Creating a Chapter Scholarship: Part 3

Happy Leap Day. Welcome to Part 3 of "Creating a Chapter Scholarship". Parts 1 and 2 can be found HERE and HERE. Today's installment is all about distribution. The next step after creating the application is sending it out for applicants to fill out. Before the application goes live, make sure to have all the details from Part 2 set in stone. This especially applies to how applicants turn in their applications. Before diving into these different methods research the different regulations for your campus in regards to recruiting and marketing.

The following are different ways to increase the number of applicants:

University Resources
You're looking for any office/department/individual who can assist you in directing people to your application. Assistance may be in the form of an email, allowing you to leave flyers or putting a link on their website. Some good places to look are:

- Office of Financial Aid
- Greek Life Office
- Academic Departments
- International Student Office
- Veterans Office
- LGBTQ Office
- Athletic Department
- Leadership/Community Outreach Office
- Multicultural Affairs Office
- Office of Admissions - see if you can acquire a list of all incoming students (including transfers)

High School Outreach
Every Spring/Summer incoming Freshmen are hunting for scholarships to help fund their education. The following are ways to reach out before potential applicants graduate high school:

- Have members ask their former teachers/coaches/administrators for referrals
- Offer to volunteer at a college night
- Speak to local Parent Teacher Associations (PTA's) - If you're offering thousands of dollars in scholarships, what parent isn't going to go straight home and force their child to apply?
- Go through school/region based organizations such as Student Council, National Honors Society, Youth in Government, Boys State, DECA, 4H, Future Business Leaders of America, Future Farmers of America, ext
- Reach out to Guidance Counselors and ask them to pass the application to students coming to your university

On Campus Marketing
Most universities offer some form of orientation over the summer to get new students acclimated. This is a great marketing opportunity.

- Have members involved in the orientation program. They provide access to a large number of students and can direct them to the application
- Have a table at one of the orientation events to pass out applications, or flyers leading them to an online version of the application
- Create banners, bulletin boards and flyers and post them where appropriate
- Place a large banner on your chapter facility
- Ads in the campus paper

Digital Marketing
Based on the amount of time students spend online, it would make sense to focus some time and effort into digital marketing such as:

- Facebook. Everyone has one. Post a link to your scholarship on your Fan Page as well as individual member's pages
- Internet Scholarship Sites. There are dozens of these sites that promote scholarships such as Fastweb and Cappex
- Chapter Website. Make sure there is a very visible link to the chapter website. If you want to get really fancy you could purchase a domain name and create an entire website to promote your scholarship

Make sure to check back tomorrow for how to turn a scholarship event into a recruitment event.