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Facts About
Scholarship America

• Charity Navigator, the nation's premier evaluator of non-profit organizations, has put Scholarship America in its top-ten list of "Slam-Dunk Charities," for fiscal health and responsibility to donors.

• Scholarship America has raised more than $108 million for this fund. Approximately $20 million more has been committed by major donors.

• As of November 2007, a total of 1,352 families had registered with the fund, representing 4,792 individuals.

•As of the same date, Scholarship America had distributed scholarships to nearly 900 people, totaling more than $23 million.

• Scholarship America has kept administrative expenses for family registration, evaluation and issuing awards to 4 percent of total disbursements since 2001. Our expenses for support and fundraising since inception have been $1,589,000 for this $108 million fund, or 1.5% in an industry where administrative costs of 20% are well within the norm.
Overview: Determination of Financial Need
The Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund exists to assist financially needy dependents of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.

Financial need is generally determined by what a family can reasonably be expected to pay compared to the cost of the post-secondary institution. Awards are based on a percentage of calculated financial need, not a percentage of the total school or college expense. Because of this, award amounts differ from student to student.

In order to provide the most help possible, Scholarship America® applies a far more generous formula to determine the financial need for students eligible for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund® than the formula used by most college financial aid offices.

For example, unlike the federal government, the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund does not consider student earnings or the first $500,000 in liquid assets as part of the needs assessment. The fund also does not consider awards made to victims’ families from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Funds. (The average award from the Victim Compensation fund was approximately $2 million.)

Even students who take advantage of the generous scholarships that New York State legislation provides to students attending New York schools are encouraged to apply for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund. Depending on the cost of the college they choose to attend, these students may still show need for additional financial assistance. (The Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund can offer these students awards for, travel, fees and other costs not covered by the New York State scholarships. Students from New York who do not attend in-stat schools are, of course, eligible for general Families of Freedom awards.)

Please visit the Financial Need Formula page for a detailed summary of our modifications to the standard formula and a typical financial need calculation. Financial need is determined when a student has selected a college and is preparing to enroll.

 

 

 
Amanda Costello is a junior at Marymount Manhattan College majoring in communication arts. Her father worked at Thyssen Krupp Elevator near the World Trade Center; he entered the building to try to help others. The year before 9/11 he had realized his dream when Amanda became the first in her family to attend college. Read more




 
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