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A number of free websites allow students to search based on factors such as their location, grades, majors or skills, including Edvisors.com; Bigfuture.CollegeBoard.org, run by the College Board; ScholarshipAmerica.org/dfs.php, the website of Dollars for Scholars, a network organized by Scholarship America; and the U.S. Department of Labor's CareerOneStop.com.
WHEN 18-year-old Kiana Neisig added up her expenses for college, she found herself short of funds, even after receiving grants and student loans. So in June, a friend set up a profile for her on a crowdfunding website to help her seek donations of roughly $2,000.
Ms. Neisig soon received 14 donations totaling $1,350, including a $500 gift from an anonymous donor. She has now started classes at George Fox University, a small college in Newberg, Ore., where yearly tuition and fees are more than $31,000. She plans to use the money to help cover living expenses next semester. The website made it easier to seek help, she said. “Personally, it would be difficult for me to approach even friends and close family and ask for money,” she said, adding that she was “honored” by the support she received.
The site she used, GoFundMe, is one of many crowdfunding sites that use the power of social media to raise money for a variety of purposes.
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Those kinds of factors led another education crowdfunding site, ScholarMatch, to take a different approach, said Diana Adamson, the site’s executive director. The nonprofit, which aims to match donors with low-income and first-generation college students, initially allowed students to post their own profiles. But donors often wanted more details about the students, she said, and some were reluctant to make donations to individuals because donations directly to individuals generally aren’t tax-deductible.
So now ScholarMatch vets applicants and verifies their eligibility, including financial details, and then posts their profiles on its website. Donors’ funds are pooled into a single scholarship fund, which is distributed by ScholarMatch.
To get into the most selective colleges, it helps to have not only the grades and test scores but a compelling narrative about yourself. People with such stories may also be able to raise money on crowdfunding sites.
