You can start a named scholarship fund at the Miami County Community Foundation with $10,000 if you want it to award a student every year forever, or $1,000 if you would rather spend it down. You choose the name, who qualifies and what the award is worth. We draft the agreement, invest the money, work with the high schools and pay the awards. Setting one up takes seven to ten business days.
Read the full guide: IRS rules for a scholarship fund
Almost every scholarship fund held here began in one of these three ways. None of them requires you to set up a foundation of your own.
A memorial scholarship puts a name in front of a school full of students every spring, and gives everyone who wants to do something a place to send it. Friends, classmates and family can add to it for years.
Best for: a memorial that keeps working, a class or church raising money together
A named fund that awards a Miami County student every year. You set the rules — which school, which grade, a subject, a trade, grades, need, service — and the award carries your name or your family’s.
Best for: a family legacy, a business investing in local students
A bequest, a retirement account or a life insurance policy funds the scholarship after your lifetime. It costs nothing now and can carry real tax advantages, particularly on an IRA.
Best for: estate planning, a gift larger than you could make today
Open any one for the detail. If you would rather just talk it through, that works too — call Tammy on (913) 404-7287.
A named fund, held and invested by the Foundation.
A scholarship fund is charitable money held by the Miami County Community Foundation and awarded to students under rules you write. The award carries whatever name you choose — your family’s, your business’s, or the name of someone you want remembered — and that name is what appears in the school’s awards program every spring.
You do not incorporate anything, apply to the IRS, open a bank account, appoint a board or file a return. The Foundation is already a 501(c)(3) public charity — tax-exempt since November 2007, EIN 47-0935217 — and your fund sits inside it. Your gift is deductible in the year you make it.
Endowed funds start at $10,000. Expendable funds start at $1,000. The Foundation’s fee is 2% — 1% administrative and 1% community support. Setting a fund up takes seven to ten business days.
$10,000 endowed, $1,000 expendable, 2% a fee.
An endowed fund starts at $10,000. The balance stays invested permanently and never falls below what you put in. You award the earnings under a 5% spending policy — so a $10,000 fund makes about $500 available each year, every year, with no end date.
An expendable fund starts at $1,000. It can be spent all the way down, and once it is, the fund closes. This is the right choice if you would rather award a larger amount over a few years than a smaller amount forever.
The Foundation charges 2% — 1% administrative and 1% community support. The community support portion is what funds the Foundation’s own operations.
Whichever you choose, you are not stopping there. Any fund can receive additional gifts at any time, from you or from anyone else — memorial scholarships in particular often grow for years as friends and family contribute.
Four steps, seven to ten business days.
Prefer to give by check? Make it payable to Miami County Community Foundation, write the fund name in the memo line, and mail it to 702 Baptiste Dr, Paola, KS 66071. Card gifts arrive net of the processing fee; checks arrive whole — worth knowing on a larger gift.
You write the rules. The schools run the applications.
You set the criteria: which school or schools, which grade, a subject or a trade, and whether grades, financial need, service or something else matters most. That is written into the fund agreement and it does not change unless you change it.
From there, students apply through their high-school counselor. Almost every scholarship held at the Foundation works this way — the school runs the application on its own calendar, generally January to March, with selection in April and the awards presented around the same time. If you would rather the Foundation ran the applications and the selection instead, it can.
One rule is worth knowing early: as the donor you set the criteria, but you cannot control the selection or direct the award to a relative. Tammy will explain exactly where that line sits for the fund you have in mind.
Where many of these funds begin.
Many of the scholarships held at the Foundation were started after someone died — by a family, a church, a class of students, a business. A memorial scholarship does two things at once. It keeps a name in front of a school full of young people every year, and it gives everyone who wants to help a single place to send something useful.
There is a practical reason to open one early: in those first weeks a lot of people want to do something, and a fund that already exists gives them somewhere to send it. Gifts can be made by card, or by check payable to Miami County Community Foundation with the fund name in the memo line, mailed to 702 Baptiste Dr, Paola, KS 66071.
The same applies to a scholarship in someone’s honor rather than their memory — a retiring teacher, a coach, a parent. The mechanics are identical.
What you avoid by doing it this way.
You can award a scholarship through your own private foundation. It means incorporating, applying to the IRS for exemption, appointing a board, filing an annual return, and arranging investment management and grant administration yourself — for a scholarship that may be worth a few hundred dollars a year.
A named fund at the Foundation gives you the same named scholarship, awarded in your community, with none of that. You keep the name and the criteria; the Foundation carries the administration, the compliance and the investment, and charges 2% for it.
The same is true if you are a nonprofit, a church or a school that wants a permanent scholarship of its own rather than one funded out of this year’s budget.
At the Miami County Community Foundation, $10,000 for an endowed fund that awards a student every year permanently, or $1,000 for an expendable fund that can be spent all the way down. A $10,000 endowed fund makes about $500 available to award each year under the Foundation’s 5% spending policy.
Yes. Individuals, families, businesses and churches all hold funds at the Foundation. You do not need to be wealthy, and you do not need to be a nonprofit — the Foundation’s own 501(c)(3) status covers your fund.
Yes — many of the funds held here began exactly that way. The fund carries the name you choose, the criteria can reflect what that person cared about, and anyone can add to it at any time for as long as it exists.
No — and that is the main reason to do it this way. A private foundation means incorporation, an IRS exemption application, a board, an annual return and your own investment and grant administration. A named fund here gives you the same named scholarship without any of it.
Seven to ten business days, once you have decided what you want it to do. Call Tammy Booe on (913) 404-7287 or email info@micocf.org to start.
You choose the criteria, not the individual. Students apply through their high-school counselor and the selection is made against the rules written into your fund agreement. You cannot direct the award to a relative or control who is picked.
2% — a 1% administrative fee plus a 1% community support fee. The community support portion is what funds the Foundation’s own operations.
Yes. Any fund can receive additional gifts at any time, from you or from anyone else. Memorial scholarships in particular often grow for years as friends and family contribute.
