Manchester University offers more than 60 areas of undergraduate study, two master’s programs (athletic training and pharmacogenomics), and a professional doctorate in pharmacy to nearly 1,600 students from 28 states and 20 countries. The independent, liberal arts school is located in North Manchester, Indiana, where 73% of the students live on the 120-acre campus.

Prior to implementing Blackbaud Award Management™, Manchester University relied on spreadsheets to track scholarship awards. A single employee from the student financial services office managed scholarships. This employee was in charge of managing awards along with several other job duties. In many cases, deciding which scholarships to award was an afterthought. This resulted in several challenges:

1. If a scholarship’s criteria were difficult to fill, funds would either go unawarded or be awarded outside of donor criteria.

2. Larger awards, such as a $20,000 scholarship, were often given to a single student rather than distributed to several qualifying students.

3. If a scholarship recipient never arrived on campus, the award risked going unused.

When Megan Sarber, manager of donor relations at Manchester University, offered to take over the scholarship management process, the student financial services department was happy to give up the cumbersome task. As part of the transition, Sarber recommended implementing scholarship management technology.

A Solution for Fund Swapping

Manchester University used a process called “fund swapping” to make scholarship awards. Rather than requiring the students to apply for individual scholarships, the institution notified students of how much aid they would be given. Then, the university matched students with scholarship funds to meet that commitment.

Choosing Blackbaud Award Management

Sarber explained, “We looked at several different options but decided to implement Blackbaud Award Management because it would help us easily auto-match students to scholarships they were qualified for. We knew Blackbaud Award Management could help us increase efficiency, improve accuracy, and award scholarships in line with donor intent.”

“Another reason we chose Blackbaud Award Management was its integration with our student information system, Colleague® by Ellucian. Now, we have a centralized view of student data, which is automatically updated each night. I am much more confident that we are making the best use of donor contributions and distributing awards to the most qualified students,” Sarber said.

Blackbaud Award Management automatically matches applicants who closely meet donor criteria with each award. If no students match donor criteria, Sarber receives a notification. Rather than having such funds go unawarded, she can now deal with these situations on a case-by-case basis.

Even though the donor relations department has taken over the scholarship management process, Blackbaud Award Management’s integration with Colleague® by Ellucian still allows student financial services to access data and provide final verification. Once all the awards are made, students are notified via an automated email from Blackbaud Award Management.

Improving Donor Relations: Thank-You Letters and Questionnaires Made Easy

Before implementing Blackbaud Award Management, getting scholarship recipients to write thank-you letters and provide donors with basic information was a challenge. Although staff gave students multiple reminders, their requests often fell through the cracks.

With Blackbaud Award Management, Manchester University addressed this problem by creating an automated workflow that requires students to complete a questionnaire and write a thank-you letter before funds are distributed to their accounts. The questionnaire allows students to answer more pointed questions with more meaningful responses to share with donors.

Today, the institution has a 90% completion rate for thank-you letters and information requests as well as a wealth of information to provide donors in the university’s annual donor report.

Conclusion

“A lot of change has taken place with our scholarship process over the past year, and Blackbaud Award Management has been a cornerstone of making this a smooth transition,” said Sarber. She continued, “It is easy to have a central location to work with student financial services, scholarship recipients, and other offices on campus. It’s great to have a partner that is just as committed to improving our process as we are.”