Past Dr. James K. Dahle, WCI Founder

Endowing a university scholarship requires little effort, costs less than yous might think, and allows you to be pretty specific about who gets the money.

Many of y'all know about The White Coat Investor Medical School Scholarship programme. We run it right here on the blog. Information technology is essentially an essay competition that gets close to 1,000 applications a yr and is judged by dozens of blog readers. In 2022, 5 yard prize winners each took home $12,000 in greenbacks and 5 second-prize winners took dwelling $ii,000 in cash. In 2022, we had ten winners overall in the category of financial and inspiring stories. It helps the states to promote fiscal literacy and directly reduce the indebtedness of a few students each yr.

Nevertheless, this scholarship programme requires a lot of labor to run and requires annual fundraising. It is funded by contributions from regular readers, past soliciting sponsorships from our advertising partners (including offering sponsored posts on the weblog to v platinum sponsors a twelvemonth, which ordinarily attracts some flak from readers), and by a substantial contribution from WCI profits. Without providing that labor and doing that fundraising, there is no scholarship. The likelihood that the WCI Medical School Scholarship Program continues for a long period of time in its current grade is probably pretty low. Not much legacy there.

As Katie and I take congenital wealth beyond "plenty" (financial independence), our focus turns more from earning, spending, saving, and investing toward giving, manor planning, asset protection, and legacy edifice. We are highly motivated by a desire to provide for others but without ruining their lives with the gift. "Others" range from family members to people on the other side of the globe. A couple of our higher friends who also became quite financially successful have like issues and desires. Knowing they had started some scholarships at our alma mater, we asked to exist put in touch on with their contact. Information technology turned out the procedure was MUCH easier than I had expected. So we endowed a couple of scholarship funds this year and will likely exercise some more than in later years.

Aside from having enough money to endow the scholarships, we have likewise benefited from the assistance of others in obtaining our education. We both worked in higher (especially during the summers) and had some help from our immediate families (Katie'south >> mine). Katie also received a scrap of "education money" from her grandparents but mostly didn't demand it for her actual didactics due to scholarships and hard piece of work. Our grand total of educatee loans upon completing two bachelor'southward degrees, a master's caste, and an Doc was the $5,000 I borrowed as a college freshman. We both had bookish tuition scholarships every bit undergrads. Her niche graduate degree in Adaptive Concrete Education was essentially paid for by the program itself. And as most of you know, my medical school was paid for via a contract program with the U.Due south. Air Force known every bit the Wellness Professions "Scholarship" Programme. So we view these scholarship endowments every bit "paying forrard" what we received ourselves. It is something we've always wanted to exercise and at present we can, so we will.

What Is an Endowed Scholarship?

The aim of an endowed scholarship is to donate money that can be invested and managed past the university so that the involvement that'south earned on the principal of the donation can and then exist used every bit a yearly scholarship to those students who need information technology. An endowed scholarship is not supposed to exist a ane-off. Instead, it'southward supposed to proceed to produce income for years and is supposed to assist a number of students instead of just i.

This is unlike from funding a regular scholarship, where yous'd donate a set amount of money and it goes directly into a scholarship fund. The money isn't invested. It's just given to students directly. If you want a regular donation to concluding for years, well, you're going to have to give money to the university every yr.

Yep, an endowed scholarship volition require more coin than a regular scholarship—maybe $50,000 for an endowed scholarship, possibly $100,000—but the gift should terminal for much, much longer.

How to Start a Scholarship Endowment

It turns out that universities want your money, and so they make it really easy for you to give it to them. Our friend introduced us by e-mail to his contact at Brigham Young University Philanthropies. Over the course of two or three months, we had all of our questions answered. It was peachy. He was always bachelor, just we never felt rushed. In the stop, the process was super basic. The university attorneys draft up a "alphabetic character" describing the endowment fund and we send them some cash. That's it. Like all the rest of our charitable giving, we run information technology through our Donor Brash Fund (DAF) for convenience and anonymity. All communication was by email and everything was signed electronically. Piece of cake-peasy.

How Much Does It Cost to Endow a Scholarship?

1 of the all-time parts of Brigham Immature University is that every yr information technology is rated equally i of, if not THE, best educational value in the country. It is a large, individual university with a pretty good academic reputation in many fields (and one of the best non-Power 5 football game teams, I might add together). However, its tuition is less than in-state tuition at most flagship country universities and at many community colleges. For the 2022-2021 year, tuition was just $5,790 for the two master semesters. Since the toll is and so low, endowing a scholarship that will provide a total-ride scholarship is also relatively inexpensive. While there are no guarantees that the endowment fund volition provide a full-tuition scholarship to a student every year, the cost is substantially $120,000 for a total-tuition scholarship and $60,000 for a half-tuition scholarship.

It does not pay out to a student in the agenda twelvemonth that y'all make the endowment or in the next calendar year, but it is felt that it will likely provide a total-tuition scholarship every year indefinitely after that. It works out to exist about a 5% "render" on the "investment." If you desire the scholarship to pay out immediately, y'all can only add the start year'due south "distribution" to your contribution and become started right away. Yous could do the aforementioned (at least during your lifetime) in a year when the fund is unable to distribute a scholarship due to poor returns. We funded these at the stop of 2022, so they will start paying out in 2022.

You do not have to fund this during your lifetime, either. You can designate coin in your volition or trust to go to the academy. You tin name the university every bit the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. Y'all can even use a charitable balance trust. The university fifty-fifty lets you into a special "Jesse and Amanda Knight Social club" just for naming them in your will, trust, or policy at any amount.

If you're wondering what it would take to endow a similar scholarship at your alma mater, just multiply tuition in that location past 20.

Endowed Scholarship Recipients

The other function of the process I found particularly impressive was simply how much control you tin can accept over who gets the scholarship. You can't exist on the scholarship committee and yous tin can't name your kids or those of a neighbor as the recipient or annihilation, but equally long as the criteria is reasonable and achievable, yous can make the criteria any you desire it to be.

You can name a gender, race, state or country of origin, major, career ambition, talent, economic status, GPA, etc. In the end, we kept the two scholarships we funded fairly easy with relatively wide criteria to leave maximum discretion to the scholarship committees. Y'all tin can too proper noun the scholarships. You tin proper name the scholarships after yourself, a family fellow member or mentor you wish to laurels, or even a concern. Here is the meat from each of the letters of our ii funds:

The Pre-Med Scholarship

To Philanthropies BYU:

The purpose of this letter is to establish the White Glaze Investor Pre-Med Endowed Scholarship Fund at Brigham Young University (BYU). The undersigned intend (without obligation to exercise and then) to recommend that a grant for this purpose in the corporeality of $120,000.00 be made to BYU contemporaneously with the signing of this document from a donor advised fund created past the undersigned. Other contributions may exist made from fourth dimension to time at the discretion of one or both of the undersigned, or past other donors. All the same, contributions consisting of avails other than cash may be added merely upon the prior consent of BYU. Unless specifically designated as currently spendable in writing at the time of contribution, boosted contributions shall be added to the principal of this endowed fund.

This fund shall be administered by a committee (Committee) consisting of BYU personnel appointed by the Manager of Student Evolution Services at BYU. Awards shall be made from currently spendable amounts and available earnings from this fund on an annual or more frequent ground for one or more selected students who are pursuing a degree at BYU, who are in their inferior or senior year, who take expressed an intention to attend medical schoolhouse, who accept successfully completed at least 20 credit hours of science classes with a grade bespeak boilerplate of at least 3.3 (on a iv.0 scale) in such classes, and who are deemed by a Pre-Med counselor to exist likely to matriculate to medical school in the next approximately two years. Those receiving awards shall be eligible for awards in more ane academic year.

In one case the initial contribution is made, this endowment fund shall exist in perpetuity, or for equally long as BYU policy permits. Management of the endowment (including but non necessarily express to, investment, determination of income, and payment of whatsoever unusual expenses directly related to its administration) shall be reasonable, prudent, and in accord with policies of BYU and whatever applicable Utah laws regarding the management of institutional funds, such as the Utah Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, or whatsoever other like human action which may be enacted. Modest portions of endowment income may be added to principal from time to time so that at that place can be growth in the endowment fund.

Discipline to the foregoing criteria and BYU policy, the Committee shall have full discretionary ability regarding the selection of recipients and the corporeality and timing of awards distributed to or on behalf of each recipient. Reports and correspondence should be sent to the undersigned at the address shown above.

If for any reason in the future the purpose or purposes for which this fund is established no longer exist or become impractical, this fund shall instead be used for such charitable purpose or purposes equally closely related every bit possible to the purpose or purposes stated above as may be determined past the President of BYU.

Reference herein to whatever higher, school, department, plant, centre, organization, committee, board, office, major, class, program, position, or personnel at BYU, shall include and shall also refer to any successor of such higher, schoolhouse, department, institute, center, organization, commission, board, part, major, course, plan, position, or personnel at BYU.

BYU will be the absolute owner of the fund and shall employ reasonable care in overseeing the administration and investment of the fund. However, BYU shall not have the duties of a trustee.

The provisions hereof may be amended or modified in whole or in part by agreement in writing signed by BYU and by the undersigned, the authorized agent or assignee of the undersigned, or, afterward the expiry or incompetency of one or both of the undersigned, past the survivor or the other of the undersigned, or, if both of the undersigned are deceased or incompetent, past a direct descendant of the undersigned, regardless of whether or not there are other donors to this fund.

Our goal for this scholarship was to have information technology become to someone who was actually going to go to medical schoolhouse, not 1 of the thousands who say they're pre-med as freshmen. That's why we ready the requirement to be an upperclassman with a decent scientific discipline GPA. Since at that place is no pre-med major, we decided to leave it up to the pre-med advisors (who make upwardly well-nigh of the commission anyway) to determine if the recipient was actually likely to go to medical school. Now pre-med advisors are apparently non perfect in determining that (information technology seems similar many docs remember being told by a pre-med advisor they'd never get in), simply nosotros figured they could at least observe one person to requite the scholarship to each year. At any charge per unit, at present at that place are ii White Coat Investor scholarship programs, one for medical students and one for pre-meds! But only one of them is fix to exist in perpetuity.

The Education Scholarship

The other scholarship letter reads similarly, except for this section:

The purpose of this letter is to found the ———— and ————- Endowed Scholarship Fund at Brigham Young University (BYU). The undersigned intend (without obligation to exercise and so) to recommend that a grant for this purpose in the amount of $120,000.00 be made to BYU contemporaneously with the signing of this document from a donor advised fund created by the undersigned……. This fund shall be administered by a commission (Committee) consisting of BYU personnel appointed by the Dean of the David O. McKay School of Education (McKay School) at BYU. Awards shall be made from currently spendable amounts and available earnings from this fund on an annual or more frequent basis for ane or more selected students who have been accustomed into the Uncomplicated Education major in the McKay School or who have been accepted into some other teaching major within the Educator Preparation Programme at BYU. Those receiving awards shall be eligible for awards in more than one bookish year.

scholarship endowmentHow to Proper noun a Scholarship

We named this scholarship later Katie's grandparents, who had long careers as a school district superintendent and a teacher. Education was always very important to them and emphasized in her family. Despite living on the income of educators, they put away money early for each of their grandkids to assist with their educations, and they accept even founded a fund to assistance future generations of their descendants obtain university educations. Interestingly, the university made u.s. become their written permission to name the fund after them!

We have some ideas for other scholarships, too. For instance, I played on a club hockey team while I was in that location, and it would sure help recruiting if that team had a scholarship or two to offering recruits.

Equally you can run into, endowing a scholarship is relatively easy and perhaps non as expensive as you might take thought. You likewise go plenty of control over who receives the scholarship. If you take e'er wanted to endow a scholarship, I would encourage you to contact your favorite academy today to become the process started.

What practise y'all think? Have you endowed a scholarship before? What was it like? Do you program to do information technology after in life or at your death? Why or why not? Comment below!

[This updated post was originally published in June 2022.]