in the student information system: 1,106 are full-time undergraduates in good standing, 61 have a rural home county, and 46 are eligible. 29 are first-generation, 12 are pre-nursing, and 31 never ticked "rural" on last year's form. The 15 excluded each carry a reason: 6 have no FAFSA on file, 3 have no remaining need, 4 graduate in December and 2 are on leave for spring.
Maren Kowalczyk ranks first: full-time in good standing, from Ostrand County (code 7), admitted to the BSN program, first-generation from FAFSA parent education, with $28,270 in need. Each line cites the gift agreement clause and the student or aid record. Her essay scores 4.6 of 5 on the nursing rubric, with the passage quoted.
"I want to be the nurse who stays."
The top 18 candidates went to the committee in one cited packet on Oct 16. The five members voted 12 awards totaling $83,650 of $84,300 spendable, 2 alternates and 4 not awarded, each with a reason. Prof. Walter Ng declared a conflict and recused himself from one candidate, and the Committee Clerk reconciled the tally to the fund's balance before the chair closed the vote.
The agent reads the 12 packages from the financial aid system. Talia Brennan's cost of attendance is $29,695 and her aid already totals $24,695, so the $6,150 the committee voted would put her $1,150 over. She has no loan or work-study to replace and Pell is never reduced, so the agent proposes trimming the award to $5,000. The other 11 awards fit.
Her Pell Grant is safe: non-federal grants of $21,700 stay below her cost of attendance.
Constance accepts the trim and records the 12 awards, $82,500. She cannot confirm her own record: Darnell Fitch, the financial aid packaging counselor, confirms there is no overaward at 10:11 AM. Only then do the awards post to the financial aid system for spring 2027, and the 12 award letters go out.
The agent drafts the mid-year report to Margaret Harrow Bell, the donors' designee: 12 nursing students from rural counties received $82,500. Ten signed a release and are named with their county and a line from their essay; two are described without a name. Luis Arrellano is the only recipient from Quillan County, so his county is replaced by "a rural county". Leah Marchetti, the advancement stewardship officer, signs it.
The pack for the Harrow fund's Spring 2027 round holds the 12 awards, 18 candidates and 90 votes, the 7 criteria with their clauses, the Award Limit checks, every recorder, confirmer and signer, the donor report versions and the consent records. Student IDs are masked and aid amounts are removed from donor sections.
Back on the shelf, the Harrow jar holds $1,800 of $84,300, carried to the fall 2027 round, where $61,000 went unspent last year. The university's still-to-award total falls from $3,184,600 to $3,102,100.
The same fund, seen by the five people who move it from gift agreement to donor report: what their round looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven agents read gift agreements, rank students, check award limits and draft donor reports; people vote, record, confirm and sign.
Reads each gift agreement into criteria that cite their clause, reuses signed interpretations for terms the agreement leaves undefined, and flags clauses that need counsel.
Reads applications, essays, recommendations and transcripts, and scores essays to each committee's rubric with the quoted passage.
Tests every criterion against the student information system, the aid record and the application, ranks students by fit, and lists every exclusion with its reason.
Builds each committee packet, records votes and recusals, checks conflict declarations, and reconciles the tally to the fund's spendable balance.
Checks each proposed award against cost of attendance, the campus-based overaward limits and the 2026–27 Pell rule, and proposes the smallest change.
Drafts donor reports per fund and modification requests for dormant funds, names only consenting students, and hides details that would point to one student.
Watches spendable, awarded and unspent balances per fund, finds dormant funds, and explains why money went unspent.
Records; financial aid confirms. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any fund, student your role may see, award or donor report, or say what to prepare next. Every answer cites the gift agreement and the record, and the agents draft and check; people vote, record, confirm and sign.
Why did $4.62 million go unspent last year?
Of the $4,620,000 left in 311 funds in 2025–26, $2.31 million sat in 148 funds matched on form answers alone, $412,800 in 9 funds with no eligible student, $960,000 in 21 funds whose committee never met, and $937,200 in 133 funds awarded below their balance. The Harrow scholarship is the largest single balance, $61,000, because the form asked students to tick "rural".
Why was Talia Brennan's award trimmed?
Her cost of attendance is $29,695 and her aid already totals $24,695, so there is room for $5,000. The committee voted $6,150, which would overaward her by $1,150. She has no loan or work-study to replace, and Pell is never reduced, so the Award Limit agent proposed the trim. Her Pell Grant stays safe: non-federal grants of $21,700 are below her cost of attendance.
Draft the Harrow donor report
Drafted from the posted awards for Margaret Harrow Bell: 12 students, 10 named with a signed release and 2 described without a name. Luis Arrellano is the only recipient from Quillan County, so his county is also hidden. Leah Marchetti signs it before it goes.
Which restrictions need counsel?
Three: the Hollis-Yates Women in Physics Award names sex, which Title IX allows for a bequest only with a two-step selection; the Ostrowski Heritage Scholarship names membership in a congregation; and the Lindell Memorial Fund names a country of birth. Matching is held on all three until counsel decides.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The rules every award is checked against are settings an administrator changes, each change a new version with who and why.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2027 round | Sep 1 to Nov 6 | Awards post by Nov 13 for spring billing |
| Shortlist size | 1.5 × | 1.5 × · 2 × · 1.25 × the awards the balance supports |
| Minimum award | $500 | $500 · $1,000 · $250; smaller amounts combined or carried forward |
| Order of reduction when an award would overaward | Loans, work-study, then the scholarship | Packaging policy §4.2; Pell is never reduced |
| Scholarship overaward tolerance | $0 | $0 · $300; campus-based programs allow $300 by rule |
| Check the 2026–27 Pell rule on every award | On | Non-federal grant aid against cost of attendance (Pub. L. 119-21) |
| Name a student to a donor only with a signed release | On | 34 CFR 99.30; otherwise the report describes the student |
| Retention | 7 years · 3 years | Scholarship records after a fund's last award; Title IV records after the award year (34 CFR 668.24) |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
Sources: Pub. L. 119-21 (2025), Pell eligibility when non-federal grant aid covers the full cost of attendance, from the 2026–27 award year · 34 CFR 673.5 (campus-based overaward, $300 tolerance) · 34 CFR 99.30 (FERPA, prior written consent) · 34 CFR 106.37(b) (Title IX, sex-restricted scholarships from wills and trusts) · 34 CFR 668.24 (record retention) · Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, section 6 (release or modification of restrictions) · USDA Economic Research Service, rural-urban continuum codes · "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "typical" = published federal rules · "estimated" = our arithmetic, kept modest. Halden State University, its funds and donors, and the people named on this page are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.
Scholarship Management is scholarship management software for higher education: scholarship offices match applicants to donor fund rules and draft awards for committee. Agents read each gift agreement into criteria that cite their clause, rank eligible students from the student record, the aid record and their essays, check each proposed award against cost of attendance and federal aid, and draft donor reports that respect consent. The committee votes, the Director of Scholarships records each award, financial aid confirms there is no overaward before it posts, and advancement signs the donor report.
The financial aid system packages and disburses aid; a scholarship management system holds the donor funds, their restrictions, the applications and the committee's decisions. Scholarship Management reads packages and cost of attendance from the financial aid system to check each award, and posts an award there only after the packaging counselor confirms it.
The Restriction agent turns each gift agreement clause into a criterion that cites it, and a term the donor left undefined, such as "rural counties", is interpreted once and signed. The Matcher then tests every criterion against the student information system, the aid record and the application, instead of relying on what a student ticked on a form. In the sample round, one rural nursing fund goes from the 7 students last year's form found to 46, and each of the 15 excluded students shows a reason.
Before anything is promised, the Award Limit agent checks each proposed award against the student's cost of attendance, the campus-based overaward limits in 34 CFR 673.5 and the 2026–27 Pell rule, and proposes the smallest change under the office's packaging policy. Nothing posts until a financial aid packaging counselor confirms, and the person who recorded the award cannot confirm it.
Only students who signed a release are named; the others are described without a name. The Stewardship agent also hides a county, class year or program when it would point to one student, and the advancement stewardship officer signs the report before it goes. The agent never sends anything to a donor.
The Restriction agent drafts no criterion for that clause. It cites the rule, such as Title IX at 34 CFR 106.37(b) for a sex-restricted bequest, sends the clause to the university's counsel, and holds matching until counsel decides.
Yes. The agents read, match, check and draft; they never vote, record, post an award, send to a donor or move money. The committee votes, the Director of Scholarships records, financial aid confirms and advancement signs, and any override needs a reason code.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents, such as your gift agreements, award rules and last year's awards, and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own funds first.
Files cleared in hours, not weeks, with every value cited to its page.
1-min demoFinancial Aid Professional Judgment ReviewAppeals decided in days, not weeks, with the HEA 479A basis and every document cited.
1-min demoReturn of Title IV Funds CalculationEvery worksheet checked twice and every return made inside the 45 days.
1-min demoWe'll run Scholarship Management on a sample of your own gift agreements and last year's awards.