What Can I Do During My Scholarship Off Season?

Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed another scholarship award season. Now you can sit back, relax, and start your summer. But, wait! While awarding is still fresh on your mind, it might be worthwhile to do a little work to prepare for your next award cycle. Below are a few best practices on what you can do now to make things run more smoothly later

1. Analyze Your Processes

The end of an award cycle is an excellent time to assess what worked and what could be improved.

•  Was the application process simple enough for students to navigate?

• Did your reviewers have adequate information to evaluate applicants and time to review them?

• Was there a particular part of the process that gave your admins trouble?

• Did you award 100% of available scholarship funds? If not, why?

Dig into each area while the experience is still top of mind and figure out how to improve your application and award processes for next season.

2. Review and Update Your Software

Reacquaint yourself with your scholarship management platform and review feature changes.

• Ensure you are running the most recent software version with all available updates.

• Watch tutorials and ask your vendor to explore new features and upgrades.

• Check settings and change any dates so they are relevant to the next award cycle.

• Gather feedback from other admins, students, and your review committee.

Make sure you have a centralized platform for all scholarships with the tools and data you need to effectively administer awards.

3. Plan Review Committee Training

You aren’t the only one going on summer break. Your reviewers will most likely need a refresher.

• Document any process changes, noting how their prior feedback influenced decisions.

• Work with your committee chair(s) to plan a communication strategy and identify reviewer milestones and deadlines.

• Schedule a few training dates. Consider having an in-person kickoff meeting and online training.

• If implementing new software or features, check out How to Encourage Scholarship Reviewers to Adopt New Technology.

A little planning with consideration for everyone involved can ensure clarity, consistency, and more effective collaboration.

4. Research Industry Best Practices

Now is a great time to research best practices, consult with your peers, and learn new skills.

• Catch up on your favorite industry podcasts, blogs, articles, and association news.
• Watch the on-demand webinars you bookmarked during the busy season.

• Reach out to your peers for advice. Our online award management community includes thousands of Blackbaud users.

• Review the notes you took at that conference months ago for ideas you swore you would implement but haven’t had the chance to.

Your off season is the time to be proactive and take steps toward improvement and and innovation. Your efforts now will earn future success!