Interested in opening a scholarship fund?
You care about improving the community around you, and providing access to education for students that will have a lasting impact. We do too. We believe that our scholarship funds are a meaningful way to connect with individual local students, see the impact of your gift on their lives directly, and witness your long-term legacy from the beginning.
We envision a community where everyone who wishes to can obtain a degree, regardless of financial barriers, and access living-wage employment. We are committed to doing this work in partnership with generous donors and through community collaboration.
Why Triangle Community Foundation?
At Triangle Community Foundation, we value our role as a scholarship provider and seek to both provide a meaningful philanthropic experience and support students in our community. For scholarship fund holders, we offer:
- Expert guidance in crafting selection and evaluation criteria to reach the desired population of students
- Opportunities to participate in the selection process (additional fees may apply)
- Thank you messages from all recipients and semester reports from multi-year recipients
- Opportunities to learn more about the strengths and needs of today’s students through webinars, in-person events, and connections with student-serving nonprofits
In addition, all scholarship recipients are eligible to apply for the Student Assistance Fund of Triangle Community Foundation to ensure they have the funds they need for food, housing, transportation, health care, and/or child care in order to remain enrolled and successful in their academic program.
What should you know about today’s students and higher education?
- Nationally, up to 70% of students can be considered ‘non-traditional’1
- What makes an undergraduate student “non-traditional”? Students are considered ‘non-traditional’ if they are financially independent, have dependent(s) of their own, are single caregivers, don’t have a traditional high school diploma, didn’t go straight from high school to college, are attending school part-time and/or are employed full-time.
- Tuition and fees make up around 36% of the cost of attending a public four-year college and 22% of a public two-year college 2
- Nationally, 23% of undergraduate students are experiencing food insecurity and 8% of undergraduates are experiencing homelessness 3
- 54% of today’s college students are the first in their families to complete college 4
- In North Carolina, the average college debt per student is $38,770 5